Microsoft Product Placement in Hawaii Five-0 Analyzed
This paper examines Microsoft's product placement strategy in the CBS crime drama Hawaii Five-0, focusing on the prominent use of the Lumia 920 smartphone and Microsoft Surface tablet throughout the series. The analysis covers the target audience, brand perception, marketing objectives, and the risks and rewards of embedding Microsoft products within a popular prime-time drama. The paper evaluates the most and least effective elements of the placement, noting how the show rehabilitates Microsoft's image while also identifying technical inaccuracies that undermine credibility with tech-savvy viewers. Suggested improvements and broader implications for brand strategy are discussed.
- Introduction: Microsoft's Deal with Hawaii Five-0: Overview of Microsoft's placement deal and featured products
- Why Microsoft Chose Hawaii Five-0: Audience targeting and brand image motivations analyzed
- Effectiveness of the Product Placement: How placement boosts reliability and brand appeal
- Technical Inaccuracies and Limitations: Tech errors that undermine placement credibility
- Conclusion: Overall assessment and suggested improvements
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its analysis in specific, concrete examples drawn directly from episodes of Hawaii Five-0, making the argument tangible and well-supported.
- It balances praise for the placement strategy with clear criticism, particularly around technical inaccuracies, demonstrating analytical objectivity.
- The paper effectively contextualizes Microsoft's brand challenges by referencing the well-known Apple "Mac vs. PC" campaign, giving readers useful background for understanding the stakes of the placement.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper employs textual analysis combined with marketing framework evaluation. It moves systematically through audience targeting, brand risk, marketing objectives, and placement effectiveness — applying core marketing concepts to a real-world media case study. The use of direct quotations from industry sources (a journalist, a tech blogger, and an advertising writer) strengthens the evidence base and grounds claims in external corroboration.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a descriptive introduction of the placement context, then transitions into a marketing analysis section covering audience fit, brand risk, and objectives. A second analytical section evaluates the most and least effective aspects of the placement, supported by source quotations. The paper closes by identifying a key vulnerability — technical inaccuracy — that limits the placement's overall success. The structure follows a logical problem-analysis-evaluation arc suitable for a marketing case study.
Introduction: Microsoft's Deal with Hawaii Five-0
The CBS crime drama Hawaii Five-0 is a reconfigured version of the classic 1960s crime series set in exotic Hawaii. In its newest incarnation, the special task force crime fighters use contemporary methods to track criminals, including smartphones. Every episode begins with a new crime, which is then resolved by the end of the hour. Microsoft negotiated a product placement deal with the series, so the phones used by Lieutenant Steve McGarrett, Detective Danny "Danno" Williams, and Chin Ho Kelly are invariably Microsoft-branded. Most recently, the Lumia 920 phone has been given particular prominence, as has the Microsoft Surface tablet — Microsoft's rival to the iPad. The Surface is especially eye-catching given that this tablet-style device is photogenic in its ability to display crime information on screen.
A typical episode features the Surface as a critical component of up-to-the-minute information searching, such as when a police officer uses it to look up information on a car based on its license plate number. During episodes, it was also not unusual to hear characters say "Bing it" rather than "Google it" when searching online for forensic evidence (Wilcox, 2011). To most listeners, this phrase is jarring, given that Microsoft's search engine has not entered the realm of common cultural vocabulary the way Google's far more famous engine has. Nevertheless, all of the technological products featured in the episodes are uniformly Microsoft-branded.
Why Microsoft Chose Hawaii Five-0
It is easy to see why Microsoft chose the youth-marketed Hawaii Five-0 as a venue for product placement. Microsoft has long been portrayed in the media as the less "sexy" computer company compared to Apple. The popular "Mac vs. PC" advertisements deliberately portrayed the Macintosh as a sleek, attractively-dressed young man opposite a nerdy, virus-prone PC. They were "the bumbling PC and the hip, unflappable Mac — an odd couple who would entertain viewers for years with their quips, barbs, sight gags, and one-liners" (Nudd, 2011). In the context of Hawaii Five-0, however, Microsoft products play a critical role in fighting crime. This makes them appear attractive because they are being used by good-looking actors who are saving the world from peril.
In contrast to the risks endured by the characters on screen, there is little brand risk for Microsoft in being shown as a force for good rather than harm. The main criticism leveled by some TV critics was that the placement felt forced, and they questioned the believability of a world populated exclusively by Microsoft products with no alternatives in sight.
Effectiveness of the Product Placement
The most effective aspect of this product placement is that it makes Microsoft products appear reliable, because police officers use the Microsoft-branded lineup during critical, life-or-death missions. When a woman's photos are uploaded to Microsoft SkyDrive, the process looks fluid and effortless, creating the image of a product that can be counted on at a moment's notice. As one observer noted: "Microsoft's online storage service… using a Windows Phone handset to snap and send them. The scene immediately cuts back to 5-0 headquarters where the photos are viewed on a Surface computer and the young woman in them is identified. This is much more than product placement. It's product engagement" (Wilcox, 2011). The viewer subconsciously thinks: I could benefit from using this.
The placement is also effective in rehabilitating Microsoft's image. As used in Hawaii Five-0, Microsoft products look just as attractive as Apple's famous minimalist designs — nothing like the clunky stereotypes of the PCs depicted in the old Apple advertisements, and neither do their users. The fact that the products are clearly being used in a functional, purposeful fashion lends them further credibility. This is not simply a detective sipping a can of clearly labeled Coca-Cola; he is doing real police work with a Microsoft product. Criticisms about Microsoft's poor performance are silenced by the fluidity with which officers locate evidence through technology. Unlike human informants, the Microsoft operating system never leads the police astray.
This type of brand integration within entertainment represents a growing trend in which companies seek not merely to display their products but to weave them into the narrative logic of a program, making the brand functionally indispensable to the story's outcome.
Conclusion
Microsoft's product placement in Hawaii Five-0 represents a bold attempt to rehabilitate the brand's image among younger, tech-oriented audiences. By embedding the Microsoft Surface, Lumia 920, and Bing within the action-driven narrative of a popular crime drama, Microsoft repositioned its products as tools of competence and reliability rather than symbols of corporate blandness. The placement succeeds most when it integrates products organically into the plot, making the technology appear indispensable. It is least effective when technical inaccuracies break the illusion of authenticity for knowledgeable viewers. Going forward, Microsoft and similar brands pursuing branded entertainment strategies would benefit from ensuring that writers and technical consultants work closely together, so that product depictions are both dramatically compelling and factually accurate.
References
Lein, A. (2010). Hawaii Five-0 uses Windows Phone 7 to fight crime. Pocket Now. Retrieved from
Nudd, T. (2011). Apple's 'Get a Mac:' The complete campaign. Ad Week. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/apples-get-mac-complete-campaign-130552
Wilcox, J. (2011). Is Hawaii Five-0 one long Microsoft commercial? Beta News. Retrieved from http://betanews.com/2011/10/22/is-hawaii-5-0-one-long-microsoft-commercial/
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