June 25, 2025

Hollywood and Madison Avenue have entered into a new era of product placement, Katie Deighton reports.

Producers for decades have worked with corporations to feature brands in movies and TV shows, and large advertisers such as Tide-owner Procter & Gamble and Walmart over the years have sporadically developed their own original entertainment. But now the two sides are brokering deals akin to product placement on steroids, with brands coming aboard before shooting even begins, helping finance projects early on in the planning stages and collaborating more closely with talent, distributors and production companies.

“In the past two or three years, we’ve seen a real shift and a real commitment on behalf of big brands to take this much more seriously,” said David Anderson, partner and co-head of United Talent Agency’s entertainment marketing division. Before then, collaborating directly with the entertainment industry was often seen by brands more as a side project or experiment, he said.

Hennes & Mauritz’s earnings beat expectations, sending shares in the fast-fashion retailer higher as investors cheered its continuing restructuring and healthy demand for its clothes, Dominic Chopping reports.

H&M has been working to set itself up for sales growth as it faces increasing competition from low-cost online platforms such as Shein and Temu as well as its slightly higher-end rival, Zara owner Inditex.

Chief Executive Daniel Erver hopes that by investing in new product ranges, marketing campaigns to attract more customers and improving the buying experience through digital upgrades will all help boost sales. Other initiatives include moving the group from exclusively focusing on lower-cost fashion to offering products at a wider range of prices while also bringing more manufacturing closer to its major markets to smooth logistics and purchasing.

“Some measures have a faster impact than others, but the direction is clear and during the year we continue to implement improvements in other parts of the business,” Erver said Thursday.

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