Everyone knows that television product placement can create a huge increase in brand exposure for a business, but what you might not know is just how influential a brief product spotlight can be! One of our favorite recent examples of this is The Science Museum of Minnesota! After “Stranger Things” used their branding for Dustin’s vintage sweatshirt, their branded apparel purchases from the gift shop skyrocketed!
If you think back for a second, you might remember the museum responding by marketing the hoodie and making the vintage Thunder Lizard hoodie available for purchase. And now we know the impact of the sweatshirt’s Netflix cameo. CBS Local reported that over 40,000 of the apparel items have been sold out of the shop since the museum put out the items for purchase. Plus the best part is that all the proceeds from the sweatshirts are put right back into the museum’s education outreach programs creating a never ending positive impact! 😊
In an effort to keep the ball rolling, the museum just released a whole new line of similar merch (you can bet those will be hot sellers too!). The new collection features new dinosaurs and new colorways for “Stranger Things” fans and future paleontologists!
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So, what’s the point of us even taking the time to report on this? Well, the museum could have just tweeted out simple, Thank You, to the show for its product spotlight. Instead, they popped on their thinking caps and created a line of merchandise around the costuming choice. This story goes to show just exactly how powerful and effective branded merch can be! What’s your amazing story? We’d love to hear it!