Having your brand featured in a TV show or movie — particularly when you’re not actually paying for the product placement — is a coin toss.

You might hit the jackpot, like Eggo did when it appeared in the first season of “Stranger Things” in 2016. Or you might find yourself in a PR crisis, like Peloton did after a fatal cameo in a 2021 episode of “And Just Like That.”

So when “Pluribus” showrunner Vince Gilligan expressed a desire to film several scenes of his new Apple TV show within an Albuquerque location of Sprouts Farmers Market, the regional grocery store chain had to decide whether to take a risk and trust the creative process.

By now, fans of the series already know the outcome. Spoiler alert below!

In Episode 3, the main character, Carol Sturka, arrives at a Sprouts location to find the store completely bare, having been emptied of food by members of the hive mind. When she calls to complain, the hive mind wordlessly restocks the shelves for her via a tightly choreographed sequence (which was filmed at a different location than the interiors) featuring dozens of smiling extras.

Sprouts CMO Alisa Gmelich wasn’t fully briefed on exactly how the store would fit into the larger narrative of the series. However, she and the other corporate leadership did get access to the relevant parts of the script, which Gmelich felt authentically reflected how their target customer would react if faced with a similar dilemma.

“Our customers would pick up the phone somewhere and say, ‘What happened to my Sprouts?’” she said, quoting Carol directly.

Quiet on Set

Sprouts’ previous brand collaborations have mostly been cross-promotional in nature and revolve around products for sale in Sprouts stores. For example, Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker made headlines last year for bringing his own CPG brand, Barker Wellness, to Sprouts locations.

Joining forces with Apple TV — or, more specifically, the production team for “Pluribus” — looked very different.

Sprouts didn’t spend any of its marketing or sponsorship budget on the opportunity, although some workers stood outside during filming to redirect customers and offer gift cards. The production took care of any costs associated with closing the store down for two days, including buying and donating all the food that was removed for the scene.

Handily, Sprouts’ unique floor plan lent itself well to the wide, sweeping overhead shot that was used in the episode. Most of its locations have high ceilings and a produce section that sits right at the center of the store, unlike other grocery stores that typically have tall aisles there instead.

While the Sprouts team did not have any mandates for how its branding should be represented on screen, the production team includes the logo for narrative reasons. For example, Carol has a reusable Sprouts bag in hand when she arrives at the store, reinforcing the idea that her routine habits have been thoroughly disrupted.

“I knew, in their heart of hearts, they wanted the brand to show up as well as I would,” Gmelich said.

Seizing the Moment

Sprouts might have been hands-off for filming, but marketing was a different story. The brand worked closely with Apple TV’s marketing team to develop a cohesive creative strategy, highlighting Carol’s status as one of the only people left on Earth with an individual sense of self.

A campaign highlighted Carol as the Sprouts “Customer of the Month” and featured a social media sweepstakes using clips from the show, as well as a curated collection of items inspired by Carol’s favorites, such as olives, a nod to the martini Carol orders in the season premiere.

Although the show’s first season wrapped up late last year, Gmelich said she’s excited about the world of marketing opportunities that will open up for Sprouts moving forward. Whenever a new season premieres, for example, or “Pluribus” picks up another award nomination, the brand can use its social media presence to point to its connection with the show again, or launch another tie-in campaign.

Being in a TV show also helps with the brand’s ability to grow in new markets, which fits nicely into the its existing TV and video strategy. In regions where Sprouts already has a lot of market share, like California, where there are 150 stores, TV is treated more like a performance channel. In places with fewer locations, like New Jersey, where there are only two Sprouts stores, the focus is on brand awareness instead.

Now, when a new location opens in one of the 27 states that doesn’t have a Sprouts yet, potential customers who weren’t familiar with the brand but watched “Pluribus” can say, “That’s a real store,’” said Gmelich.

But has Sprouts caught the acting bug, so to speak? Not exactly. Although, according to Gmelich, the marketing team is definitely thinking more about how they can experiment with their own creative content, which features a lot of storytelling around product founders and region-specific social influencers who live close to store locations.

“The hardest job I have is really deciding what stories we’re going to tell to the right audience,” she said.