Full disclosure: I am a complete and total comic book geek.
The content being created to market the upcoming Deadpool movie resonates with me as I’m very familiar with the character.
But with a little bit of explanation from me, I’m sure that I can show you why the content is great, and what you can learn from it for your own content marketing efforts.
The movie has created content and campaigns for Twitter, Facebook, and email that are exceptional. I’ll look at each one separately below.
Deadpool’s Perfect Twitter Marketing: Now with More Influencer Marketing!
What do you do when you want to market a character like Deadpool, who is beloved by comic book fans but not well-known like Spider-Man? Simple. You get another character to promote him!
The “character” they used to push Deadpool has been the film’s star: Ryan Reynolds. You can think of Deadpool’s use of Ryan as influencer marketing.
At first, the movie’s Twitter account had very few followers. Then Ryan started tweeting about it and @mentioning the official @Deadpoolmovie account:
That tweet was from March of last year! Since then he has been retweeting and @mentioning the account repeatedly. It has been one of the primary ways that the account has grown.
Well, there’s also been some help from other X-universe types along the way:
All of this comes down to a new account, @Deadpoolmovie, using other accounts as influencers to build itself up. This was a coordinated influencer marketing effort on the part of all involved to build the new @Deadpoolmovie account.
The other big move that they made was for a coordinated hashtag: #12DaysofDeadpool. The hashtag was built into an event: the debut of the new red band trailer on Christmas day. A hashtag which has a goal, and great content, can go far:
The entire hashtag campaign was a very well organized affair with 12 exciting days for fans. And, more importantly, 12 days of fierce retweeting to build awareness and anticipation for the movie.
To summarize how the movie has built itself on Twitter:
- They used Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman for influencer marketing to quickly build the main @Deadpoolmovie account. Retweeting and @mentions were used to quickly build the account.
- A well-planned and executed content marketing plan was coupled with a hashtag marketing campaign. The results were pure fun for fans, with retweets being a key way for them to get more Twitter followers.
Influencers, great content, and hashtags are what make Twitter work. @Deadpoolmovie has succeeded greatly in each of these.
Deadpool on Facebook: Where He Brings the Controversy
A successful Facebook account is an essential for any movie, especially those wishing to be big blockbusters.
You can get by with weak Twitter marketing, but Facebook is a must. What’s more, they’ve tapped into what is now the very essence of Facebook marketing: stupid click-bait websites.
Yes, Deadpool has his own “click-bait” style website, Clickpooler.net, which is shared exclusively through Facebook:
- “Seriously, you guys really should win an award. Even if the movie sucks the PR for it has been excellent.”
- “For the record, the Deadpool marketing campaign is perhaps the only time ever that marketing has actually gotten me really excited about an upcoming movie.”
- “If the movie is as good as the marketing for it is, then it’ll be one of the highest grossing R rated movies of all time.”
Those were three comments all in a row from one example of their “click-bait” articles! This is some of the best content marketing that I’ve ever seen, too.
But how does it work? It works by being completely and totally committed to what the movie’s about. The comic book is absurd. It’s silly. The true fans know this and it builds their loyalty even further. As we all know, building loyalty through social media marketing is vitally important.
Then, there’s this:
The movie comes out February 12, Valentine’s Day weekend. They must have been sitting around the marketing team’s desk when someone thought, “Hey! Let’s make a joke about our hunky lead-actor and make it so people think this a romantic movie!”
Wade Wilson is the name of Deadpool in the movie, hence the joke inside a joke. Again, fans are salivating at this, and are telling their friends, so the Deadpool Facebook page “likes” are skyrocketing.
Deadpool’s Facebook marketing has shown us some incredibly clever ways to advertise on Facebook. What they’ve done is:
- Take advantage of a trend that’s exclusive to the social platform you’re using. Click-bait on Facebook is huge. They tapped into the trend and capitalized on it by applying their own style.
- Connect with the deepest part of your fan base. You will always have a hard time getting the attention of casual fans. The core of your fans, the ride or die followers, will only pay you back ten-fold if you give them exactly what they want. That’s why modern superhero movies are so successful now, and Deadpool is taking that to a new extreme.
Deadpool on Facebook has succeeded wildly for being such a niche movie. The marketing team has exceeded everyone’s expectations by delivering perfect content in a perfect way with their click-bait titles and joke movie promotions.
Deadpool Goes Email: Welcome to #DeadpoolCore
Never in my life have I signed up for the email marketing campaign of a movie. But this is Deadpool. I saw the movie’s Facebook account pushing this and I knew what I had to do:
I signed up and was immediately given access to some exclusive content. Since then I have been sent pushes to buy tickets when they were released, and this piece of way too funny content:
The movie’s marketers responded to fans wanting him to jokingly run for president! Not only did they do that, but they stuck with one of the core elements of the character: He’s Canadian! He can’t be president of the USA!
The marketers are once again keeping true to the character and delighting the hardcore fans. If you’re not doing this yet, if you’re not tapping into the full potential of your most fervent brand evangelists and are trying to appeal to everyone, you’re going to fail.
How Deadpool’s Online Marketing Succeeds
Online marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, none of these things are about appealing to a large and faceless audience. They’re about appealing to the core of your fan base and letting them do your marketing for you. The Deadpool movie team has done this, and all of their retweets, shares, comments, praise, and likes are well deserved.
Going forward, you need to think more about that person who is going to see your content, on any platform. You need to think about what will motivate them to comment, share, and tell their friends all about you in a flurry of excitement.
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