Apple TV’s “Pluribus” recently became the streaming platform’s most viewed drama of all time as viewers flocked to the mysterious sci-fi offering from Vince Gilligan. And while an ad for “Pluribus” didn’t actually spur a schizophrenic episode, as a viral Reddit post claimed, the show does have a connection to the world of marketing.
Sprouts Farmers Market — a growing grocery chain that is working to connect with consumers around culture — appears in two episodes of “Pluribus,” including a major scene that provides more color about the show’s strange new world, where an alien virus has transformed most of humanity into a peaceful hive mind. Yet this wasn’t an example of brand integration or product placement: it was the result of a yearslong process that began when Gilligan wrote Sprouts into his scripts for the show.
While TV and film productions often ask to film in the chain’s stores, it’s not always a great fit for the brand, explained Sprouts CMO Alisa Gmelich. However, Apple’s request to film in a specific Sprouts store in Albuquerque, New Mexico, represented a unique opportunity, especially since the show was from Gilligan, the TV mastermind behind “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.”
“I have a great respect for his storytelling and what he puts into these shows,” Gmelich said. “But really what came through [from Apple] was ‘We have a great story.’ Of course, they could only tell us so much about the script, but … it was very clear to me that the role that Sprouts was going to play in the storyline was going to be more than just a location.”
Instead of simply being a…