With No Time To Die on target to surpass Avengers: Endgame as the fifth highest grossing film in UK box office history, as usual a lot of media attention has surrounded the brand partnerships seemingly almost as iconic as the titular character himself. Twenty-five different brands are featured throughout the 2hr 43m runtime with fourteen paying nearly £100 million to attain partnership status and the potential commercial and advertising benefits that come with that position. While there is much debate on whether this advertising has gone ‘too far’, it doesn’t seem a concern for the brands increasingly eager to have their products featured and crucially, as Daniel Craig himself said on the making of Skyfall in 2012, “The simple fact is that, without (product placement), we couldn’t do it (the movie).”

Aston Martin advert in which Daniel Craig drives a DB5 (Source: Deadline)

With marketing spend pushed over the $100 million mark due to COVID-19 enforced delays (the first main trailer was released in December 2019) and a production budget around $250 million, funding from product placement is a key component in allowing the intense action set pieces that audience’s love to be greenlit by executives in the first place. However, the return these brands see from their investment can be significant. Casino Royale saw Bond famously wear the La Perla Grigioperla Lodato swimsuit that is perennially sold out to date, the pair Craig wore himself sold for nearly £45,000 at auction a few years later. Apparel seems to be as close to a guaranteed hit for brands, if you’re dressing Bond, be it for a publicity still, a trailer or the final cut itself, it’s unlikely that any of your items will be in stock just days later. Towards the end of Skyfall, Craig picks up a Barbour jacket that retailed at £400, those same jackets were selling for over £2,000 on eBay later that week after selling out in-store and online. Bond is not just a fictional character; he is a modern-day trendsetter and style icon whose tastes consumers respond incredibly quickly to.

Daniel Craig in Skyfall wearing a Barbour jacket (Source: Bond Suits)

The two years of build up to release has not been without challenges for integrated brands as the devastating impacts of COVID-19 took hold, nonetheless, in the world of product placement, some faced more than others. The tech industry is dominated by a rapid development pace, innovation is the core tenet for success for products where many consumers look to upgrade annually. Nokia, the official phone provider for No Time To Die, were unsurprisingly not pleased that their significant investment into the franchise would not only lead to Bond and co not having cutting edge technology, but the audience frequently having more advanced devices in their pockets while watching. In January of this year there was an explosion of articles that placed the majority of the blame for another delayed released date at the doorstep of Nokia, due to reshoots taking place in order to update the tech to a more recent line. The 2019 trailer featured a Nokia 7.2 smartphone with more recent ones changed to include a 8.3 model instead, clearly, even if this these claims aren’t entirely accurate, Nokia have understood the importance of their investment showing off their latest (and most expensive) devices.

Lynch’s updated Nokia 8.3 smartphone in No Time To Die’s 2021 trailer (Source: Tech Radar)

In the Bond films of the 20^th century, product placement was similarly prevalent, but over the last fifteen years more creative marketing efforts means that you’re now more likely to see 007’s face on the small screen than the big one. Craig’s has appeared frequently in Heineken adverts, the latest a charming swipe at the impatient, in which the star is shown quietly drinking a beer before informing us it’s “well worth the wait”. However, for possibly the first time, the female lead in Lashana Lynch is enjoying a comparable partnership push. Over the past two years she has featured in photoshoots and adverts for the Nokia phones that her character, Nomi, uses throughout the film. It might have come as a surprise for fans to see Lynch use the slightly more rugged profile of the Nokia compared to a sleeker Sony device of character’s past and this isn’t an accident. Evolution is a key theme of No Time To Die and that means some of the quirks of the older films, like Q’s longstanding patience with the state that Bond leaves his gadgets in after every mission, will have to go – there are no broken handsets this time around. Net sales for Nokia have doubled since last year, but it remains to be seen if this is purely down to the recovering COVID-19 economy or if their global Bond campaign, and the product placement within, have had a part to play.

Heineken advert starring Daniel Craig (Source: Ad Week)

While much of the Bond operating software has received a much-needed update in 2021, one aspect of his character hasn’t changed. For as long as James Bond has existed, he has been a perfect agent for brands to advertise their products. Bond’s charm, sophistication and prowess are aspirational and have kept the character relevant to audiences and advertisers for the past five decades. Despite the exorbitant costs there is still no one better for brands targeting a successful product placement strategy.