A successful product placement either introduces or reinforces a brand name in the audience’s mind.

In case you missed it the Brandcameo product placement awards from Brandchannel are up.

Ford, which has had roles in movies from Bullitt to Are We There Yet?, was a winner. As a large, established brand, Ford Motor Company’s placements are brand reinforcements, and reinforce Ford did. Its 19 placements in 2005 mean that Ford appeared in nearly 50 percent of all Number One films (41 total).

Also worth mentioning the Brandcameo 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award for Product Placement which goes to Gatorade.

Gatorade’s real-life sideline omnipresence has made it a sports film necessity in order to achieve a realistic scene — an enviable position for products attempting to get into films and fight the “it’s just not natural” label.

As Darren Rovell, author of First in Thirst: How Gatorade Turned the Science of Sweat into a Cultural Phenomenon puts it, “If you cant use the pro uniforms, if you cant use the real players or the real coaches, having Gatorade on the sidelines immediately conveys to the movie viewer, ‘This is authentic.’ If you are making a sports movie that has any action, Gatorade is one of the most natural fits.”

Read more about it here.