Marketing is an attractor: A movie, a reunion, and an actor
On the basis of the fact that we have established, we are our own brands, this is going to be an off-beat blog. This is my hypothesis: if actors are brands and companies producing movies are brands, then there’s nothing stopping movies and TV shows to be brands. Fast and furious might be a franchise, but it’s a brand. So is Star Trek, Star Wars, Avengers, The Ellen Show, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and many others. Hence proved. This is a blog from the heart and for all the critiques out there, I welcome you. So let’s begin.
The spotlight of this blog will be on an actor taking the world by a storm and pioneering in the advertising industry like no other. This is an actor who inspired me to write this article within seconds of watching his latest ad. This is an actor that the world might not know as Green Lantern, but he is an actor that the world knows as Deadpool. Let’s talk marketing in the world of Ryan Reynolds.
The Adam Project opened at #1 this weekend on Netflix. Though the movie had mixed reviews, I have got to say, as a movie buff, this was more than just a movie. For those who saw beyond the movie, caught all the references, the reunions, the marketing of at all, and for them it worked like a charm.
Casting has a huge role in marketing
Now The Adam Project might not be the best sci-fi adventure film, but we are not here to talk about it. See, marketing a film is not just about going on tours, putting trailers and interviews, it is also about casting. For a lot of people, that matters. Avengers: Endgame wouldn’t have been the biggest crossover if it wasn’t for “casting”. I’ll do you one better, Spiderman: No Way Home wasn’t the BIGGEST crossover film just like that. Casting matters and is often a great way to promote a movie without doing any promotions at all.
13 going on 30 was the beginning of it all for Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner. Seeing them unite again even for 5 minutes in The Adam Project is a huge play at marketing. Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner play the parents of Ryan Reynolds in The Adam Project. Whoo! Deadpool’s dad is hulk! Guess we know whom he got his talkative mouth from. Not Hulk. That’s a great play, right there.
We are talking about reunions, so let’s keep going. Free Guy, a movie that was a massive success in terms of profit and reviews was directed by the same person as Adam Project, Shawn Levy. Shawn Levy is also in news to direct Deadpool, a source confirmed right after the release of the film. All of this attracts people to watch The Adam Project.
A timeline for The Adam Project
What Ryan Reynolds does is just the icing on the cake. Here’s a timeline:
- A month ago, the teaser for Adam Project dropped on Ryan Reynold’s YouTube channel.
- 3 weeks ago the Adam meets Adam video starring the younger, perfectly cast Adam played by Walker Scobell dropped on his channel revealing the biggest suspense and plot of the movie.
- 2 weeks ago a video promoting the trailer in the most fun and creative way dropped.
- 2 weeks ago the trailer of the movie dropped.
- 8 days ago a commercial for Krafty Kid dropped on his channel. No, this was not a typo. Go ahead and watch it yourself.
- Now, this is my favorite and the best one so far. 4 days ago, a video, promoting the movie starring Mark Ruffalo, Ryan Reynolds and you will never guess who dropped on his channel. You know how everyone’s talking about time travel; how the Avengers time-traveled; how this movie actually is time travel for Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo; and how this movie is also a reference to Back To The Future. Hope you caught the last part of the previous sentence because now you know who is a part of the video. Doctor Emmett Brown “Doc”, from Back to the Future, is a part of this video. If that doesn't say marketing at its best, I do not know what does.
Christopher Lloyd, the 83 year old, Back to the Future star was a part of the video to do what exactly? Definitely not promote the video. The team at Ryan Reynold’s marketing department is brilliant at saying “go watch the film” without actually saying go watch the film. Christopher Lloyd never says watch the movie or The Adam Project throughout the video. Instead, the whole video is about Daylight Savings!
The timing!
Talk about a movie releasing at the right time! I don’t know who thinks these things but got to hand it to them because they are geniuses. A movie about time, releasing on the daylight savings weekend, making a video about it to indirectly promote the movie, and using the OG guy who invented time travel! That is just genius marketing by MNTN and Maximum Effort.
Maximum Effort is Ryan Reynold’s company which was sold to MNTN recently. They know exactly what Reynolds wants and are so good at it that people on Youtube actually enjoy watching those ads. They look forward to Aviation Gin, Mint Mobile, and other Ryan Reynolds ads and have started liking watching advertisements in general, just because of Reynolds.
Ryan Reynolds has been immensely successful at promoting his Gin brand Aviation Gin not only by creating ads for it but also using product placement. Aviation Gin can be seen in The Hitman’s bodyguard, Red Notice, and Free Guy. In one ad, he managed to promote Samsung, Aviation Gin, and Netflix all at the same time displaying the power of cross-promotion. Check out his YouTube for more fun videos!
