The Groundbreaking Campaign Behind ‘Black Panther’
Six Lessons From Marketing That Sold a Movement
Last month, the U.S box office saw a comic book film opening unlike any other: in its first four days, Black Panther raked in $242 million dollars, instantly becoming the top grossing film of 2018. Its earnings now stand just shy of a billion dollars, and the film has gone on to take the highest opening weekend of any Marvel movie, just behind The Avengers in 2012.
According to many commentators, Black Panther’s run has heralded a new age in American cinema, especially after initial earnings blew away projections from both internal and third party industry analysts.
“It’s breaking the models.”
- Elizabeth Frank, AMC VP of Worldwide Programming
The unprecedented success of Black Panther is either surprising or unsurprising for different reasons. From the getgo, it was not an ordinary film, and was unlikely to have an ordinary box office run. Bucking the long-standing convention of caucasian-dominant casts in superhero films, Black Panther is a film created by blacks, starring blacks, marketed by blacks, revolving around a story set in alternate-reality Africa.
“It’s been a long time coming for black people to have a superhero movie that represents us.”
- Jazmine Dudley, Pretty Brown and Nerdy co-founder
But in spite of its central emphasis on attracting black audiences, the film opened to wide attendance: early audiences were 37% African-American, 35% Caucasian and 18% Hispanic. This mass appeal suggests that for Black Panther, the Disney execs behind Marvel have taken the lessons learned from fielding one of the largest media companies in the world and deftly crafted a marketing campaign of unparalleled ingenuity. In this article, we will examine what worked, and why.
1. A Bold Risk
“They didn’t even think of it as a risky proposition and spent just as much on this film as they have previously.”
- Eric Handler, MKM Partners
A recent headline in Fast Company accentuates the most important move on Marvel’s behalf: “The Best Marketing For ‘Black Panther’ Was Making “Black Panther”.
Films with an emphasis on diversity have seen mixed success in recent history: while 2017’s Wonder Woman was well-received and attended, 2016’s female-oriented Ghostbusters has largely been viewed as a critical and commercial failure across the board. Multi-million dollar films are inherently risky investments, and the popularity of the superhero genre suggests that studios prefer tried and true formulae over experimentation, especially when first attempts do not pan out.
But Marvel’s decision to break the mold was rewarded, apparently vindicating the observations of Sonia Thompson, Marketing Strategist at Inc. Magazine:
“The companies that decide to serve these often neglected customer groups have been receiving big paydays as a result.”
Adding risk to risk, Black Panther producer Kevin Feige decided to give the film new blood by choosing director Ryan Coogler, whose first film debuted in 2013. The month of February — situated between the end of holidays and Summer — is also a characteristically slow time for moviegoers, adding yet another layer of difficulty for the studio to overcome. In taking the plunge, Marvel availed itself of an opportunity that few other companies would dare to approach.
2. Going All The Way
“It’s a film of many firsts”
- Variety
Taking a risk and winning big is the timeless myth of good marketing, but every iteration of that myth tends to share something in common: it’s all or nothing. When MGM attempted a last ditch effort to save its studio in the late 1950s, it did so by producing Ben Hur, the costliest — and also most successful — film of its day.
Likewise, Marvel did not stop short in its efforts to embody the spirit of Black Panther with a diverse cast, but involved diverse creatives at every step of the way. Coinciding with film’s announcement in 2016, the company recruited African-American author and public intellectual Ta-Nehisi Coates together with with African-American comic artist Brian Stelfreeze to produce a new graphic novel adaptation of the Black Panther franchise.
Prior to the film’s premiere, Marvel also released musical tie-in Black Panther: The Album featuring rapper Kendrick Lamar, responsible for the film’s soundtrack. The album took first place on the Billboard 200 album chart the week of its debut, making for a smart decision in and of itself.
Even the film’s Superbowl short was helmed by Shauna Williams, one of only a few women of color to ever produce a Super Bowl ad. Walton Isaacson, the ad agency responsible for the short’s production, is notable for its founder, black advertising guru Aaron Walton.
3. An Early Start
“We did a poll at the end of the year and people told us overwhelmingly that this was one of the top movies they wanted to see in 2018. They were so passionate about it.”
- Chaya Rosenthal, Sr. Marketing Director at Alamo Drafthouse
If observers would like to distinguish between Black Panther, and less successful attempts at diverse filmmaking, there are many places to look. Creating early excitement is definitely high on the list.
Rather than waiting for the project to move into production, Marvel started a conversation about the film and its meaning with audiences as early as December 2015, in Empire magazine. There, producer Kevin Feige succinctly touched on the film’s multilateral significance both as a work of art, a political statement, and a necessary stepping stone in the Avengers franchise.
Marketing Professor at the University of Maryland Henry Boyd III sees this early announcement as a critical step in Black Panther’s success:
In certain enclaves, where Black Panther was already beloved and larger-than-life, there was immediate chatter. “There was this excitement. People were saying, ‘Hey, they’re really going to do it. They’re going to put this movie together,’” Boyd says in an excited whisper.
By the time that a trailer for the movie was finally unveiled at the 2017 Comic-Con, excitement had reached enough pitch that it was met with a rare and remarkable standing ovation.
4. Market Segmentation
“The biggest thing for the campaign was really super-serving black moviegoers while also making it the broadest moviegoing event”
- Asad Ayaz, marketing executive at Disney
On the surface, it is easy to discern the central target audience for Disney’s sprawling campaign: America’s underrepresented black movie-goers. However, this is a very broad brush for advertising, and in practice, the company approached a few subgroups of the demographic in different ways. Consequently, word of mouth and buzz reached less directly targeted groups.
A month prior to its trailer unveiling at Comic-Con, Disney released its first teaser to viewers of the NBA Finals. This was a good decision not only because NBA viewership peaked at 20.1 million in 2017, but also because NBA viewership skews towards African-American males by 63%.
Children have always constituted an important demographic for Marvel feature films, and this market was tapped in other ways. Not only did Disney discretely support grassroots efforts to raise money for underprivileged children to see Black Panther, but also partnered with Hasbro to promote a toy line that also boosted childrens’ awareness of the movie.
Disney also noticed a spike in interest from the female demographic under 25; in addition to its African-American cast, Black Panther is noted for its many Women of Color in strong female roles. To tap this market segment, Disney Consumer Products organized the “Welcome to Wakanda: Fashion for the Black Panther Era” timed to coincide with New York Fashion week. Its worth noting that the release of Black Panther has sparked demand for traditional African clothing.
As mentioned earlier in this article, while Disney targeted a narrow demographic to promote Black Panther, actual viewership extended past the African-American community. Boyd argues that this should be interpreted as a byproduct of successful market segmentation:
[When] you have a great product, and you win over that target audience, they will tell other people. They become your acolytes. And that’s what happened here.
5. Differentiation
“The look and feel and timing of the marketing was extremely effective. It announced that this movie was different.”
- Patrick Corcoran, VP of the National Association of Theater Owners
The creativity that Disney showed throughout the marketing of Black Panther is exemplified by its unlikely partnership with Lexus, a risky move that eventually paid off for both parties.
Prior to production, while Black Panther was still in its writing phase, Disney began the partnership which involved — among other things — product placement in key scenes and the development of a tie-in commercial.
It’s also the second time on record that a car manufacturer was also involved in the development of a comic book, Lexus Black Panther: Soul of a Machine, an ingenious (if somewhat silly) feat of creative marketing which combines two seemingly unrelated products in a literary vision unifying them both.
6. Social Engagement
“We are going after a younger customer, and just from a demographic standpoint, the younger you go, the more culturally diverse the population gets.”
- Cooper Ericksen, Marketing VP at Lexus
Perhaps the most important step in the Black Panther campaign was successfully tapping technology to facilitate grassroots marketing efforts. Not only can Marvel be commended for the interactive homepage created for the film, but this homepage was tied directly to social media efforts which included the release of character posters that have been interspersed through the text of this article.
Charities and fundraisers across the U.S took to Twitter to raise money for children who otherwise would not have been able to see the film. Notable participants include the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem, celebrities Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis, and NYC Marketing Consultant Frederick Joseph who started the hashtag #BlackPantherChallenge. Within days of his first tweet, the campaign had raised over $40,000 to accomplish its goal.
Marvel actress Brie Larson promoted a similar initiative:
And meanwhile, the reaction of young students at Harlem received thousands of impressions across social media as a heartwarming moment of crowdfunded charity:
Disney’s success in promoting Black Panther comes down to a combination of smart market segmentation, centrally oriented around the African-American community, and a thoroughly consistent application of that principle to product development. Additionally, Marvel utilized its web presence well, recruiting organic interaction through social media and unplanned moments.
Commentators have differed in interpreting the marketing strategy behind Black Panther. Some have seen it as opportunistic or exploitative. A petition on Change.org pleading for Marvel to invest 25% of its profits in the community which made it successful had this to say:
As marginalized groups have become more vocal, corporations and their savvy public relations departments have turned to catering to these groups — to turn a profit — and this film by Marvel Studios is no different.
The petition currently stands a little above 10,000 signatures, which is 5,000 shy of its goal. Meanwhile, other observers have seen Marvel’s strategy as the right way to go about catering to a diverse audience. According to Inc. Magazine’s Sonia Thompson, Black Panther — far from representing exploitation — is business at its finest.
“Black Panther, Wonder Woman, and Fenty Beauty didn’t earn the respect and loyalty of their customers just because they showed up. They are reaping the benefits of their target customers because they delivered products that demonstrated they understood their unique challenges.”
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-Brandon Shutt, Editor at OMI
