Product Placement: Another Facet to the Marketing Strategy

Under Armour has used product placements as a main market strategy to increase consumer awareness. Any Given Sunday was Under Armour’s first break at product placement in a blockbuster movie. In 1998, Plank sent a sample of Under Armour to the movie’s casting director and received the contract. The company used this as a jumping board and has since appeared in such movies as The Replacements, The Gridiron Gang, and Dodgeball. Under Armour did not stop there and dove into the cable television network and video games. In the first half of 2008 Under Armour had more than 3000 occurrences on cable television. Under Armour can be seen most notably in HBO’s The Wire and MTV’s Real World Road Rules Challenge. Video games that include Under Armour products include Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon 2 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006. These product placements reach multiple types of consumers ranging from adults to children. The strategic use of the product placements shows Under Armour products being used in a variety of different situations and scenarios. Under Armour finds this strategy important enough to have a member of the marketing team that works full-time in Los Angeles pursuing these product placements.