Push the branded button

Wear my watch

The final edit of the soon to be released new song (’Wear My Kiss’) from the restructured Sugababes line-up is currently circulating on the Net. The video depicts Heidi, Amelle and Jade in what appears to be either a dystopian futuristic factory setting or Simon Cowell’s garage, complete with a scaled down version of Paris’ La Défense and infinite Sugababes clones.  Having said that it’s fairly standardised Sugababes fair – see: Sugababes in a lift, by a caravan, on a big rug – but there is one thing that stands out as a possible missed opportunity.  As the video plays out a series of objects appear behind the girls underneath the giant white structure, first a tie, then a watch, a diamond and a pair of shoes. Each object links directly to a line in the song. At first we thought the watch was possibly part of a branded partnership with say Omega, but it appears it isn’t, at least not to our knowledge.  The question is should it have been?

With music videos generally awash with product placement, from mobiles (Samsung for instance in a Girls Aloud video ) to sunglasses (Such as the Carrera range in the recent Alicia Keys video) it’s rare an opportunity exists to showcase products on such a prominent scale. The shoes for example are utterly generic and could have so easily been brand specific, as could the watch. However,  why stop there. Bearing in mind the objects are rendered and placed in during post production this video could have supported multiple versions, with the additional option of a ‘click through to purchase’ embedded into the items in the video on YouTube/VEVO. We’re not suggesting it becomes a conveyor belt of brands akin to the Generation Game. However, in a culture where multiple brands can coexist in the same video – see: Trojan/Tuborg – this video could have made good use of its large-scale vending machine in the background.

The shoes in the video appear to change from green to silver anyway depending on which one you watch, and aside from the diamond this could easily be a selection of items from the Next catalogue. Which is not an unthinkable suggestion bearing in mind EMI partnered up with the high-street fashion retailer to promote new artist Ava Leigh in a series of adverts in 2008.