Deadpool & Wolverine Executive Summary
Deadpool & Wolverine, a film produced by Marvel Studios, debuts in theaters starting July 26th, 2024. The film is an R-rated action/comedy flick, with a total budget of $200 million. To promote the film, Marvel is running a social media marketing campaign over a six-week time period. The campaign will take place across several social media platforms, and will feature a wide variety of content.
The following are social media goals for this campaign:
- Increase brand awareness by 10% on all social platforms over six weeks.
- Increase brand engagement by 20% on all social platforms over six weeks.
- Grow audience following by 5% on all social platforms over six weeks.
- Drive traffic to online ticket site (Fandango) from socials over six weeks.
Campaign Strategy
For this campaign, the following platforms will be used: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These three platforms are social media staples with large audiences. Facebook and Instagram alone have a combined 5 billion monthly active users (Dixon, 2024). Aside from sheer audience size alone, these three platforms were also chosen for their distinct styles and purposes.
Facebook is a social networking site, often used to keep up with friends and family, as well as with individual interests. It’s a very personalized platform, with lots of opportunities for targeted advertisements, shopping, and niche interests. This makes it a great platform to update Marvel fans on new opportunities, as well as to sell them tickets and merchandise.
Twitter is a microblogging website, meant for short, impactful messages and real-time updates. Twitter is still one of the best platforms to discuss current events on, especially through the use of trending topics and hashtags. This makes the platform an ideal place to hype up a new film on.
Instagram is a content sharing site, meant for posting visually appealing photos and videos. This makes it an ideal platform for sharing promotional clips and graphics, as well as for posting interactive stories for fans.
Target Market
Because these social media platforms are all so different, they also have different target audiences. For this campaign, we will be marketing to distinct target markets on each platform.
For Facebook, we will be marketing toward the older segment of Deadpool & Wolverine’s target audience, primarily men aged 40 to 55. This is an essential audience segment we want to target in our campaign, and Facebook matches up with this segment the best. Out of all of the social media platforms, Facebook is the most popular amongst older demographics (Zote, 2024). Currently, Marvel’s official page on Facebook has 34 million followers.
For Twitter, we will be targeting the millennial segment of Marvel fans, primarily men aged 25 to 35. Twitter is a good choice for the target market, as the platform is primarily made up of 24 to 34 year old men (Zote, 2024). Twitter is also a platform full of those that already have a deep interest in current cultural events, which encapsulates this target segment. Currently, Marvel’s official account on Twitter has 18 million followers.
For Instagram, we will be marketing toward the younger segment of Deadpool & Wolverine’s target audience, primarily women and men aged 17 to 24. This younger segment are going to be the most active out of all of this campaign’s target markets, which makes them essential to marketing efforts. Instagram matches this target market the best, as the platform is primarily made up of 18 to 24 year olds (Zote, 2024). Currently, Marvel’s official account on Instagram has 65 million followers.
In general, the target market for this campaign is young adult to middle aged audiences (17–55), composed of both men and women (but leaning more towards men). In terms of interests, we are targeting audiences that like comedic action movies, comic book characters, and/or superhero films.
Voice
The tone of voice for this campaign will be funny, casual, irreverent, and enthusiastic. We want to be snarky, but upbeat. Provocative, yet witty. Quirky and playful. These are all words that could describe the tone of the film, and we want our social media marketing campaign to match.
Hashtags
The main hashtag that we want to use for this campaign is #DeadpoolAndWolverine. This hashtag will be used across all three social media platforms, in order to tie campaign efforts together and establish consistent branding. This hashtag should be used in the vast majority of posts and marketing efforts. However, a few other hashtags may be used occasionally when referring to specific events or collaborations. For example, #DeadpoolAndWolverineWorldTour for press events, or #WolverinePopcornBucket for the AMC product collaboration.
Partnerships/Influencer Relationships
We will be utilizing many partnerships and influencers in this campaign. Primarily for the “Pre-Event” and “During Event” stages. There are many companies, events, and accounts that would love to partner up with Marvel in order to promote the Deadpool & Wolverine film. We will pick the ones that will be the most relevant/beneficial from a marketing standpoint.
Spotify
We will be partnering with Spotify for the “Pre-Event” campaign in order to create an official Deadpool & Wolverine Spotify playlist. This will hype up the film before its premiere, and engage audiences with the franchise. Links to the online playlist can be shared by both companies’ social media accounts.
Funko
For the campaign, we will collaborate with Funko in order to create Deadpool and Wolverine Funko Pops. This will be for the “Pre-Event”. Fans of the film can see and purchase merchandise online. Funko Pops can be used in marketing materials.
We Rate Dogs
We will be partnering with online influencer @weratedogs on Twitter and Facebook for the campaign’s “Pre-Event”. The account, which rates dogs, can share pictures of “Dogpool” from the film in several paid posts. This will spread the reach of the film’s marketing.
AMC Theatres
For the campaign, we will collaborate with AMC Theatres in order to create a special edition Wolverine popcorn bucket. This will be for the “During Event”. Themed popcorn buckets are currently very popular, and will bring in more people/money for the film. The bucket can be promoted online by both companies.
San Diego Comic ConWe will be partnering with San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) for the “During Event” stage of the campaign. Having an official event at comic con on the day of the film’s official release will add hype and personalization to the event. Content from the con can be shared online, and con attendees can share Deadpool & Wolverine content on their own accounts as UGC.
Post Examples:
References:
Dixon, S. J. (2024, July 10). Biggest social media platforms by users 2024. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/
Vagg, N. (2024, February 16). Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). Get Your Comic On. https://getyourcomicon.co.uk/deadpool-wolverine-2024/
Zote, J. (2024, February 14). Social Media Demographics to Inform Your 2024 Strategy. Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/#facebook