Marketing Success For Star Wars, This Is Not The Last To Come
Here we go again, the newest Star Wars trailer. The Last Jedi. Five million views on a single post on YouTube (at least by April 17th, 2017). The collective view count on all the videos, I’m sure, stretching into the billions. And we are not even close to the actual release yet. The rebirth of Star Wars is, and will continue to be, a massive phenomenon which will stretch for years to come. And, it is a perfect illustration of great marketing tactics and the effects of the self-perpetuating machine referred to as “hype”.
Because it is not just a trailer. It is not just articles on the topic. It’s not just a new movie. It is an interconnecting series of pieces building on each other. Marketing stacked on marketing, stacked on further marketing.
Let’s break this down, as these steps, though not always perfectly following this order, and, in fact, often seem to happen simultaneously, leads to Star War’s continuous success.
First off, and one of the first real steps: the name dropped. Fell right on the media landscape. “The Last Jedi” is not only a cool title, it invites speculation. Making people wonder what a title like that could mean. And the internet’s and the physical world’s guessing at that meaning, already gets the news circulating.
Then there were videos and articles from a single picture, a single leaked bit of data. The hype already rising.
But, like The Force Awakens, once the trailer goes out: things get insane.
Marketing Like This Is More Influential Than Any Jedi Mind Trick
Three days ago, at time of writing, The Last Jedi’s trailer popped into the internet. And from that alone, the following burst into existence, almost as an automatic response: news articles, video dissections, copies of the video, think pieces, forum discussions. And all of it. ALL. OF. IT. Gets shared around the internet. The marketing is so powerful it sweeps through in a moment.
And, what’s even more spectacular, and truly a product of our media-soaked place in history, is that the people who talk about these sorts of things, will further promote the marketing of a product because talking about it, is a way to get attention for themselves. YouTube videos about Star Wars, for instance, get views.
I mean, I’m using this tactic right now. In front of your eyes. I’m writing a Star Wars article, because I know that’s the hot thing right now, and you are likely to read on that premise alone. And I, and you, and anyone who shares, likes, or even mentions this article to someone, is helping market Star Wars indirectly.
People refer to aspects of the internet as an echo chamber. But, it is also an echoing source of power. As in, it takes what is already happening, and conflates it so fast and to such a huge amount, that the world knows about it in minutes, perhaps even seconds.
A scandal can ruin a person’s life fast. A single bit of negative press can turn on a person as if they’d done whatever they did in front of the entire world. And the reverse is true as well. A popular thing, even semi-popular thing, across enough eyeballs, will inflate rapidly to a cultural phenomenon.
And, normally, the internet has a small enough attention span to move on from something after the initial rush of attention. Each thing grows and then fades. But…
This is Star Wars we are talking about here. One of the biggest pillars of nerd interest. And a cultural landmark of which few come close to in terms of influence.
So, it’s not going to die down much, it will inflate. And will make Disney so much money, every time. It is a pinnacle of marketing success. The Force, as I said about the first new movie in the trilogy, is strong with this one too.
And, come the third one, it will only be bigger. Even more intense.
So, prepare, and take notes if you see fit. Because this is a master class on marketing. And shows just how high the ceiling of success can be with the right franchises and the right strategies.
If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work on The Hive, or at his website: www.coolerbs.com