How your business will appear in the next Netflix blockbuster
No, it isn’t through doing 70,000 prompts to get a below average AI Christmas CocaCola ad. It’s going to be through product placement.
Product placement isn’t new. In fact, it’s one of the oldest tricks in the advertising playbook. If you’ve watched TV or films at any point in your life, you’ve already been marketed to — you just didn’t notice. Actually, you did notice, but in a more natural way.
Product placement is simple: Brands slip their products into the story instead of interrupting it. And it has worked well. Really well.
Here’s a few of examples through history:
E.T. (1982) – Reese’s Pieces Hershey said yes when M&M’s said no. Result? Sales jumped 65%.
Sex and the City – Manolo Blahnik A TV show turned a niche luxury shoe into a global cult item. Manolo himself credits the show for driving a massive surge in demand, especially in the US and Europe.
The Italian Job (2003) – MINI Cooper BMW relaunched the new MINI and the movie turned it into a cultural icon overnight. Sales surged globally as viewers fell in love with those nimble little getaway cars.
The Reese’s Pieces example is telling — great placement, but no global upside because the candy wasn’t sold worldwide. That era is now over.
Product placement for one – you!
With recent developments in AI, large tech firms have been working on a revolution in advertising. Instead of interrupting the movie with ads, we’ve started beating ads into the movie. AI is now changing the actual objects inside scenes. Coffee cups. Billboards. Posters on walls. Beer labels. Bus stops. Same scene. Same actors. Same moment. Different product for every viewer. You and I will watch the exact same movie — and see completely different products, baked into the scene.
And it has already happened – in China.
Who’s doing it? Tencent.
For those not familiar: Tencent is one of the world’s biggest technology companies, based in China. They own WeChat (China’s everything-app), massive gaming studios, major social networks, the world’s biggest esports titles, and huge chunks of entertainment and fintech. Think Google + Facebook + Netflix + PayPal + Activision, all mashed together. Its current market capitalisation is $US 854 billion.
They’ve quietly begun inserting AI-generated, personalised product placements into films and TV shows — at scale. This is where the advantages of an autocratic government, with near zero privacy concerns can facilitate technological innovation (not saying I’d prefer to live under such a Government) – but I probably would prefer to see advertisements in movies which show products aligned to my lifestyle and preferences.
They’re not alone. A UK company called Mirriad is already inserting virtual ads into classic films and new dramas. Amazon, NBC, and others are testing the same technology.
Every time you use Meta AI, Instagram AI, YouTube, Google AI, you’re training the machine that will decide what you see on screens later — inside the content itself. You’re also training it when you use AI apps like Meta AI, or Sora.
What It Means: Ads That Know Who You Are
The platform knows: where you live, the cafés you visit, what you buy, what you drive, what you search, your hobbies, your favourite sport, what you eat, where you shop, your economic profile and even your vibe and the language you use.
So instead of seeing Starbucks in a movie, you might see your local café — simply because your phone is 800 metres away from it. The actual scene in your local cafe with Ryan Gosling and Scarlett Johansen chatting (for me it would be Rudimentary)
Instead of global beer brands, you might see your local craft brewer, sitting on the bar. In the very same scene I watch with a completely different brand. (maybe Footscray Draft)
Same movie. Different world. Different marketplace. This changes how we go to market.
Here’s the twist most people miss: For the first time in history, local businesses can appear inside global blockbusters.
A business in Geelong could appear in a Netflix movie streaming in… Geelong.
A local electrician could be on a billboard in the background of an Amazon show — visible only to viewers within 10km.
A micro-brewery could show up in a YouTube video — only for locals.
The cost of “being in a movie” collapses from millions… to a few dollars targeted at a postcode. All of a sudden local brands get to participate in global media properties. It’s contextual. Relevant. Unskippable. And possible becomes a feature viewers get excited about – especially the first time they see it. OMG – that’s the restaurant down the street! It’s even better than when a movie was filmed in your city.
Not interrupting you. Not shouting at you. Just quietly existing inside the story you’re already watching.
Advertising becomes ambient.
The Big Shift
The company that kicked this into high gear — Tencent — has already scaled it to millions of viewers. Netflix, Amazon, Disney, YouTube and others are following fast.
Product placement has evolved from: Global exposure in a single film, for a big budget brand. → Micro-targeted exposure inside every film. For any business with a micro budget It’s coming fast, expect it to start arriving as an advertising option in 2026. The future of advertising won’t interrupt you. It will blend in, adapt, reshape itself… and become part of the world you’re watching.
And that’s the moment product placement stops being a “placement” — and becomes an algorithmic paintbrush on culture itself.
Keep Thinking,
Steve.
** Get me into do an AI keynote at your next event. I’ll use this as my testimonial!