Simon Waters on why the marketing campaign for Deadpool & Wolverine is a masterclass in marketing – and why the licensing business should take note.
The marketing campaign for the current Deadpool & Wolverine theatrical is a masterclass in marketing. At the time of my writing, it’s the highest R-rated opening of all time, with a whopping great haul of $444.1m.
It’s not just because Ryan Reynolds owns the marketing company that does all his marketing: Maximum Effort Productions. It’s not just because that same company is also his production company, helping make his movies. Or the fact he founded Aviation American Gin, has an ownership stake in Mint Mobile and, of course, went and bought Wrexham AFC.
Sure, those are big platforms to stand on, but his ventures find success because he’s the epitome of creative engagement. It’s not just a corporate buzzword on a deck.
He allows his brands and ventures to weave and work through him, merging person, personality, product, star, creative and talent into an alchemy of brand engagement.
Engagement. I’ll say it again for effect. If you notice in all the marketing that Ryan touches, it’s designed to engage – not sell. Everything he does is a story: funny, fun, different and irreverent, geared to make you watch longer, discover more, click and become a fan. Regardless of the brand.
Look at how he breaks the fourth wall in Deadpool, and then uses that in the current marketing campaign with Hugh Jackman. You can’t tell if they’re in character, out of character, or somewhere in the middle. It’s creative perfection, balanced so brilliantly so that it never feels off brand or strange.
So, what’s the lesson?
Most of us in licensing have an immediate bias to the deal, not the creative. It’s understandable, we want results. But it’s also a cautionary tale: a deal is just a piece of paper.
When we work with IP owners that understand the power of creating a brand that engages, we see a marked difference in outcomes. Which is why we spend as much time discussing royalty rates and MGs, as we do on helping drive discovery, engagement and conversion.
The patience to engage first isn’t a discipline we talk about much in licensing, but it’s a discipline we all need to become experts in if we want our brands to survive – and thrive.
Simon Waters runs World Builder, a licensing and content brand accelerator, and is the founder of The Licensing Insiders, a connected collective of senior licensing executives who deliver incremental revenue and brand growth for their clients without the overhead of in-house or agency teams.
