How ‘No Way Home’ dominated the social-media marketing game – The Michigan Daily
Writers Note: Spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home ahead.
Today, it is hard to imagine a blockbuster movie hitting the big screen without an extensive promotional campaign. From interviews to ad spots to teasers and trailers, production houses make sure that going into the weekend of its release, everybody is talking about their movie. Having said that, until not too long ago, films didnt consider an extensive promotional campaign a priority, much less a crucial part of their success.
That all changed in 1975 when the marketing team at Jaws released a poster that would reverberate around the world for years. At the time, Jaws looked like it was going to be an expensive disaster, with the movie taking 159 days to shoot, almost three times longer than what was planned, and its protagonist, a robot shark, barely working. In order to rescue what seemed like a lost cause, Universal, the production house behind Jaws, poured over $1.8 million into the films marketing campaign an amount that took its production budget up to $9 million, more than any other movie released that year. The result: It went on to become the first American movie in history to cross the $7 million mark, paving the pathway for how production houses market their movies to this day.
On Jan. 17, exactly one month after its release, Spider-Man: No Way Home beat Avengers: Infinity War to become the fifth-highest grossing movie in the U.S. box office, making more than $650 million. As of Feb. 3, it sits fourth on the list of highest grossing films in the U.S., making over $730 million. Presumably, those $730 million will go a long way towards making up for the reported $202 million spent by Marvel on the films marketing. Although it is commonplace for movies to use the wide range of social media sites at their disposal for promotional purposes, the latest installment in Peter Parkers misadventures pulled out all the stops, raising the question: How much marketing is too much marketing?
The answer varies from one situation to the next, but the marketing campaign for No Way Home most definitely split opinions before its release. Between the movies Twitter and Instagram, the Official Daily Bugle TikTok and the countless interviews, trailers and promo videos posted by Sony and Marvel, fans were treated to a barrage of content in the weeks leading up to the film. In the 40 days before its worldwide release, the movies Instagram made 59 posts, and has made a further 63 since, averaging roughly three posts every two days. Even online communities far removed from the world of comic book movies found the likes of Tom Holland and Zendaya popping up on their screens, with the duo making appearances at the Ballon dOr (aka the Oscars of the soccer world) and even interviewing players from Tom Hollands favorite soccer team. Spidey fan or not, if you were on the internet in the month leading up to the movie, at the very least you heard about it.
There is an argument to be made that such an extensive, in-your-face promotional campaign could discourage some viewers from avoiding them and potentially even the movie entirely. Prior to watching the film, LSA sophomore Arjun Arora said, I havent seen any of the trailers. I dont know anything and I actually like that. Nevertheless, Marvel and Sony were well aware of who made up the majority of their fanbase: the comic book community. A community that thrives on speculation, ardent fans of the webslinger and the Marvel Cinematic Universe welcomed the barrage of posters and movie footage Marvel and Sony sent their way. From YouTube to TikTok, the internet was rife with theories and predictions as fans looked into every frame and charted out every possibility to such an extent that the online community became pseudo marketing officials themselves.
What added to all of the excitement were the leaks an eventuality Marvel and Sony, with all their experience over the years, knew was inevitable. However, the spoilers might have worked to their advantage this time around. People werent complaining about the amount of promotional content being released, because with every piece of content that did not confirm their rumors and suspicions, the anticipation grew. For example, although Alfred Molinas (The Da Vinci Code) return as Doc Ock had been leaked months before any real marketing had begun, Marvel and Sony were still able to capitalize on it. Between this leak and the release of the movies first trailer, fan speculation regarding the return of not only Doc Ock, but a litany of old Spiderman villains, was sky-high. No Way Home obliged, and, with said trailer, confirmed all the rumors floating around, resulting in the most successful opening 24 hours a trailer has ever had. It was the perfect way to kickstart a marketing campaign that would remain flawless from start to finish.
Yes, a set of innovative posters would do the trick. Even in todays time, not every marketing campaign needs to be as in-your-face as No Way Home was, and not every marketing campaign requires the use of social media. However, Marvel and Sony showed just how beneficial it can be to a movies success, commercially and in terms of popularity. Not only that, they proved that if your campaign is well planned, bombarding fans with promotional content isnt all that bad an idea, especially when theorizing is one of their favorite pastimes.Peter Parker may be Public Enemy No. 1 in the Spiderverse, but in the real world, the headlines were loving him.
Daily Arts Writer Rushabh Shah can be reached at rushabhk@umich.edu.
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How 'No Way Home' dominated the social-media marketing game - The Michigan Daily