(Bloomberg) -- Dairy producer Yakult Honsha Co. is finding that the power of product placement is so potent it works even when it's mistaken.
Viewers of Netflix's new romantic comedy, “To All the Boys I've Loved Before,'' have noticed the main character's sister drinking a yogurt out of a distinctive little bottle, and are talking about it on Twitter, according to Mark Bachman, head of M Science's TickerTags, a research firm that analyzes the relationship between social media and a company's performance.
In the movie, the drink is called a “Korean yogurt smoothie,'' but audiences have clearly spotted Yakult's “distinct red foil top,” Bachman said in a note to clients on Friday.
“While the brand is of Japanese origin and was never mentioned by name in the movie, it is clearly a Yakult bottle, which Twitter users quickly noticed,” he said.
Yakult's “mention frequency” spiked after the release of the Netflix movie and a majority of the conversations were directly related to interest in the product, according to the note. Shares of the stock, which have dropped about 6 percent this year amid slower sales growth, climbed about 2.6 percent since the movie was released on Aug. 17. The stock closed 1.7 percent higher Monday, the highest since July 31.
“Given the increasing conversation levels, we believe Yakult is achieving greater brand awareness, which should likely result in higher sales volume,” Bachman said.
Yakult Shortage never happened in an Asian Country before, as far as I know. But today, my fave dairy drink is sold out in two stores. I blame you Peter K! #ToAllTheBoysIveLovedBefore @Netflix_PH @NetflixAsia @netflix pic.twitter.com/sGLvTEWS7D
--With assistance from Chua Baizhen.
To contact the reporter on this story: Divya Balji in Singapore at dbalji1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chris Nagi at chrisnagi@bloomberg.net, Jason Clenfield, Jeff Sutherland
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