Meet Beth Bell | Founder + President Green Product Placement & IATSE Film & TV Professional

We had the good fortune of connecting with Beth Bell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Beth, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
In the spring of 2011, I had a “lightbulb moment” That spring, a fated online conversation with Morgan Spurlock led me to what I am doing today, what I consider to be my calling and my passion, and something that uses skills from all of my life experience that I’d had up until this point.
It was a Saturday, and I was on Facebook. Morgan who was a Facebook friend at the time, posted he’d be over on TED.com answering questions about his new product placement documentary “Pom Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold”. I went on over and asked him if in doing his research, there was any product placement agency representing any green brands. You see in 1999, I was Assistant Set Decorator on “Runaway Bride” and we had to dress a hair salon. My boss, the set decorator, said she hated all of that “stinky chemical stuff you get from the product placement agencies” and tasked me and our department assistant with contacting some natural brands. There weren’t as many of them back then. Flash forward 13 years and there still weren’t any agencies specifically representing ONLY these types of brands.
There was some back and forth between Morgan and I and he said “I think you found your next career!”.
In 2011, I founded my company, we officially launched in 2012. How product placement works on both conscious and unconscious behavior to influence consumer habits dovetails nicely with how the UNEP recommended how you influence consumers towards more sustainable behavior. Association with celebrity, using role models, and making products and behaviors the norm can be achieved by both storyline and product placement. Positive placement is a solution to changing consumer habits towards sustainability-

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Green Product Placement is the only specifically mission-based product placement agency working with Hollywood productions. (There’s another one, based in France, started by a former intern of ours that works with French productions)

I’m pretty proud of the fact that we’ve been able to raise the profile on products and brands with a more sustainable profile. That we’ve been able to get luxury vegan handbags on mainstream shows like “Let’s Make a Deal”, that we’ve been able to assist showing characters using re-usable water bottles and bamboo bicycles and compost bins for their food waste. That- just by existing as an agency, we’ve been able to promote the conversation of “what sorts of things- items, brands should mainstream entertainment be promoting?”.

I’m proud to be part of a growing group of entertainment media professional around the world pushing the whole industry to become more sustainable. Every sector, every department has a part to play. That includes the behaviors we see onscreen, along with the products these characters are using.

Biggest challenges? Certainly not on the production side- well- not before 2020, anyway. It’s been convincing the smaller, natural brands that if they want to become a household name, they have to play by the same rulebooks as the large multinationals. You become a household name through exposure. And exposure onscreen can really help with that.

This moment in time sees probably the biggest challenges. With less production happening because of the upcoming Guilds contract renewals (DGA Directors and WGA Writers), along with the streaming bubble bursting, layoffs at most major studios, following 2-1/s years worth of productions having to add a completely new department and protocols (COVID), there’s just less appropriate productions to place in than there were in the “before times”. Then, on top of that, you have the economic situation right now, and smaller companies having less discretionary marketing funds, this is a recipe for some challenging times. What can be done? Keep on keepin’ on- placing brands when possible, and renewing and signing new brands when possible.

Lessons learned could be seen as life lessons learned as well. Things change. Circumstances change. The public’s appetite changes, and most of the time, the changes are beyond our control: global pandemic, war, natural disasters and even the type of productions being made. A decade ago, everything was vampires, for example. “Roll with it” is pretty simple advice, but it’s really what you need to do.

I’d like the world to know that I came to found my company after decades working in production, hands on, as a crew member. I continues to work in the business in that capacity even after founding my business. Our intentions are true and well-meaning. Brands that are with us for years become friends- “brand family” is not just lip service. I put myself out there as a founder and a person. What you see is what you get. I support our mission because I believe in our mission. I also strongly support a more sustainable production industry. It’s a wasteful industry and that has to change- steps are being made, but more has to happen.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, I’m actually from Baltimore, and spend most of my time there, and in NYC and DC.

But before the pandemic, I made yearly month long trips to LA. We’d always be out in March and my former business partner and I made a tradition where we’d always go to House of Pies on “Pi Day”, March 14th. There’s a great little vintage store right next door that we would always stop into as well.
We’d also always plan a meetup with our LA friends at Palms Thai in Hollywood. Crossroads has some of the best vegan food I’ve ever had.
Because the population can be rather transient and fashionable, LA has some of the best thrifting around! I always like to hit an Out of the Closet or two and there’s a great Salvation Army not far from Fox and Sony Pictures as I recall. For consignment shops- you can’t go wrong with any Crossroads Trading.
I would always try and find a way to fit in at least an afternoon at the beach. Honestly, my idea of heaven is hanging out on a lovely beach, with the sun shining down and a big, fat Sunday New York Times (or LA Times, too 😉 ) The usual culprits- Venice, Santa Monica, Malibu- but Manhattan Beach is nice, too.
There’s some decent hiking near Beechwood Canyon and Topanga Canyon.
And it’s always good to fit in an art museum or two- Getty Center, LACMA both worth mentioning and I really want to check out the new Academy Film Museum. The downtown LA Art Walk is fun as well, and there’s that old school French Dip restaurant, Cole’s, which is amusing (even if you don’t eat beef like me).

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Firstly, I want to shout out to my former partner, Lisa Dietrich, She was with GPP for the first 8 years and without her, there’s a whole lot that would not have been possible. She remains one of my closest friends.

Secondly, a fellow female founder friend of mine, Jill, of Jill Andrews Gowns. She was the first close friend to start her own company and she was the first person I spoke with once I had the idea- what next?! She told me that her former business partner- the one that helped her found and start her business had run out and got a copy of “Starting a Business for Dummies”, and they skimmed that and then got started. You can bet that I did the same thing!

Lastly, my friend Ginny Galloway, who used to have a production company. GreenBox Films. I came on its last year of business (it closed for reasons not having anything to do with my involvement), and it was my experience there that helped me as much as any “dummies” book. I learned so many tips for starting and managing a small/micro business, that it enabled us to get started and get the ball rolling fairly quickly.

Website: www.greenproductplacement.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2301714/admin/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenproductplacement

Image Credits
Screen Captures: Sweet Magnolias , Let’s Make a Deal, Easy, Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce, Blindspot. Silicon Valley, Billions, The Boss