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From guest appearances in K-pop videos to cooking burritos with celebrity chefs, movie stars such as Ryan Reynolds are trying more and more unconventional gimmicks to appeal to a fragmented Generation Z audience, Disney marketing chiefs say.
The Hollywood giant is enjoying a hot summer blockbuster season, with superhero film Deadpool vs. Wolverine becoming its latest film and expected to surpass $1 billion at the global box office this weekend.
Chief Brand Officer Asad Ayaz said at Disney’s D23 fan conference on Saturday that the film’s huge success is largely due to stars Reynolds and Hugh Jackman pushing the boundaries of traditional marketing.
The A-listers starred as characters in the music video Chk Chk Book alongside K-pop kings Stray Kids and took part in a YouTube cooking competition with Gordon Ramsay and his 22-year-old daughter.
They also went on a world tour, visiting Germany for the European Football Championship, hitting up a chicken shop in London (for a popular web comedy sketch series), and getting soaked at a water polo festival.
“We are very lucky to have talented people… who are willing to do things that actors sometimes don’t want to do, like play characters,” Ayaz told AFP.
Generation Z, roughly between the ages of 12 and 27, has been particularly hard for Hollywood and movie theaters to reach in recent years, which has been a wake-up call for the industry.
But Ayaz said unusual stunts could “engage” younger audiences, who pay more attention to mobile phones, social media, YouTube influencers and video game ads than traditional TV ads or movie trailers.
Much of the focus is on producing quirky content that will go viral online.
A highly suggestive popcorn bucket was allegedly “designed” by Reynolds’ innuendo-loving movie character in the hopes of going viral around the world, and it certainly succeeded.
Reynolds and Jackman also filmed a pre-movie promotional video featuring their wisecracking superhero characters, warning theatergoers to turn off their cell phones.
“Put your phone on silent,” Jackman’s Wolverine barks at the camera, using profanity to threaten the camera in a video that has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube.
“This is an example of the unique content we’re creating with Ryan and Hugh…in full costume,” Ayaz said.
– Using emoticons for marketing –
Deadpool vs. Wolverine is particularly suited to this gonzo approach, as the character of Deadpool repeatedly speaks directly to the audience throughout the film.
Reynolds’ foul-mouthed hero frequently mocks parent company Disney and even jokes about “saving” the Marvel superhero franchise, which has been lackluster over the past few years.
But this unconventional approach is becoming more common.
Last year, rival Warner Bros. built a real-life “Malibu Dreamhouse” to promote “Barbie,” which went viral after being rented out on Airbnb.
Another recent Disney hit, Inside Out 2, touches on issues such as anxiety and depression, which are topics frequently discussed online by Generation Z.
Analysts warn that many of the widely shared movie memes contain pirated footage, or footage illegally filmed by cinema-goers.
But Ayaz said Disney created custom clips and digital toolkits for “Inside Out 2” for TikTok and YouTube creators, who quickly spread memes about the film.
“This audience is very much on their devices. The way they consume media is very different from the older generations,” he said.
Ayaz added: “Making sure we’re on the platforms where Gen Z spends the most time” is key.
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