This week has been one of the most historic weeks with the release of the most awaited film Avengers: Endgame, the final chapter of the saga that preceded it. It’s a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics produced by Marvel Studios. It has become one of the fastest movies to enter in the Rs.100 crore club in India and now has crossed 200-crores within 6 days of its release. The film has smashed the records at the box office. The movie makers have successfully surpassed the expectations of their fans and have made an imperishable place in their hearts.
However, did you ever think what are the other factors that are responsible for the enormous success of the movie? The company has been using digital platforms to reach out to millions of people since a long time in a most strategic way to keep them engaged as well as informed about their upcoming work at the same time.
- Content Marketing:
The most powerful tool used by Marvel is Content Marketing. It’s a type of marketing which involves designing and sharing of online content like social media posts, videos, and blogs. The company has social media accounts on several platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. They used these handles to drop gobbets about their upcoming work. Marvel majorly focused on posting alluring content on all the digital platforms to attract the audience and to maintain the curiosity of the theme. Digital Marketing helped Marvel connect better with their viewers on a psychological level thus increasing overall viewership.
- Facebook:
The company maintained individual Facebook pages for each character they have and updated their pages and handles on a regular basis to keep the viewers engaged. One of the campaigns that were created during promotions of Captain America: Civil War was named ‘Whose Side Are You On?’ in which the audience was expected to choose one team out of ‘Team Red’ and ‘Team Blue’ i.e. either Captain America or Iron man. With this campaign, they gave the audience a sense of belonging and motivated them to actually pick a side thus further personalizing their viewership experience. Apart from this, they have created 13 more campaigns to promote different movies.
- Instagram:
Instagram is the second most widely used social media platform by marvel studios. Marvel has about 34.6 million followers on Instagram. They uploaded enigmatic clues on their social media handles to tease their fans and generate curiosity among them. They added intriguing information related to the movie about which people can have a conversation and stay engaged until the movie released. Marvel used trending hashtags in the Instagram stories which facilitated the user with a wide scenario of the brand. Using these tactics marvel increased up to 17.6 million users on Instagram.
The Facebook campaign ‘Whose side are you on?’ was also carried out on Instagram and other social media website. This campaign became a huge success as people responded to this innovative campaign on a large scale. They have also been consistent with the hashtag ‘#AvengersEndgame’ in all their posts on various channels. Also, during the release of Spiderman, Marvel Created 3D content on Instagram which created a huge buzz in the audience.
- Twitter:
Marvel Studios collaborated with pop artist Truck Torrence to design an Emoji set containing 40 emoji’s of heroes and characters of the movie for their Twitter handle as a part of promoting their movie Avengers: Endgame. They also designed their content specifically according to the channel on which they wanted to post.
The Facebook campaign carried out during the promotion of Captain America was also extended on Twitter by inviting the fans to join one of the teams by tweeting either #TeamCap or #TeamIronMan. Also, the fans were sent personalized videos of the superhero of their choice from the Twitter handles of the star-cast themselves. This took the customer interaction to a whole new level.
- YouTube:
YouTube is another platform they used to put up snippets about their latest releases to tease the audience and generate curiosity among them. This encouraged the masses to talk about their upcoming movies creating a bubble of anticipation attracting viewers.
Marvel has about 12 million subscribers on their YouTube channel who watch their videos, which leads them to like and share the videos thus making it trending and generating views far more than the actual number of subscribers they have. In short, this whole process acted as a chain reaction. With such a strong fan base they can reach up to millions of people all over the world within a short span of time.
- Master Strategy of Marvel Studios:
Initially, Marvel Studios focused on creating films individually on superheroes like Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, and Captain America and build their profiles gradually. This helped them in grabbing the attention of the audience and building a strong fanbase for every superhero. Later, they strategically ganged up all the superheroes in a single movie as it was just exactly what the fans wanted to see. They left some mystery at the end of their movies as post credit scenes which led the audience to wait for the next movie and keep thinking about it until the next release.
Marvel had an already existing fan base due to Marvel Comics. Keeping that in mind they made movies that were relatable to the comics as well as used latest graphics to attract the younger audience. By using social media as a tool they invoked conversations among people and this helped them in promoting the movie via word of mouth. This also helped them to increase brand awareness.
Marvel Studios has always come up with great ideas to sustain in the digital world. Likewise, they came up with an App named Marvel Comics for IOS and Android which consisted of digital comics, comic strips featuring superheroes of each series. This facilitated the audience to connect with their favorite superhero and gave them easy access to all the comics digitally. This also reduced the hassle of buying the comics physically from the stores.
Conclusion:
Thus we can conclude by saying that the movies made by marvel are a case of amazing content along with great marketing. They used social media marketing on a large scale to connect with their audience globally & gave them a close interaction with their favorite superheroes.