EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures is putting forth the biggest promotional campaign to date during the pandemic for any major studio wide release with Spider-Man: No Way Home; the global brand marketing value seeing $202M and a billion-plus reach.
While that dollar figure is the second highest for a Sony webslinger movie after 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home which touted $288M in media value, it’s more than double that of Disney’s Eternals $100M promo push, which was previously the highest for an MCU movie this year.
The most lucrative anchor to any tentpole’s promo campaign is an automobile partner, and this time around Sony has Hyundai for Spider-Man: No Way Home, taking over Audi’s parking spot, which was the key vehicle brand for Spidey over the last two movies. Hyundai Motor’s all-new IONIQ 5 and all-new Tucson are making their Hollywood debuts in Spider-Man: No Way Home with an integrated marketing campaign that includes a global TV commercial, directed by the pic’s Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland and Jacob Batalon. There’s also a variety of digital promotional activities across all dealerships, online, social media and stunts in 35 global markets. Hyundai also made an appearance at Monday’s global premiere in Westwood.
However, a huge pivot here in the promo push for Spider-Man is Sony’s big splash in the online, social and gaming community. Sony has been capitalizing on speaking to this sector for quite some time, attributing the over-indexed performance of Blake Lively’s The Shallows to digital ads that clicked with millennials (that 2016 pic then opening to $16.8M domestic and grossing over $119M WW).
But if you wanna reach alotta people around the globe, there’s no better partner than TikTok which feasibly counts a community of a billion-plus. TikTok hosted the live stream at Monday’s premiere, but there were also in-film placements as well as the launch of The Daily Bugle TikTok account featuring exclusive custom content and JustMaiko, a TikTok creator, who makes a cameo in the movie. TikTok is also finding ways for further fan engagement with the No Way Home portal effect, soundtrack videos with the pic’s Michael Giacchino film score. Social media analytics firm RelishMix reports that No Way Home has already 50 billion video views on TikTok, with the pic’s account counting 334,5K followers while the Daily Bugle has over 923K.
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♬ SpiderMan No Way Home in theaters December – The Daily Bugle
Heading into opening weekend, which is looking at $150M-$200M domestic after an anticipated $100M first day, Spider-Man: No Way Home counts 1.23 billion social media followers in YouTube views, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter per RelishMix. That social media swath bests the 1.1B of Spider-Man: Far From Home as well as previous December event film openers Star Wars: The Last Jedi (795.6M social media universe, $220M opening) and 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (669M social media universe, $177M opening). YouTube is Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s biggest driver on social with 792.5M views, +91.3M views from Far From Home. Also we can’t ignore the enormous footprint from No Way Home‘s cast: Zendaya adds 152.4M to the mix with a cast at 253.9M which is only 21% of the entire 1.23B SMU. Activation levels are strong especially for Tom Holland at 57.8M, Jon Favreau at 8.4M, Jamie Foxx at 26.9M, Marissa Tomei at 2.7M and Benedict Wong at 522K.
Another global partner is online videogame Fortnite, which has over 400M registered accounts. Fortnite featured MJ as well as two new Spider-Man Outfits from Spider-Man: No Way Home in addition to several new Spider-Man themed updates in the game. Peter Parker and MJ also introduced Fortnite’s “Winterfest” in-game celebration to players around the world.
Another worldwide collaborator is premium electronics brand Asus: Republic of Gamers (ROG). Asus is featured in several scenes in the film including Ned’s laptop. The brand also supported the sequel with a “Superpower your gaming experience” campaign with billboards and public transportation ads, print, online, e-commerce ads, social media and retail presence across 20 global markets.
PUBG Mobile, one of the world’s top mobile games with over 1 billion accumulated downloads worldwide, created a fully immersive Spider-Man integration with in-game props and avatars as a non-player character. The campaign is supported through online ads, custom digital spot, in-app banners, social media, a live-stream tournament and global press coverage across 26 global markets.
Stateside, Spider-Man: No Way Home reps the first film marketing partnership for Liberty Mutual Insurance. Television and digital spots are running nationally, and they created a stunt in NYC transforming a local newsstand into the Daily Bugle with distribution of a real-world limited edition Daily Bugle newspaper to give readers a taste of the fictional destruction coming to NYC in the sequel. Liberty Mutual will also be transforming the cover of the New York Post.
U.S. beverage partner for the Jon Watt’s directed movie is G FUEL with their new sugar-free energy drink, G FUEL Radioactive Lemonade. The sequel was splashed across limited-edition packaging available in three new Spider-Man suit designs, all of which appear in the film.
Among No Way Home‘s multi-market partners are Xiaomi, one of the world’s top smartphone electronics companies which has established the consumer platform AIoT (AI+IoT). They’re launching an imagery campaign boosted by digital media support and retail presence across 33 international markets.
Kids smartwatch imoo, known for advanced communication and security technology, had a 360-degree marketing campaign that includes outdoor advertising, TV, digital and influencers as well as a retail presence campaign tied to their new smartwatches.
Continental tire manufacturer had their “Super Hero grip” ads with TV & in-cinema spots, outdoor, online display and video ads, print, social media with a retail presence in 5K locations. The German premium tire maker also leveraged existing relationships with sports events that happened during the fall season to further boost the campaign across 22 international markets.
Juice brand Tampico, which is dominant in Latino and Hispanic territories with distribution in 50-plus offshore territories, fired up an on-pack campaign with 30+ million themed bottles across eight flavors and a retail presence in 200K+ locations.
Other partners around the world include, and not limited to: Dr Pepper, Crush Orange, KFC, Papa Johns, Pepsi, 7-Eleven, The Icee Company, Rappi, Giraffas, Go Henry, Vital Premium Water, Skittles, Butterkist, Popz, QQ, Cultura Inglesa, Chunghwa Telecom, and Grab.
“We have teamed up with some incredibly innovative brands, who each bring a fresh and creative approach to push the boundaries on how fans engage with Spider-Man and create cultural moments that can be experienced and shared on a global level,” Jeffrey Godsick, EVP of Global Partnerships and Brand Management and Head of Location Based Entertainment at Sony Pictures tells Deadline. “As technology continues to evolve, so does our approach in working with both new and traditional brands to create innovative and ground-breaking marketing campaigns that are on the forefront of social conversations and engagement.”