COM 641 Research Project
Content Analysis
For this content analysis the question I looked at answering was do all successful movie marketing campaigns have the same elements in common. In recent years there have been a handful of globally successful movies that have created what seems like an overload of digital marketing content. These movies have been box office hits, in a way that many movie industry critics believed to be a thing of the past in the post-pandemic world; these movies proved them wrong. However, is this strategy of movie marketing going to becoming the “norm” or are these specific movies just hitting the jackpot with a culmination of many factors?
The movies I chose to look at are Barbie (2023), Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) and Wicked (2024). Thanks to the success of these movies there have already been detailed looks done to understand why these marketing campaigns were so successful, I have taken these various breakdowns and compared them to one another to see where there are similarities and where they are unique. Utilizing one of the breakdowns for the Deadpool & Wolverine I used the elements they highlight as being factors to the success of that campaign as elements of comparison for both Barbie and Wicked. The three main components I have chosen to look at are 1. Star power, 2. Viral content, and 3. Cross promotion (Ravilova 2024).
Star Power
These three elements are present in all three of these specific movies. When analyzing the comment sections of the trailers for each of the movie on each respective YouTube channel, I looked for specific references to the stars of the films. These mentions are indicators that the stars of the film are a large draw for audience members.
In the case of Deadpool & Wolverine, this movie has been long awaited by fans due to studio switches, pandemic delays, and strike delays, so naturally there was a lot of anticipation and excitement amongst fans for both the character and the lead actor Ryan Reynolds to return. However, when looking through the comments on the trailer, an equal is not majority of comments mention the excitement over the return of Hugh Jackman in the role of Wolverine, a character he previously retired from in 2017. Additionally, there were a number of comments that shared exactment over the off-screen friendship of Reynolds and Jackman being reflected on-screen through their characters. The off-screen friendship between the two has been present for years and the marketing campaign utilized that in any way they could (Deadpool & Wolverine – Official Trailer 2024).
For the Barbie movie, when looking at the comment section of the trailer there is high praise for Margot Robbie’s portrayal of the iconic doll. While there is a large amount of support for Robbie in the role, the tone behind these comments differs from that of Deadpool & Wolverine. For the superhero movie, it was long anticipation and pure excitement over the actors and it did not appear to go much deep than that. In the case of Barbie however, the movie itself marketed itself as a feel-good movie with an emphasis on strong femininity. There was more of an emphasis on Robbie’s strength of being a voice for women and girls than there was on her acting ability (although that was mentioned as well, just less frequently). This commentary also reflected the support that audiences had in the combination of Robbie as lead actress and producer alongside director Greta Gerwig, who is know for created strong female driven movies. Audiences connected with the message this movie was sending through it’s lead actor and director, praising the duo for creating the message they did with this movie (Barbie – Main Trailer 2023).
Wicked commentary takes on a similar tone but it also praises the underestimated powerhouse duo of Ariana Grande (Galinda) and Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba) in the lead roles. The story of Wicked is a female strength driven story, similarly to Barbie, but given it is a musical there is a necessity for a different type of talent on the part of the actors to portray the roles. When casting was announced, many were surprised at the casting choices. Ariana Grande, while a household name in the pop music industry, seemed a questionable choice. Cynthia Erivo was a relatively unknown actress, and not widely known amongst audiences outside of those who are fans of musical theater. For those “in the know” there was much excitement over her casting and a bit of skepticism over Grande’s casting. However, once the marketing campaign began and clips begin getting released, the tone of commentary for the lead actresses shifted greatly to almost nothing but praise for both their individual performances as well as the chemistry between them. Among the comments of the trailer on YouTube there is praise for both actresses in their commitment to their roles and honoring of the original Broadway portrayal of their characters. Grande is praised for putting in the necessary training to achieve the distinct soprano operatic style singing for Galinda, a choice that also brought with it much criticism. Meanwhile Erivo is praised for bringing a rawness to Elphaba and making the role her own in the slight vocal changes during iconic Elphaba moments, such as the “Defying Gravity” war cry. Both Grander and Erivo have a quieter “star presence” than say Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, but it was no less impactful for the marketing and success of the movie (Wicked – Official Trailer, 2024).
Viral Content
In today’s digital age, going viral is the goal of many content creators. Going viral means more views to your content and often times more money generated from those views and interactions. Creating viral moments, while not entirely the sole goal of a marketing campaign, can certainly help generate interest in the product.
In the case of Barbie for example, the moments that went viral during the marketing campaign were the red carpet outfits, particularly those of lead actress Margot Robbie. Throughout the press tour for the movie, Robbie wore different iconic Barbie doll outfits as her red carpet looks. These included the iconic black-and-white pinstriped bathing suit, and a black elegant evening dress, which were both early outfits for the Barbie doll. Once it was picked up on that Robbie was recreating the doll’s outfits, there was a lot of anticipation over what outfit she might wear next and when it was all over, many articles were written about her iconic looks (Desk, 2023).
This type of dressing for the occasion is something that has been seen amongst many movie stars in recent years, including the Wicked press tour. There was a lot of pink and green that made appearances but Grande and Erivo took this trend in a more interpretive style. Grande’s outfits featured a lot of pink of course, but also ball gown style dresses and lots of looser, flowy, lighter colored outfits, fitting with the visual look of her character Galinda. By contrast Erivo wore dark greens or blacks or bold colors, featuring sharper designs, or intricate architectural designs on her dresses, as well as featuring hats as part of her outfits, all reflecting the contrast of her character Elphaba against Galinda. Similarly to Barbie’s press tour, the internet ate up the creativity in the press tour outfits for Wicked (Thomson, 2024).
While this trend of dressing for the occasion did feature slightly for the Deadpool & Wolverine movie, it was not nearly as prominent of a feature. Rather the viral content this marketing campaign created lie in the abundance of social media posts done by Reynolds and Jackman. For their press tour, the lead actors often paired up for joint appearances, including on viral internet shows like “Hot Ones”, which has become a staple appearance for celebrities in recent years, as well as talk shows. Fans wanted to see the pair together as much as they could and the marketing team took that into account when organizing the press tour (Ravilova, 2024).
Cross Promotion
Cross promotion is a key feature of any marketing campaign, not just movies. Cross promotion will often benefit both parties making it an attractive opportunity. In the case of movies, this can take the form of featuring movie images on cereal boxes, special limited edition items, themed toys or clothing, and many, many more options. If you are willing to be creative the possibilities are endless.
For Deadpool & Wolverine, they had an extensive list of brands they did cross promotion with. These brands including, Aviation gin (owned by Ryan Reynolds), Heinz, Xbox, Adidas, DiGiorno pizza, Heineken, The Bachelorette, Old spice and the list goes on. There were so many it is hard to keep track of. The range of brands the movie team worked with shows that they were willing to try just about anything, and they got creative with it and many leaned into the R rated content of the film (Ravilova, 2024).
Wicked also went very heavy with the cross promotion, with a range just as wide as Deadpool & Wolverine. The marketing team for Wicked wanted to be in your face about their product, there was merchandise everywhere and for everyone. In their case, they knew the genre of a movie musical is much less universal than say a superhero movie, however they believed that their movie could be marketed to anyone and had the potential to connect with a wide audience (Rubin, 2024).
The cross promotions for Barbie were a little less prominent in their marketing strategy ,but the did exist nonetheless. The merchandise related to the film tended to be more subtle and simple and fit more of a general “Barbie-core” aesthetic than boldly branded for the movie. This aesthetic a lot of fans adopted during the summer of 2023 around the release of the movie seemed to sway clothing companies to develop very Barbie-core color palettes for clothing or reminiscent styles of outfits worn in the movie. The biggest cross-promotion element to the marketing of the movie however was the fan driven phenomenon of “Barbenheimer” which did simultaneously promote both movies (Barbie The Movie, 2025).
Discussion
What can be seen in this analysis is there are specific elements to a marketing campaign that will lead to a successful campaign when utilized. These elements include utilizing the star power of the movie. Often actors are cast in a role specifically due to the star power they have or could potentially have for the movie. They are cast with the purpose of bringing people in to see the movie when it is released. It is also important to utilize cross promotion opportunities, but it is important to tailor them to your specific movie needs. Not every movie will benefit from having an abundance of cross promotions like Deadpool & Wolverine and that is ok. It is also important to recognize opportunities that may draw in a lot of social media attention. It can be hard to predict what exactly will go viral but a closer and more in-depth look at social media trends and analytics can provide some insight into what the current trends are.
It is also important to remember that these three movies that have been researched here are large budget productions with equally large marketing budgets, therefore they have an abundance of opportunities and manpower at their disposal. A movie with a smaller budget may not be able to do some of the same things these larger movies can. Having a smaller budget can be a limitation but it can also lead to more creativity and more unique content that is tailored specifically to the film.
One unique opportunity a smaller film will have over it’s marketing campaign is the opportunity for the film maker to be more directly involved in the marketing of the movie. With these large budget movies there is a whole separate team, often directly from the large studio distributing the movie, that handles all aspects of the marketing campaign, and the actual filmmaker may get little or not say in how the movie is marketed, and the details that go into the campaign. With a smaller film, there may not be a whole executive team solely for marketing the film. It many cases it may be the same people who made the film who are running the social media account for it. Both of these scenarios are fine, but being the person behind the film production and the marketing can be a large job to take on, and one may not have the time to dedicate to fully running a marketing campaign, but that is not to say it can’t be done.
To understand that aspect of film marketing better further research should be done on how independent films market themselves. Many independent films end up doing film festivals and the filmmakers will pitch the film to various distributors who are present at the festivals. That topic in and of itself could be an entire research project and one worth exploring further. Small budget independent film budgets can range from $5 thousand - $5 million and all of those films would be considered “small budget”, but those numbers are very different. Such a wide range of budgets can be difficult to generalize what will work for one film versus another film with such drastically different sized budgets.
Conclusion
Movie marketing is a very interesting topic because there are so many variables and factors that go into the marketing strategy. It is clear that there are certain factors that are common among many marketing campaigns, but each is utilized and approached differently depending on the needs of the film. Does this mean that there is a formula of sorts for film marketing? I remain unsure. I think there can be a blueprint for understanding strategies that have worked in the past, but with such a fast changing digital landscape these days it can be hard to know what will be successful any given day since the trends change so rapidly and unexpectedly.
There have been a lot of questions over whether the success of movies like Barbie, or Deadpool & Wolverine can be replicated, and I think Wicked is a good example that those two movies can be learned from and not replicated 100% but utilized and adapted to fit the needs of their film.
References
Barbie - Main Trailer. (2023). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBk4NYhWNMM
Barbie The Movie. (2025). Retrieved from Mattel Creations: https://creations.mattel.com/collections/barbie-the-movie?srsltid=AfmBOopI5iC5nSSOsybHMfDfLg-aJFvZ9wg3CESdFBw5nIERaKCABYXm
Deadpool & Wolverine - Official Trailer. (2024). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73_1biulkYk&t=12s
Desk, T. S. (2023). This Barbie Is Now on Strike. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/style/margot-robbie-barbie-premiere-outfits.html
Hudson, E. C. (2024). From Doll to Screen: Investigating PR and Marketing Techniques in the "Barbie" Movie's Global Success. Retrieved from https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/3068
Ravilova, R. (2024). PR Strategies That Made "Deadpool & Wolverine" $1 Billion. Retrieved from LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/issues-4-pr-strategies-made-deadpool-wolverine-1-billion-ravilova-vjije/
Rubin, R. (2023). Inside ‘Barbie’s’ Pink Publicity Machine: How Warner Bros. Pulled Off the Marketing Campaign of the Year. Retrieved from Variety: https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/barbie-marketing-campaign-explained-warner-bros-1235677922/
Rubin, R. (2024). Inside ‘Wicked’s’ Marketing Blitz: How Universal Courted 400 Brands and Spent Big to Guarantee the Musical Was ‘Everywhere’. Variety. Retrieved from https://variety.com/2024/film/features/wicked-marketing-campaign-brand-partnerships-1236222100/
Thompson, H. (2024). All of the standout looks from the Wicked press tour. Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved from https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/fashion-news/g62881617/ariana-grande-cynthia-erivo-wicked-tour-fashion/
Wicked - Official Trailer. (2024). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6COmYeLsz4c
Literature Review
It’s hard to open a social media app and not see some form of advertising. Maybe it is ads for the latest fast fashion brand, maybe an ad for your favorite artist’s new tour or possibly the trailer for a new movie coming out soon. In this paper I look at the ways social media has changed the landscape of marketing for movies and if it is truly effective.
Movie viewing has changed so much in the past few years, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, but more so with the rise of a multitude of streaming platforms, it takes a lot to motivate the average viewer to go see a movie in a movie theater. How do movies do it then? The movies that primarily play in movie theaters now are blockbuster movies that generally have a four-quadrant appeal, also known as tentpole films. That means they appeal to both male and female audiences both above and below the age of 25, are typically rated PG-13 and have a large international potential. These are movies that will bring in the most audience members to a movie theater, therefore bringing in the most box office revenue for the movie. Due to their mass appeal, they are generally easy to market and have large budgets to utilize. In the past decade most tentpole films have been superhero films which have proven to appeal to very wide general audiences and are movies the whole family can come out and enjoy. (Myers, 2020)
These types of movies are produced by one of the major movie studios: Disney, Warner Brothers or Sony, and have massive budgets for the movie and equally large budgets just for marketing. This will give them a financial advantage in the type of marketing campaign they are able to conduct in comparison to an independent film which will typically have a much smaller overall budget. However, this does not guarantee that a blockbuster movie marketing campaign will automatically be better than that of an independent film. There are strengths and weaknesses to any social media campaign, and any film is subject to the same types of pitfalls, which I will outline in this report.
In the case of film marketing there are four types of media a movie strives to hit: paid media, earned media, shared media and owned media, otherwise known as the PESO model. Any type of media produced during a marketing campaign will fall under one of those categories (Hudson 2024). Paid media is the most common type of media we associate with marketing or promotions. This would include trailers, billboards, posters, interviews, press tours and other advertising that is displayed publicly. The amount and quality of paid media will vary depending the marketing budget set aside for the movie. In the case of Barbie, the marketing budget was reported as $150 million while the production budget for the film was $145 million (Rubin, 2023).
The Barbie movie was the highest grossing movie in 2023, while certainly this fact is astonishing it is not entirely unexpected. Barbie was one of the most anticipated movies of the year and with the extensive social media buzz surrounding the movie it is not surprising the public came out to see the movie in theaters. It showed the movie industry that despite the continual decline in movie going post COVID-19, if given the right movie, with the right marketing, people will still go to see a movie in a theater in large numbers like they had before the pandemic. But what was it about the Barbie movie that brought people to the theater? Like the fascination with super hero movies throughout the past decade, Barbie brought to life a widely popular toy that already has a large built-in fan base. The doll has been around since 1959, which means there have been generations worth of Barbie playing that continues to today, and Barbie has evolved over time to represent a world a possibilities to young girls, a message which is still very needed in today’s world. The movie rightfully uses that same message, showing that Barbie can be whoever she wants to be, and she’ll be stronger because of it. That message was also throughout the marketing campaign for the movie. With each individual Barbie and Ken character getting their own poster with different taglines on each that describe each character (Hudson, 2024).
The social media campaign for Barbie is a great example of a movie utilized the PESO model. It had extensive paid media in posters, trailers, cross promotion with other brands and press tours. Barbie also took full advantage of it’s owned media, which in their case was the doll the movie is based on. However, the area that Barbie excelled the most in would be the earned media category. Earned media refers to media exposure that is naturally grown amongst the fans. This media included a development of “Barbie core” fashion. Fans picking out outfits what outfits they would wear when they went to the movie, typically a lot of pink or bright fun colorful outfits. Going to see the movie was being treated as a similar type of event like that of going to a concert would be, involving coordinating with friends to buy tickets and plan outfits. This type of event dressing became popular in the last couple of years alongside the Taylor Swift “The Era’s Tour” where fans dressed up in specific themed outfits for the concert and subsequently the concert movie which came out just a few months after Barbie (Rubin 2023).
The biggest element of earned media for Barbie would undoubtedly be the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon that spread like wild fire across social media. “Barbenheimer” celebrated and hyped the same day releases of Barbie and Oppenheimer in 2023. The two movies are so visually and tonally polar opposites that fans had a field day creating memes and outfits for each film that were polar opposites of one another (Hundson, 2023). Fans also began debating which movie to see first in a double-header viewing. The amount of hype generated from the fans in this scenario did just as much if not more for the promotion of both films and brought in audiences for each that were not the targeted audience. For the Barbie movie the target audience was predominantly female, a given with the bubblegum pink aesthetic and strong focus of feminine strength. By contrast, Oppenheimer, a Christopher Nolan film is a serious biopic about the creation of the worst invention of mankind and a dark moment of US history. The target audience was predominantly male and those who are fans of auteur films. As a result of the “Barbenheimer” hype on social media, both movies experienced more tentpole-like audiences because the films themselves became one big “event” for fans (Mitchell, 2024). A smart marketing campaign takes advantage of this type of fan-built momentum and, instead of pushing against it or ignoring it, embraces it to further build the hype surrounding the film (or films in this case). In the case of “Barbenheimer” the actors of both films embraced it and cheered on the public enthusiasm for both films and showing support for the other film. This type of hype and anticipation for a non-franchise movie is not something that has occurred for a long time. Most “event” films are part of a larger franchise like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars, so it is a testament to the marketing campaign for Barbie that the movie was treated like and had the reception of a large franchise movie.
Another recent movie that had a very successful marketing campaign was the Deadpool & Wolverine movie that released one year after Barbie. This campaign is worth looking at due to the overwhelming success of particularly the social media campaign. One main highlight of this campaign is the natural camaraderie of lead actors Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. With the two being naturally very comedically talented, it fit right in with the tone of the movie, which the marketing campaign adopted (Ravilova, 2024). The marketing campaign matched the over-the-top nature of the Deadpool character and his “merk with a mouth” chrematistics and leaned into the dysfunctional couple dynamic that exists between the two lead characters. The juxtaposition of the costume colors red and yellow became synonymous with marketing for the movie. This included a memorable cross promotion between the movie and Heinz referencing the classic duo of mustard vs ketchup.
Part of the appeal of social media, particularly for marketing purposes, is that it can potentially reach a worldwide audience. It can reach an audience that may not be the target audience for a film, bringing in new audience members to the theater. Social media allows users to share content to their friends or their followers, broadening the field of potential movie goers, this is referred to as shareable media. It can take the simplest form of one user sharing the trailer they see online to a friend of theirs, who then might send it to another friend and so on. Shared media also refers to promotional collaborations with various influencers who share their reviews of a movie or show off special promotional swag they receive. Shared media can also include the creation and use of a promotional filter that can be shared and used between users (Hudson, 2023).
While the highlights and strengths of using social media for marketing purposes are indeed highlights, there can be negatives as well. The benefit of having a wide reach to the public can bring with it a wide range of criticism. An issue many social media users, particularly companies, brands and public figures face is the ease users have to criticize and post negative comments on their posts. It has been established that since the emergence of social media there has been an increase in cyber bullying and unwarranted criticism. Everyone has an opinion, and the perceived transparency social media gives the public creates a sense of comfort for those choosing to attack or criticize online. This criticism can spread like wildfire on the internet and if strong enough can over power the entire promotional run of a movie. This was recently seen with the movie It Ends With Us (2024) that became overshadowed by the criticism on social media of the misrepresentation of the movie’s plot, which was centered around domestic violence, catching audiences, including many survivors of domestic violence, off-guard when they went to see the film. In addition the swarm of reaction and speculation by the public over perceived drama that was seen during interviews during the press tour of the movie. This was further fueled as various accusations of on-set behavior by various parties started leaking to the public (Wise, 2024). Having such a negative narrative surrounding a film will ultimately hurt the film, either in box office numbers or simply in reputation.
Questions I will look at further include what makes up a successful social media marketing campaign? Additionally does social media marketing actually bring people in to the movie theater? Does it improve box office sales? Or will people planning to see a movie still go to a movie regardless of its marketing and vice versa.
References
Audrey Mitchell, A. B. (2024). Barbenheimer. Australasian Journal of American Studies.
Hudson, E. C. (2024). From Doll to Screen: Investigating PR and Marketing Techniques in the "Barbie" Movie's Global Success. Retrieved from https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/3068
McClintock, P. (2024). How Ryan Reynolds and Disney’s Marketing Spell Turned ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Into R-Rated Magic. Retrieved from The Hollywood Reporter: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/deadpool-wolverine-ryan-reynolds-marketing-2-1235977976/
Myers, S. (2020). Hollywood’s New Four-Quadrant Movie Model. Retrieved from https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/hollywoods-new-four-quadrant-movie-model-e7cf94a2e3b8
Predmore, P. A. (2013). Social Media as a Strategic Tool: Going Beyond the Obvious. In Social Media in Strategix Management Advanced Series in Management. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Ravilova, R. (2024). PR Strategies That Made "Deadpool & Wolverine" $1 Billion. Retrieved from LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/issues-4-pr-strategies-made-deadpool-wolverine-1-billion-ravilova-vjije/
Rubin, R. (2023). Inside ‘Barbie’s’ Pink Publicity Machine: How Warner Bros. Pulled Off the Marketing Campaign of the Year. Retrieved from Variety: https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/barbie-marketing-campaign-explained-warner-bros-1235677922/
Tryon, C. (2013). THE TWITTER EFFECT: Social Media and Digital Delivery. In C. Tryon, On-Demand Culture: Digital Ddelivery and the Future of Movies. Rutgers University Press.
Wise, A. (2024). The movie 'It Ends With Us' faces criticism for glamorizing domestic abuse. Retrieved from NPR: https://www.npr.org/2024/08/28/nx-s1-5088075/movie-it-ends-with-us-faces-criticism-glamorizing-abuse
Survey Report
Part 1: Objectives, methodology & logistics
The objective for this survey was to understand how and if social media marketing plays a role in swaying people one way or the other to go see a movie. When studying this topic there is a suggestion that yes, social media marketing plays a role in swaying the public to go see a movie, but exactly how much? On a global scale it must be enough to corroborate this thought, but on a smaller scale it semes less likely.
There are many factors in life now that will prevent any given person from going to a movie theater to see a movie. Therefore it takes a lot of sway to get someone into a movie theater, and in many cases that may not make any difference in whether someone goes to see a movie.
For this survey I asked respondents a short series of questions about whether they see movie ads on social media, whether they are likely to go see a movie after seeing an ad for it, as well as what platform they see movie ads on the most.
The survey was created using Google Forms and distributed online through my social media platforms Facebook and Instagram as well as some direct distribution to family members and friends. With a population of 800, 28 respondents completed the survey, this gives a margin of error of 18.2%.
Part 2: Data findings & research observations
The findings of the survey support the theory that seeing ads on social media does impact movie going tendencies amongst the public. The vast majority of the survey respondents are in their 20s (Fig 1), which is notable and somewhat unsurprising given that younger people are more likely to use social media in a large capacity.
There is a positive outlook that most people see ads for movies on social media (Fig 2). There is a wide range and distribution of which social media platforms respondents see movie ds on. As shown in Fig 4 most respondents say that Instagram is where they see ads the most, followed by YouTube, then Facebook and TikTok. This also reflects the reality of Instagram being one of the most used social media platforms alongside Facebook and TikTok, with many people no longer using Twitter/X. When asked if seeing an ad for a movie would sway them to go see a movie, the results were surprisingly positive. The majority of respondents, 53.5% totally, said they would be likely to go see a movie with only 17.9% saying they would be unlikely. 28.6% however responded “Neutral”, which is a lower percentage than anticipated for that specific response (Fig 3).
It is also interesting to note that the majority of respondents responded “No” when asked if they follow a social media account for a movie (Fig6). This is interesting because the movie Instagram accounts looked at for two movies discussed elsewhere int his paper, the Barbie movie and Deadpool & Wolverine, both accounts have 1.2 million and 3 million followers respectively. Another interesting result of this survey is the responses to the question “What was the last movie you saw in theaters?”. This answer yielded, as expected, a wide range of answers, with some overlap. Several movies are recent releases such as Captain America: Brave New World, Wicked and Sinners, but also movies that were not released in the past twelve months including Barbie and Avengers: Endgame indicating that trips to a movie theater are becoming less frequent (Fig 5). That is a trend that has been growing since before the COVID-19 pandemic but also before then as well.
Part 3: Discussion, conclusion, recommendations for client
Overall, the results of the survey are positive, although not overwhelmingly so, that running social media campaigns do work to bring people in to movie theaters. However, it appears it is not an out of this world impact, and there is likely a wide range of factors that go in to someone’s decisions to see a movie at the theater vs waiting for it to come out on streaming.
In looking at what respondents’ last movies seen in theaters are, the majority of them are larger so-called “event films”, These types of films are big franchise films such as the Marvel movies, or long awaited movies that already have a built-in fanbase such as the Wicked movie or special re-released movies such as the recent Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith rerelease for the 20th anniversary.
This survey, while certainly indicative of larger trends, is only a small, localized sample of movie going trends. The majority of respondents for this survey came from a pool of people living in Western New York, due to the fact that the survey was distributed on the researcher’s personal social media platforms, and the majority of followers are known to live locally. It should be noted that if this survey was conducted again through a wider variety of distribution the results may show different results and trends.
My recommendation to anyone looking to put together a social media marketing campaign, that they consider it one of many options and tools they can use to promote a movie of any size. Utilizing social media to promote movies is an easy way to do so, but it may or may not be the most effective way to do so. This can be especially true if your movie is working on a small budget or in a very localized area where social media visibility may be limited for whatever reason. That said, it would be recommended to look at the type of content that really successful movies have and determine how similar content could be created for your movie.
Fig 1
Fig 2
Fig 3
Fig 4
Fig 5
Fig 6
Appendix
1. Have you gone to see a movie in the movie theater in the past year
a. Yes or no
2. What was the last movie you saw in a theater?
3. Do you see ads for movies on social media
a. Yes or no
4. Do you follow a social media account for a movie?
a. Yes or no
5. On a scale of 1-5 how likely are you to go see a movie after seeing an ad for it on social media?
a. 1. Not likely at all
b. 2. Somewhat unlikely
c. 3. Neutral
d. 4. Somewhat likely
e. 5. Very likely
6. Which social media platform do you see movie ads on the most
a. Instagram
b. Tiktok
c. Twitter/X
d. Facebook
e. Youtube
f. Other
7. What is your age range?
a. <18 years
b. 19-30
c. 31-40
d. 41-50
e. 51-60
f. 61+
Final Report
Project Overview
The purpose of this research project is to:
- Look at the benefits of using social media
- Highlight the difficulties and challenges
- Look into the different strategies used in social media marketing
- Understand how audience members interact and respond to social media ads for movies
Literature Review
Social media has many strengths. It can reach a wide audience instantaneously. There are lots of opportunities to create a qide range of content that would appeal to as many demographics as possible. If done well it can lead to fan-led media, anticipation and excitement. It also allows anybody to do it.
Social media also has many weakness. Because it can reach such a wide audience it may not successfully reach target audience. It also opens the door to high levels of scrutiny & criticism. Anyone can see the content and if they don’t like it or find objection to it, they can voice that criticism extremely easy. Additionally, with so many users, it can be difficult to come up with “new” or “fresh” ideas. Social media works best when continuously monitored and engaged with, which can be a challenge to maintain consistently if one has limited man power.
PESO Model
Movies strive to hit all 4 of these categories in their marketing plan.
- Paid Media – posters, trailers, interviews
- Earned Media – “Barbenheimer”, meme sharing, “Barbie-core” outfits/aesthetic
- Shared Media – custom AI filters, influencer partnerships
- Owned Media – official website, social media accounts
Box-office hit movies are treated as events, therefore movies need to market it as such to bring in the most number of audience members.
Content Analysis
The focus of this content analysis is to further understand what components make up a successful social media marketing campaign and whether or not it works and can be replicated or not.
The three components the analyzed are Star Power, Viral Content and Cross Promotion. The three movies I analyzed are: Barbie (2023), Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), Wicked (2024). Each movie’s marketing campaign share elements of each of these components. When analyzing the comment section of the YouTube trailers for each movie, you can see examples of strong star power for each of the leads of all three movies. Each actor has their star appeal to audience members and it is clear from the comments that they each are able to draw in audience members for a variety of reasons.
Each movie was able to create a range of viral content that was unique to each movie. Deadpool & Wolverine demonstrated the appeal of utilizing the humorous R-rated tone of the movie along with the nature comedic talent of the lead actors. Wicked and Barbie created viral content by following a trend of dressing on theme for the press tour. This created the sharing of content amongst users and waiting to see what would be worn at the next press event.
For cross promotion all three movies took part, some more boldly than others. Deadpool & Wolverine and Wicked both acquired long lists of cross promotions with various brands and products, showcasing a wide range of ambition and confidence in their marketing strategy. Barbie kept their cross promotion a bit more subtle and less wide ranging, choosing to rely more heavily on the other marketing strategies.
Survey
The purpose of this survey is to understand how social marketing translates to audience members. In other words, dose using social media work to market a film?
The survey was created using Google Forms and was distributed on my social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. The margin of error was calculated to be 18.2%
The results showed that the majority of respondents are influenced positively by seeing ads on social media and that it does lead to them seeing movies in a theater. It also shows that most movies resspondents see in the theatsr are large box office “event” films which is indicative of larger trends seen throughout the industry.
This survey was produced using a very limited sample and therefore cannot be used without scrutiny, however I believe it does show that yes using social media to market a film does work. But it is important to keep in mind that it is not the only means of marketing a film.
Conclusions
There are pros and cons to using social media for marketing purposes. Social media marketing can have a profound impact on a movie marketing campaign, however, it should not be the soul method used. Analyzing previous successful campaigns can yield many insights into what works and what doesn’t but also remember big budget movies have big budget marketing campaigns.
Recommendations
1. It is important to utilize the tools at your disposal.
2. Tailor it to your project
3. Get creative and think outside the box
4. Keep in mind the limitations of your budget, it will make a difference to what you can achieve