Concave takes a close a look at the Brands in X-MEN APOCALYPSE (2016) as well as how much $ advertising value the top 5 received. 
Concave Brand Tracking attended a midnight screening of X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) upon its European release and recorded every Brand that appeared in the latest 20th Century Fox/Marvel superhero movie. 

Check out our video summary of this article by clicking here. 

total Brand visibility in X-MEN APOCALYPSE (2016) 

While X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) had more total Brand visibility than most previous X-MEN movies, it falls short of recent Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Comics releases. 
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) had over twice as much total Brand visibility as X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014) and X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (2006). It also had over 5 times more than X2: X-MEN UNITED (2003). 
As the graphic below shows, the X-MEN series is clearly relatively light on Brand visibility, especially in comparison to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the TRANSFORMERS movies and DC Comics’ BATMAN V SUPERMAN (2016). 

top 5 Brands in X-MEN APOCALYPSE (2016) 

Now let us take a look at the Brands that got the most visibility in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016). 
 
It is worth noting that the #1 Brand in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) got a disproportionately high % of the total visibility. In movies like BATMAN V SUPERMAN (2016), CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016) or SPECTRE (2015) the most visibility Brands – Samsung, Audi and Sony, respectively – received between 11% and 18% of their movies’ total visibility. In X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016), the #1 Brand got a whopping 45% of the total Brand visibility. 
 
This means it will be hard for any viewer to miss the #1 Brand. Conversely though, as many other Brands do feature in the movie, most of them – even those in our top 5 – only got limited amounts of visibility. 
 
$ ADVERTISING VALUATION: For some of the top 5 Brands, we also give an approximate valuation of how much their exposure is worth in terms of advertising value. This value is based on Concave Brand Tracking’s in-house model an assumes that X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) will gross between 600 and 800 million dollars worldwide. For more information on our $ valuation model please contact us at info@concavebt.com
 
Do not confuse Brand visibility with Brand exposure. The former refers only to how visible a Brand is to any single viewer in a particular movie. Brand exposure factors in ticket sales and hence is a measure of the total reach of a Brand’s appearance. 

#5 Jaguar 

Early on in the movie, an old-school Jaguar is driven up the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters’ driveway. While the Brand only gets around 13 seconds of screen time, its appearance will not go unnoticed by viewers. Furthermore, the Jaguar name is clearly visible on the back as is the Jaguar emblem on the front. 
$ ADVERTISING VALUE: Jaguar’s exposure in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) provided the Brand with between US$288,000 and US$385,000 in advertising value. 
 
While Jaguar gets the bulk of its exposure in movies from the JAMES BOND franchise, it also regularly has short but visible appearance in other major movies. Jaguar had 10 seconds of screen time in FURIOUS 7 (2015), 12 seconds in ENTOURAGE (2015), 30 seconds in EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014), 39 seconds in GONE GIRL (2014) and 46 seconds in MAD MAX (2015)

#4 Coca-Cola 

Much like Jaguar, Coca-Cola appears briefly but noticeably in the form of product placement. Near the start of the movie, Storm (played by Alexandra Shipp) can be clearly seen sipping on a bottle of Coca-Cola. 
$ ADVERTISING VALUE: Coca-Cola’s product placement in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) provided the Brand with between US$346,000 and US$462,000 in advertising value. 
 
While Coca-Cola is the most visible soda Brand in X-MEN APOCALYPSE, it is not the only one to appear. A can of Tab can be seen being drunk by one of the school’s students and a mural for Sinalco Cola can be seen during the final showdown. 
 
This appearance by Coca-Cola was more visible than in recent movies such as JURASSIC WORLD (2015), BLACK MASS (2015) and TRAINWRECK (2015). Coca-Cola was, however, less visible in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) than in TOMORROWLAND (2015), PAUL BLART: MALL COP 2 (2015) and SOUTHPAW (2015)

#3 Oldsmobile 

These days, superhero movies tend to have one major car Brand (or group) as their partner. For CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016) it was Audi and for BATMAN V SUPERMAN (2016) it was Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. This was clearly not the case in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016), with a range of different Brands appearing and the most visible car Brand being Oldsmobile, a Brand that has been defunct since 2009. 
A 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Convertible is seen in a couple of scenes around half way through the movie. It is driven by Scott Summers (played by Tye Sheridan) and gets a little over 30 seconds of screen time with its logo seen intermittently. 
 
Other car Brands, such as Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Dodge, Peugeot and more also appear in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016). 
 
Despite the Brand being out of business, Oldsmobile still appears occasionally in movies. Mostly because of the era in which the films take place or as vintage cars/signs. However, Oldsmobile’s appearance in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) was more visible than in recent appearances in BLACK MASS (2015), TOMORROWLAND (2015), BRIDGE OF SPIES (2015) and PITCH PERFECT 2 (2015) as well as in older movies such as INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008) and TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (2011). 

#2 Rush 

Throughout X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016), Quicksilver (played by Evan Peters) wears an array of t-shirts referencing the popular culture of the 1980s. Early on he wears a t-shirt from television show THE SIX MILLON DOLLAR MAN and at the end he wears an Atari t-shirt. 
However, for a significant portion of the movie, he wears a t-shirt from the 1981 Moving Picture tour of the band Rush. The t-shirt is only seen discreetly – mostly under Quicksilver’s jacket – but gets over 3 minutes of screen time. 
$ ADVERTISING VALUE: Rush’s exposure in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) provided their Brand with between US$1,200,000 and US$1,500,000 in advertising value. 

#1 Ray-Ban 

While the above mentioned Brands got reasonable amounts of visibility and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of advertising exposure, the Brand whose product placement steals the show in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) is Ray-Ban. As we saw in the introduction to this top 5, Ray-Ban accounted for 45% of all Brand visibility in the entire movie. This is an exceptionally high %. The #1 Brands in movies rarely exceed 20% of the total Brand visibility and almost never 40%. One of the only Brands that has had over 45% was Audi in I, ROBOT (2004). It represented 66% of the total Brand visibility in that movie. 
Early on in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016), Scott Summers is given a pair of custom Ray-Ban sunglasses to help control the energy beams that come out of his eyes. In that particular scene, the Ray-Ban eyewear receives over 20 seconds of obvious shots as they are presented to Scott and he puts them on the first time. He then wears them for (almost) the rest of the movie. As such Ray-Ban gets almost 10 minutes of screen time with its logo visible in 35% of it. 
However, at the end of the movie, Cyclops is seen wearing his more traditional eyewear. It will be interesting to see in future movies if he sticks with the fictional eyewear or will once again wear Ray-Ban. 
Ray-Ban sunglasses are also worn by Scott’s brother: Alex Summers (played by Lucas Till). 
$ ADVERTISING VALUE: Ray-Ban’s product placement in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) provided the Brand with between US$9,000,000 and US$12,000,000 in advertising value. 
 
Interestingly, in the original X-MEN trilogy, when Scott Summer was played by James Marsden, the character wore Oakley sunglasses instead of Ray-Ban. Those movies came out between 2000 and 2006. At the time, Oakley was an independent company. However, since 2007, Oakley has been part of the Italian company Luxottica. Incidentally, Luxottica has owned Ray-Ban since 1999. So it seems that when Luxottica partnered with Marvel/20th Century Fox to be involved with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016), they decided Ray-Ban was a better fit than Oakley, despite its product placement history with the franchise. 
Not surprisingly, Ray-Ban’s appearance in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) was one of its most visible ever in a movie. Ray-Ban was almost 3 times more visible in X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) than in RIDE ALONG (2014) and over 10 times more visible than in MAGIC MIKE XXL (2015), BATMAN V SUPERMAN (2015), FURIOUS 7 (2015) and CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016)
One of the only more visible appearances by Ray-Ban was in NEIGHBORS (2014), in which a pair of their optical glasses were worn by Seth Rogen throughout the movie. This resulted in almost 20 minutes of screen time for Ray-Ban. However, NEIGHBORS (2014) only grossed US$271 million worldwide resulting in around US$7 million worth of advertising value for Ray-Ban. So, unless X-MEN: APOCALYPSE (2016) does disastrously as the box office – relatively to expectations – Ray-Ban will get far more advertising exposure than in NEIGHBORS (2014). 

For more information on our methodology, data or services, please contact us at info@concavebt.com 

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