Now that "Marty Supreme" is out, watched by tens of millions, and has received wall-to-wall praise, it’s easy to think it would have succeeded regardless. But in reality, it had a good chance of becoming one of those films that find success among critics and connoisseurs (yes, that’s us), while flying under everyone else's radar. Production company A24 wasn't going to let that happen. They wanted another success like "Everything Everywhere All At Once," which won seven Oscars and holds a score of over 90 on Rotten Tomatoes.
Wait, first of all about the movie, and if you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for? "Marty Supreme" is a sweeping, fictional cinematic portrait of Marty Reisman (Timothée Chalamet), a Jewish-American ping pong champion from the 50s, representing a generation of charismatic and ambitious Jewish "hustlers". Josh Safdie's film explores the mix of family identity and typical Jewish Chutzpah, presenting a hero struggling to become a cultural icon in a post-Holocaust world during the rise of the American Dream.
That’s why they took no risks, preceding the film's release with a promo campaign that generations of marketers will study. From the fashion world, they adopted the limited edition model, collaborations with cool, rising brands, and pop-up shops. From the worlds of music and gaming, they took the concept of the "drop"-a sudden, early sale of content aimed at creating viral hype and increased demand.
For example, a wind jacket with the movie's title was launched. First of all, the collab-the jacket was designed with the cool Californian brand Nahmias. Phase two, the drop-Timothée Chalamet was seen wearing the jacket in an Instagram video he uploaded-at the end of which he escapes a glass box where he’s trapped, his head inside a giant orange ping pong ball while being bombarded by orange ping pong balls, removes the ball from his head, and walks toward the camera like a gangster, while the wind jacket with the inscription "Marty Supreme" captures the center of the frame. Phase three-celebs take photos, seemingly by accident, wearing the branded wind jacket and share them. Phase four-pop-up shops selling the limited edition jacket open. The hysteria is absolute.
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And it didn't end there, because a few days later, an orange Zeppelin with the movie's title was seen cruising the skies of the United States. People take photos and upload them to social media. The hype builds. At the same time, Chalamet himself was fully invested in the film's quasi-guerilla campaign, blurring the lines between himself and the character, both in look and behavior. For example, he uploaded another ironic video, in which he is on a Zoom call with the film's marketing team, pretending to be a narcissistic, out-of-touch megalomaniac star.
The campaign launched more fashion merch collaborations-a tracksuit and bling. Only then, after two months of such moves, including ping pong tournaments, a trip to Brazil, and other cool stunts, the more traditional marketing began-red carpets and late-night appearances, where Chalamet also showed up "in character" or dressed in orange.
When the movie was released, the hype was at its peak, and it became a crazy box office success. That's how you do marketing.
