Many more are either working with or negotiating with placement shops, they say. The help of these shops is essential. For one thing, dot-coms don't have an easy product to place in a movie, unlike a bottle of Coke or Budweiser . But placement shops, always on the make for a way to cast their clients, often get scripts in advance and even suggest script changes. There are several ways placements can work.
Marketers sometimes shell out big fees to studios.
In other cases studios trade for free use of products to cut their costs. Sometimes studios trade for promotion of the film. And companies with products filmmakers really want in their films, such as Apple and Ray-Ban, never pay. The real fruit in films, if any, of the dot-com placement splurge won't really be seen until next year when movies now in production get released. TV placement has a faster turnaround, but is trickier than films.