The Ultimate Guide to Entertainment Marketing

Entertainment marketing is the practice of promoting brands through entertainment: films, TV shows, music, games, online video and live events.

Quick Summary

Entertainment marketing promotes brands through films, TV, music, games, online video and live events, using product placement and integration, licensing and tie-in merchandise, co-promotion, sponsorship, and celebrity and creator partnerships. The 7Ps often used to plan it come from Booms and Bitner's 1981 services marketing mix, where people means those who deliver the service³. Two real campaigns show how it works: Hershey backed E.T. with about a million dollars of promotion in 1982 after Reese's Pieces were written into the story, and sales were far more than expected¹; in 2023 Mattel's licensing partners, from Airbnb to Gap, turned the Barbie release into a wave of merchandise and experiences². The common thread is a product that fits the story and a partner that promotes the release, along with the risk that a tie-in is only as strong as the film.

Instead of buying a separate ad slot, a brand appears inside the entertainment itself, or builds something people want to watch, wear or visit because they love the film, show or artist.

The main tools are product placement, brand integration, licensing and tie-in merchandise, sponsorship, and partnerships with celebrities and creators.

This guide explains how each works, where the marketing mix fits in, what the job involves, and two real campaigns that show the approach at work: Reese's Pieces in E.T. in 1982 and the brand partnerships around the Barbie film in 2023.

Understanding Entertainment Marketing

What is Entertainment Marketing?

Entertainment marketing covers any effort to connect a brand with entertainment people already choose to spend time with, from TV shows, movies, music and internet content to concerts, premieres and other events.

The goal of entertainment marketing is to make the brand part of the entertainment experience, so the audience meets it in a story, a song or an event they care about.

How is Marketing Used in the Entertainment Industry

The term covers two directions. Studios, labels, networks and promoters market their own films, albums, shows and events. Brands, meanwhile, work with those studios and artists to reach their audiences.

The two often meet in the same deal. When a studio lets a brand appear in a film, the brand can help promote the film in return, as Hershey did in the E.T. case below¹.

Product placements in movies and TV shows, celebrity endorsements, and influencer marketing on social media are some of the most familiar examples.

In each case the aim is to build brand recognition with fans by showing up in the content they already watch and follow.

Types and Categories of Entertainment Marketing

Common Forms of Entertainment Marketing

Most entertainment marketing campaigns use one or more of these approaches:

1. Product placement and brand integration: A product appears in a film, show, game or music video. Placement can be a brief on-screen appearance; integration writes the product into the story, as when the alien in E.T. is lured into the house with Reese's Pieces¹.
2. Licensing and tie-in merchandise: A brand licenses characters, logos or a film's look for its own products, as dozens of fashion, food and home brands did with Barbie in 2023².
3. Co-promotion: A brand spends its own advertising and in-store promotion money featuring the film or show, often in exchange for exclusivity in its category¹.
4. Celebrity and creator partnerships: A performer or creator endorses a product, appears in a campaign, or builds content around it for their audience.
5. Sponsorship and live events: A brand sponsors a tour, festival, premiere or show and becomes part of the event experience.

Exploring the 7Ps of Entertainment

The 7Ps are often applied to entertainment, but they come from services marketing. In 1981 Bernard H. Booms and Mary J. Bitner extended Jerome McCarthy's four Ps (product, price, place, promotion) with three more for service businesses: people, process and physical evidence³. Applied to entertainment, they look like this:

1. Product: The film, show, album, game or event itself.
2. Price: Ticket prices, subscription plans, rental and purchase prices, and merchandise pricing.
3. Place: Distribution channels, like streaming services, television, cinemas, or online platforms.
4. Promotion: Advertising, public relations , trailers, brand partnerships and product placements.
5. People: In Booms and Bitner's model, people means those involved in delivering the service, mainly customer-contact employees, as well as customers and management³. In entertainment that includes performers, venue and box-office staff, and the fans who shape the atmosphere of an event.

1. Process: The activities and procedures by which the service reaches the customer³, such as ticketing, entry to a venue, or signing up to and using a streaming service.
2. Physical evidence: The tangible cues that represent the service, such as brochures, websites and the look of the venue³. In entertainment: the cinema or concert hall, posters, the app interface, programmes and merchandise.

The three added Ps are useful in entertainment because so much of it is a service experience: the product is often a night out, a subscription or a live show.

A product placement in a blockbuster movie and a social media campaign for a music festival both sit under promotion, but the people, process and physical evidence decide what the audience remembers.

The Role of Entertainment Marketers

What Does an Entertainment Marketing Manager Do?

An entertainment marketing manager plans and runs promotional campaigns for a brand, a studio, a label or an entertainment company.

On the brand side, the work includes negotiating placements, licensing deals and partnerships, and managing celebrity endorsements and sponsorships.

On the studio or artist side, it includes release campaigns, trailers, publicity and fan engagement. In both cases the aim is to raise brand awareness and grow a fanbase .

The job also means making sure every placement, ad and piece of content fits the overall marketing goals and suits the audience it is meant to reach.

The Marketing Mix of the Entertainment Industry

In practice, the marketing mix is a checklist for campaign decisions: product, price, place and promotion, plus people, process and physical evidence where the offer is a service or an experience.

A release plan might decide the product (a film), the place (cinemas first, then streaming), the price (ticket and subscription), and the promotion (trailers, publicity and brand partners).

Each of those choices shapes how the audience first meets the film, show or brand.

Content in Entertainment Marketing

The Importance of Content

In entertainment marketing the content does the persuading. A placement works only if people watch the film, and a partnership works only if fans care about the story or the artist.

That is why brands are drawn to entertainment in the first place: the audience has chosen to be there.

Whether it's a storyline, a social media post or a live event, the content is the vehicle through which brands connect with their audience.

Examples of Effective Content in Entertainment Marketing

The 2023 Barbie film is a recent example of how far a single release can extend. With the film's stars barred from promoting it during the actors' strike, Mattel worked with consumer brands that signed licensing agreements to release limited-edition merchandise².

CBS MoneyWatch listed some of them on the film's release day²:

1. Experiences: Airbnb offered a one-night stay at Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse².
2. Fashion and retail: Balmain made a Balmain x Barbie collection sold exclusively at Neiman Marcus, and Gap released a Gap x Barbie apparel line².
3. Food and TV: Burger King in Brazil sold burgers with a pink sauce, and HGTV launched a "Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge" series hosted by Ashley Graham².

Marketers quoted by CBS pointed to both the upside and the risk. Jason Moran of Red Antler said Mattel had "built a brand world that pulls consumers in," while Allen Adamson of Metaforce warned: "For merchandisers, it's only good if the movie is a success"².

That trade-off applies to most entertainment tie-ins: the brand borrows the film's attention, and it also takes on the film's risk.

Strategies and Techniques

What is an Entertainment Marketing Strategy?

An entertainment marketing strategy is a plan for promoting a product, service or brand through entertainment, or for promoting an entertainment release itself.

It usually combines advertising, public relations and content, and it sets out which films, shows, artists, creators or events fit the brand and its audience.

The strategy should also define what the brand gives in return, whether that is a fee, product, or its own promotion of the release.

Three Key Entertainment Marketing Strategies

1. Brand Integration: Building a product into a film, show, game or music video so that it plays a part in the scene.
2. Celebrity and Creator Partnerships: Working with performers or YouTube creators whose audience matches the brand's customers.
3. Tie-in Promotions and Licensing: Running promotions, contests, displays or co-branded products around a release, as Hershey did for E.T. and dozens of brands did for Barbie¹,².

Breaking into the Field

How to Break into Entertainment Marketing

Breaking into entertainment marketing usually takes a mix of marketing knowledge, knowledge of the entertainment business, and practical experience.

Internships, volunteer work at festivals and events, and attending industry events can provide experience and contacts.

Is an Entertainment Business Degree or Marketing Degree Worth It?

Depending on your career goals and the specific course, a degree in entertainment business or marketing can give you a grounding in the field. Practical experience and contacts matter as well.

Prospective students should look at the course curriculum, industry connections, and the internships and practical experience the program offers before deciding.

Case Study: An Example of Entertainment Advertising

A well-documented example of product placement is Reese's Pieces in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). The Hershey Community Archives tells the story from Hershey's side¹.

Universal Studios called Hershey Chocolate to say Spielberg was producing a film called E.T. in which Reese's Pieces would play a featured part, and invited Hershey to help promote it. Jack Dowd, then Hershey's director of new products development, traveled to California, where Universal explained that the creature is lured into the house with Reese's Pieces. A Universal vice president told him the filmmakers had decided not to use M&Ms¹.

Dowd agreed that Hershey would support the film with about a million dollars' worth of marketing, including consumer promotions, trade promotions and displays featuring E.T. In return Hershey got an exclusive in the confectionery category for promotion and advertising. According to the archives, it was the first time Hershey Chocolate had partnered with Hollywood to promote a movie that used one of its products¹.

Dowd had to sell the deal internally without a script or even a picture of the character. The film became a huge hit, and in his 1991 oral history interview he recalled that "the sales were more, far more than we expected"¹.

Three things made it work. The product was part of the story, the brand backed the release with its own promotion, and the category exclusivity kept competitors out of the tie-in.

The Barbie partnerships four decades later followed the same pattern at a much larger scale, and carried the same dependence on the film finding its audience².

Conclusion

Final Thoughts on Thriving in Entertainment Marketing

Entertainment marketing works when a brand earns a place inside something the audience already wants to watch, hear or attend.

The E.T. and Barbie campaigns show the common ingredients: a product that fits the story, and partners willing to put their own promotion behind the release¹,².

They also show the risk. A tie-in depends on the film, show or artist succeeding, so choosing the right partner matters as much as the creative work.

For brands, the practical starting point is the audience: find the entertainment your customers already love, and look for a role in it that makes sense to them.