EXCLUSIVE: We haven’t seen anything from Marvel in a long time, and you can blame the pandemic directly.
As the greatest hope for a better 2021 occurs with new President Joe Biden looking to deliver 100 million doses of vaccines in his first 100 days, fanboys and girls can finally calm down, as from today, the first series of streaming starring the MCU, Disney + characters WandaVision, finally see the light of day.
It’s been 20 months since Disney released the highest grossing movie ($ 2.8 billion) and the global debut ($ 1.22 billion) of all time with Marvel’s Avengers: Endgameand 563 days since Sony / Marvel’s Spider-Man: away from home hit the big screen. While rival studios are trying to get their heads on both streaming and movie marketing, WandaVision push was designed and implemented by the same theatrical marketing team (led by President Asad Ayaz) at Disney that was behind his successful MCU streak of Avengers Photos, Captain Marvel, Black Panther and more. Ayaz’s team also set up marketing for the first and second season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian. It’s a set that has won big bragging rights: they have the distinction of delivering a global box office record to Disney in 2019 of $ 13.2 billion.
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O WandaVision campaign was one that took about a year and a half to run. Over all of its tentacles, including billboards, digital and TV, an impressive 2.14 billion impressions have been produced.
“In Marvel’s classic MCU form, the WandaVision the launch was fully triangulated across the Marvel, Disney and Disney + ecosystem with a 336.86 million social media universe SMU on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube – with Marvel’s 107.3 million SMU , Disney at 92.3 million SMU and emerging Disney + growing at 9.5 M SMU. WandaVision social reach is light years ahead of most streaming programs with an SMU of 263,000, ”reports RelishMix, a Hollywood social media analytics company.
Marvel done WandaVision official at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, when Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff), Paul Bettany (Vision) and Teyonah Parris (Monica Rambeau) took the stage in Hall H to announce the project, written by Captain Marvel scribe Jac Schaeffer.
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We wouldn’t see a flash of WandaVision again until September 20 last year, which was Emmy night. And while there weren’t many people watching Emmys (6.1M), the WandaVision trailer crash resonated long after the broadcast with 53 million views online in the first 24 hours (18 million views on YouTube), a record for streaming series trailer. If Netflix’s organic and silent menu campaign for The Queen’s Gambit can yield its most watched limited series with 62 million views in 28 days, imagine what the noise created here WandaVision could potentially yield.
“The clear social media driver for WandaVision Awareness and engagement marketing runs on YouTube with over 119 million views, more than double the 53 million since September 22 and the date announcement. The campaign of more than 24 BTS spots, trailers and interviews is fed from Marvel’s YouTube channel (14.8 million subscriptions) and posted on Disney + YouTube (287 thousand subscriptions) and Disney YouTube (5 million subscriptions) ) – all copied and reposted on movie channels, fans and superfans with over 120 videos, all with over 100 thousand views and more ”, says RelishMix.
During the month of November, Disney took a pulsating hit in pushing the streaming series, the first to star in MCU characters. Specifically, there was a Weekly entertainment covers and initial images that debuted online. On November 12, the delivery date for WandaVision was announced on social media with a personalized movement poster. Empire magazine premiered a WandaVision online coverage along with special alternative subscriber coverage.
December was the reward period for the WandaVision campaign with six-decade posters – for the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000 – that were posted online daily from 4 to 9 December to subliminally cause an imminent drop in content, which, of course, was the second trailer, which was revealed during the presentation of Marvel Boss Kevin Feige at Disney Investor Day, December 10. This trailer alone generated about 9 million views on YouTube. A new key reward art was put online immediately.
Although many studios restricted their theater spending on P&A during the pandemic, Disney spared no effort to promote WandaVision through its sister companies in a synergistic blitz. This included not just ads, but special-looking interstitials, shared brand acquisitions, on-air graphic integrations, program integrations and personalized talent content.
Even today, on the series launch day, there is a 15-second spot on the air every hour, along with animated billboards in ABC, ABC O&O, ESPN, ESPN Deportes, Freeform, FX / FXX / FXM, National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild and Hulu. On Christmas Day, there was a special 60-second look during the ABC Disney Parks Christmas Day Magic Parade broadcast. See below:
Separately, as part of Disney’s cross-promotion to WandaVision, there was an ESPN SportsCenter Virtual Set Takeover showing the transformation of the logo over the decades (starting in 1979). There was a personalized social feat from Hulu with director Matt Shakman connecting retro looks from WandaVision for nostalgic hit TV shows. And on FX and FXX, there was almost 20 minutes of programming with the two-minute making of WandaVision.
WandaVision it was also announced in an almost ubiquitous presence on major broadcast hits, including NFL and NBA games, prime time TV, cable and streaming platforms.
WandaVisionThe company’s digital momentum included the launch of its Instagram account, which offered
“Reality bending” grid that updates itself (you can see what we’re talking about here). Custom Twitter emojis include #Wanda, #TheVision and #WandaVision, updated week after week as the season evolves over the decades. There was a “Heart to Remember” launch on Twitter, encouraging users to like that tweet to get reminders when they’re new WandaVision debut episodes. Black and white posters of characters were digitally discarded between 10 and 14 January.
So that top talent and influencers could tweet photos about the series, Disney sent them a TV dinner box that had a personalized TV tray, set of utensils, coasters, glasses and a diary designed to look like a vintage TV guide with a personalized cover. A panel of talent questions and answers broadcast on Twitter yesterday with the Wandavision cast, filmmakers and appearances by other MCU talents.
Although Hollywood films decreased their outdoor presence during Covid, with less traffic and the box office capitals NYC and LA closed, serial poster broadcasting has prevailed in both cities; Wandavision being no exception. If you’re in LA, you’ll see billboards on the Sunset Strip, the Beverly Center, the W Hotel Hollywood and the Hollywood towers; while in New York, you will find motion billboards in Times Square and outside Penn Station.