20/03/2024
Sexy, funny, self-deprecating in only the most charming ways possible, but enough about me â letâs talk about how Ryan Reynolds and the marketing team for the Deadpool franchise have shown us that with great power does indeed come great responsibility. (Come at me, nerds!)
First off, unlike âMadame Web 2â, the upcoming third installment of Deadpool is not exactly a difficult movie to market. After literally killing it with Deadpools Uno y Dos, fans are already fiending for any scraps of information they can get their filthy, comic-book-ink-stained mitts on.
The average internet surfer (do we still say surfer?) will scour the online sad-scape in search of even the smallest piece of MCU-related information, hoping to sniff just a whiff of whatever might be served up next from the box-office bakery.
Like Moses through the desert in search of the Promised Land, MCUnephiles are on an ever-vigilant quest for any possible updates from Ryan Reynoldsâ burning bush. And yes, I do mean that literally. After 8 years since the first Deadpool release, and almost a decade of some of the most effective marketing campaigns since the one that convinced Moses there was a Promised Land in the first place, with the upcoming âDeadpool 3â being released this July, you would have to pay most of these dorks to stay away from the theaters.
But just because the Marvel fan base is more engaged than the fu***ng Starship Enterprise (Trekkies love mixed metaphors) doesnât mean that Ryan and the marketing Jedis at Paramount arenât still out here killing the game.
One of the oldest tricks in the marketing f***y pack is to keep your audience engaged by keeping said audience guessing. Initially, mission codename âKeep âEm Guessingâ, was standing-on-the-deck-of-an-aircraft-carrier accomplished when over the course of about six months, this threequelâs name was changed three different times. At first, the film was unofficially titled âDEADPOOL 3â, before âDisneyâ officially changed âDEADPOOL 3â to âUntitled Deadpool Sequelâ for their âmarketing distributionâ. Director Shawn âdrove my Chevy to theâ Levy had previously stated that âDEADPOOL 3â would not be the filmâs final title. I love it when ya tease me, Lev.
Deadpool 3 | Announcement (Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds)
https://youtu.be/o2pNTx3pbPk?si=YvGi6mBfRXpyIfZe
The next blacked-out-windows-and-outstretched-hand-holding-a-bag-of-candy-enticing-us-into-a-white-van moment came in late 2022, with the first video teaser for the film. Here, fans were finally mamma birded the wriggling tidbits theyâve been squawking for; confirmation that Hugh âLoves My Down-underâ Jackman would be reprising his role as Wolverine to make up for a blatant lack of any better ideas from the Reynoldsâ Better Ideas department. Jokes aside, who wouldnât love to see Hugh âYou Know You Wouldâ Jackman return in his most notable role, The Wolverine? I mean, besides perhaps a not so small faction of the Gen-Zeers, who I assume see that particular Marvel character as clawed toxic masculinity incarnate.
By announcing the âDeadpool 3â release date and confirming the speculations that Hugh Jackman would reprise his role as The Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds â as only the coolest of cool kids say â broke the Internet. Fans were left with their chin-bearded jaws on the floor, wondering what Wolverineâs reappearance may imply after his demise in âLoganâ almost seven years prior. Is the character getting a reboot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Will a different timeline be used for âDeadpool 3â? What the f**k is going on with that photoshopped Kate Middleton picture? Marvel fans neednâted have gotten their pantaloons in a twist, however, as Reynolds and Jackman soon produced a new video addressing all of their devoteesâ inquiries. Well, not fu***ng really.
Deadpool Update, Part Hugh
https://youtu.be/Szj1iqYanFM?si=paEqyvNZw-aGA3Ar
The next gas station bathroom toilet seat gagger of an update (if you understood any of that, we can be friends) came a few months later with a couch-side chat from Marvelâs hottest BFFs. Staying on brand, Dead-Wolve made us believe, if only for a fraction of a second, that they were about to doll out answers to all of our unanswered questions about how Claws-Jesus would be resurrected. Reynolds and Jackman guaranteed to answer any question from the audience in under a minute, just before their voices were drowned out by the lucid tones of Whamâs 1984 global hit âWake Me Up Before You Go-Goâ. An easter egg of some kind, Iâm sure, but Iâve neither the time nor lack of a girlfriend to figure out what that song choice actually means. In any case, itâs exactly this kind of classic Deadpool marketing strategy and social media utilization that keeps the franchise fans hooked and me Googling who the f**k sung, âWake Me Up Before You Go-Goâ.
MARVELâS DEADPOOL 3 AND WOLVERINE Official Trailer (2024)
https://youtu.be/057BaPUGPPM?si=5TR8wiA-_6Cy7dOw
Recently, Deadpoolâs marketing team was finished with the foreplay of YouTube promo videos and TikTok teasers and decided to finally just stick it in with the first actual trailer for the upcoming film. Airing during Taylor Swiftâs boyfriendâs sports event or whatever, we were finally given an actual glimpse at the film weâve been goaded with for months.
The typical brilliance of the new trailer is how it cleverly marketed The Wolverine without actually marketing The Wolverine. âBUT JASH, WHAT EVER DO YOU MEAN!!??â After a year of teasing us with the addition of a beloved character we were all led to believe had been written out of the MCU six years prior, the first trailer for the now titled âDeadpool & Wolverineâ, shows us almost nothing of The Wolverine himself.
Weâre provided a medley of action sequences, the introduction of Deadpool into the Time Variance Authority (TVA), a bureaucratic organization created by He Who Remains and located outside of time and space to serve as a temporal law enforcement agency tasked with preserving the Sacred Timeline, and the knowledge that all our favorite characters from the first two films (Iâm looking at you, Peter) will return, but the most weâre shown of the resurrected Wolverine is a cast shadow at the very end of the video. I ask you, what better way to keep us wanting more than by giving us nothing at all?
Final thoughts: I wanna see it. You wanna see it. We all wanna see it for basically the same reasons, and virtually none of us even know exactly what those reasons are. That is the essence of good marketing. I want the thing, I have no idea why.
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https://medium.com//how-the-deadpool-marketing-team-used-creativity-humor-and-an-ass-so-firm-it-offers-undergraduate-9b31f6503775
