What do Loki, Ron Burgundy, and Typhoon Relief have in common?
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Image Source: Anchorman Movie Tumblr
Ask those cute AT&T kids who they think is the better superhero, Thor or Loki? Ron Burgundy selling Dodge Durangos? Using a movie promotion budget to instead make a disaster relief film? These are just some of the innovative ways we saw movies were marketed in 2013. Cinema marketing took a huge cannonball leap into the social media pool last year, making us think about integrated campaigns in a whole new way.
Thor and AT&T
Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki in Marvel Comics’ Thor, spoofed AT&T’s “It’s not complicated” commercials, asking the kids who they thought was a better superhero, Thor or Loki. Not surprisingly, the kids all chose Thor (with sound reasoning that Thor knocks over bad guys with his hammer). The YouTube video has over 5 million views, making it quite the social media success.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Anchorman 2 completely steals the show for social cinema marketing. Ron Burgundy has been seen in almost everything, from truck commercials to authoring Huffington Post op-eds to an endless supply of memes. The cornerstone to all these marketing efforts has been Tumblr, with animated GIFs helping Ron go viral through Tumblr reblogging, tweets, and Facebook shares.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty took integrated campaigns to a different place, by doing some social good instead of just simply promoting the movie. Director Casey Neistat (of the world’s most expensive video travel journal fame, sponsored by Nike) was offered a job promoting The Secret Life of Walter Mitty just a few days after the disastrous typhoon hit the Philippines. The idea behind the promotion was “Live Your Dreams” – to motivate and inspire people to do something they’ve never done. He agreed on the condition that he would spend the whole budget helping people in the Philippines. While the video seems a bit self-promotional at times, the team was able to supply 10,000 meals, as well as supplies and medicine.
What other campaigns have gotten your attention? Let us know in the comments below!