At the end of 2009， Norm Marshall Associates， the largest embedded marketing and stage property agency in the U.S.， helped Chinese apparel brand Metersbonwe place their advertisements into the Hollywood blockbuster Transformers 2， initiating its campaign to develop the Chinese market.

The successful story of Metersbonwe and Transformers raised the interest of many Chinese brands， especially those longing for overseas development. Therefore， as the number of Hollywood blockbusters getting into China keeps surging， more Chinese brands are to be seen in these movies.

It is known that Chinese brands need to pay millions of dollars for the appearance in a Hollywood movie， as well as the authorization from filmmakers to allow the companies to use the contents and images of the movies for promotion and developing derivative products.

Metersbonwes appearance in Transformers 2 shattered the“monopolization” of foreign brands in Transformers. Many Chinese audience were still excited to see the Chinese brands in the movie. Meanwhile， Bumblebee， Megatron and other classic characters in Transformers also appeared on Meters- bonwes ads on the TV screen， newspaper， Internet and the outdoor environment.

In addition， Metersbonwe launched a series of T-shirts featuring the logos of Autobot and Decepticon， as well as the transformers， which very popular among film fans – about one million T-shirts were sold. Apparently， Metersbonwe deeply integrated its marketing with the movie. Its efforts led to the first successful case of Chinese brands sponsoring Hollywood blockbusters. From then on， making appearances in the Hollywoods movies has become trendy for Chinese brands.

Movies and Brands

Now， lets see the Chinese brands appearances in different Hollywood blockbusters：

Chinese brands in Transformers 3： Yili Shuhua Milk， Metersbonwe， Lenovo laptop， and TCL 3D smart TV. Filmworks was the agency that helped with the appearance of these Chinese brands in the movie.

In the sequel to Transformers 2， the male protagonist wore the Metersbonwes T-shirt for five minutes in an eye-catching scene full of emotional express. An actor with the Chinese facial features drank the Shuhua milk of Yili and even read the brands name aloud. All characters in the movie were using Lenovo laptops. A big TV of TCL turned out to be a transformer.

The effect： the degree of attention to Yili Shuhua milk increased by 900% and the sale went up 12%， However， Yilis partnership with Transformers 3 only allowed it to place its ads into the movie and had nothing to do with the sharing of box office income. Metersbonwe once again sold the T-shirts with the logos of both factions and the sales in some places surged 30% as the whole series of T-shirts saw the sales amount exceed 100 million yuan.endprint

Transformers 4： the latest movie of Michael Bays Transformer series saw more Chinese elements. Chinese actors Li Bingbing， Han Geng and Lu Liangwei had played characters in the movie. The last 40 minutes of the movie happened in Hong Kong. Scenes from Beijing， Shanghai and Wulong， Chongqing also appeared in this movie. Even the lines on the body of Optimus Prime boast easy-to-see Chinese styles. Beijing-based Reach Glory was the agency to deliver ads in the movie.

The rich Chinese elements of Transformers 4 helped this movie to win the box office income of more than 400 million in the first two days after its debut in China. More Chinese brands come to share this grand banquet. Cestbon mineral water， Yili Shuhua milk， Construction Bank of China， Zhouheiya （a food brand）， QQ， WeChat and Red Bull all appeared in the movie.

These brands appeared in different forms. For example， Li Bingbing drank a bottle of Crestbon mineral water after roaring at an opponent. The character named Joshua Joyce drank the Shuhua milk casually on the balcony despite the fierce battle between two giant robots underneath him. The male protagonist modified the captured detecting robot before taking his bank card to take money from the ATM of Construction Bank of China. The engineers that designed the man-made transformers is a lover of Zhouheiya food. When the overhead train in Hong Kong was knocked over by the transformers， the logos of QQ， WeChat and Red Bull could be seen on its body… Even though people thought lowly of the plot of Transformers 4， they still spared no coins in watching this movie， whose popularity helped to improve the awareness of these brands a lot.

Iron Man 2： Tony Stark could not leave the Chinese sponsors either. Chinese apparel brand Senmir was the one of biggest ads deliverers in that movie. Apart from launching the series of clothes featuring the elements of Iron Man， Senmir also worked with Mary Zophres， a famous designer in Hollywood， to design the special version of products of Iron Man. They integrated the elements from the design of Mary Zophres for the stars of the movie into the fashionable clothes of Senmir. In order to celebrate this cross-sector cooperation， Senmir helped Paramount， the producer of Iron Man 2， and China Film Group Corporation， the distributor of this movie in China， to hold a grand ceremony for its debut in China.

With the promotional effect of Iron Man 2， the proportion of respondents with the willing to buy Senmirs products because of the movie increased by 4%.endprint

Avengers： Tony Stark and his allies also found Chinese brands in their team fighting against alien invaders. TCL and Yili Grain Milk became the sponsors of this movie with Herun Media as the agency.

In the movie， when the superheroes were fighting against Loki and alien invaders， Gwyneth Paltrow who played the girlfriend of Iron Man， watched the deadly battle through a TCL TV. In addition， two train carriages were printed with the posters of Yili Grain Milk. The temporary appearance made Yili Grain Milk saw its sales increase by 5.6% year on year.

Big Bang： the popular American TV series also has a Chinese brand making advertisements. Yili Shuhua Milk promoted its product in a way completely different from that it sponsored Transformers 2. The character Leonard suffered from the lactose intolerance so he could not drink the ordinary milk， but in one scene he could drink Shuhua milk because of the dissolved lactose in the milk. This method is thought to be wiser than the previous one， showing that Yili got more experienced in the field of delivering ads through video programs.

Problems to Be Noted

Even though there are more and more Chinese having presented their products to the consumers through Hollywood blockbusters， there are still many obstacles and misunderstandings standing in their way.

One： the Chinese brands usually have different opinions from the U.S. filmmakers in the concepts and ideas of product placement in the movies. Chinese brands usually ask for positive images and methods to display their products， while Hollywood directors would like to present the products in a funny and exaggerated way. Therefore， it usually takes a lot of time for the Chinese brands and Hollywood filmmakers to understand and get along with each other.

Two： the Chinese brands usually have different opinions from Hollywood filmmakers towards the operating pattern of product placement. The American filmmakers attach more importance to the marketing value the brands can make through developing and selling the film-related products. The inexperienced Chinese enterprises usually do not prepare well for this.

Three： the brands that only develop in the Chinese market have to endure the risk of poor marketing effect when they turn to the product placement in the Hollywood blockbusters. Most of them want to promote their products in China through the influence of Hollywood blockbusters， but sometimes the blockbusters could be possibly blocked in China， cutting the way for the promotional effect to show up. In order to lower the risk， most of the Chinese brands prefer the sequels to the blockbusters which were on in China.endprint