Has Deadpool Set A Brilliant Or Dangerous Precedent For Future Superhero Marketing?
When you hear the word “X-Men”, what comes to mind? Wolverine, Magneto, Professor X – or maybe just Hugh Jackman. If so, you might be a little surprised to find out that none of these individuals are a part of the highest grossing domestic X-Men film. So, who is?
His name is Deadpool.
To say that February was the month of the “Merc with a Mouth” might be a bit of an understatement. In only 10 days, the film became the highest grossing X-Men film domestically, surpassing both X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: The Last Stand (and only the third rated-R film to pass $300 million domestically). How did this relatively unknown “superhero” (he’s more of an antihero) suddenly emerge as “the one to beat” in the same year as superhero juggernauts, Batman v Superman and Captain America: Civil War? Two words: viral marketing.
Since the fall of 2015, the Deadpool marketing campaign has been one of wonder. Targeting every demographic with utmost precision, from comic-book lovers to sports fanatics to reality television viewers, Deadpool’s relentless yet perfectly paced marketing campaign resulted in the highest grossing R-rated opening of all time. With a character known to break the fourth wall, there was little Deadpool could do wrong, whether it be playing up to fans of The Bachelor, employing emoji road signs, bringing awareness to Australia Day, or even running a chimichanga truck during the Super Bowl, audiences ate it up. The film is an example of how clever and strategic marketing can elevate a B-list character and turn him into the next global phenomenon. With so much success, one could expect many movie studios to be looking at the Deadpool marketing campaign as a template for their future projects. However, this may be the wrong lesson to take away.
Deadpool has been a project 10 years in the making, including a failed appearance in the critically panned film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. From that movie, it became clear that executives of 20th Century Fox saw Deadpool as an unprofitable property that strayed from bankable characters such as Wolverine and Magneto, and lacked the star power of a Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen. Actor Ryan Reynolds has come out stating how studio executives did not quite understand the concept of Deadpool, which resulted in the failed experiment seen in X-Men Origins.
Recently, 20th Century Fox once again made the top headline of many movie sites for its infamous destruction of the new Fantastic Four, attributed to studio meddling. With a history of movie intervention and detachment from properties, it’s a wonder that Fox green-lit Deadpool in the first place. Now that Deadpool has proven to be a critically acclaimed success story, you can count on many of these same executives to be looking for ways to replicate and recreate the magic of Deadpool. We may be looking at a future where more and more superhero movies are rated-R and have massive cross-media marketing campaigns that include reality show references and late night appearances.
Studio executives often look solely at ways to achieve monetary gains, with little consideration for the quality of their product and its source material (I’m looking at you, Fantastic Four and X-Men Origins). While it’s certainly not wrong to think “money first”, studios that take time to invest in the quality of their product have been exponentially more successful, such as Marvel Studio’s crown jewel: Marvel’s The Avengers. Given Deadpool, a rated-R superhero film performed so well, studios may naturally assume that it will benefit them to create more R-rated blockbusters. With Deadpool’s highly effective marketing blitz, many may see it as the new model for future superhero films. While expanding marketing to all forms of social media is a very smart tactic, studios fail to recognize that Deadpool is a special case, even among comic book properties. As an individual characteristically known for breaking the fourth wall and communicating with the audience, the marketing campaign was tailor-made for him. Other properties would not be able to use the same format simply based on the fact that they are not Deadpool. The success of the marketing campaign was not simply because of the inside jokes and real world references, but because of its faithfulness to the character – a character free to make as many obscene jokes and one liners as possible, with no regard for any boundaries that may have been overstepped. Not only was the marketing a perfect representation of the “Merc with a Mouth”, but the film delivers on it as well, preserving the core essence of the character.
Deadpool’s marketing campaign has been widely regarded as one of the best ever, however an attempt to emulate these same strategies with another property would most likely fail to garner similar traction with the audience – the absurd, brash, and extreme campaign is uniquely his. Deadpool offers a breath of fresh air in the face of the barrage of superhero films we will come to see every year. Witty, crass, and an all-around badass – Deadpool truly is “A New Class of Superhero”.
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Erwen (Alex) Zhu is an intended Business Major at the University of California Berkeley and writes as a millennial voice for marketing, social media, and entertainment.
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This post is part of the @MillennialIdeas series from the Marketing Thought Leadership course at UC Berkeley taught by Forbes 30 Under 30 and LinkedIn Top Voice, Tai Tran. #StudentVoices