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Super Hero Marketing: The Power of Brand Association
If you wanted to jump on a fast growing trend right now, it would have to be relating your brand, products or business with super heroes during the launch of their movie releases. For example, Star Wars just recently came out a few months ago and the marketing that was done around this movie was ridiculous. If you were to visit a local Target or shopping center, you would have seen the Star Wars logo and characters slapped on everything from soup, cereal, and even apples… yes, apples!
So why are so many brands and businesses trying to associate themselves with the likes of StarWars, Batman, Marvel, Spiderman and everything in between? Simply because they have such a die-hard audience that wants to buy, use and participate in anything relating to these brands.
Just take a look at the recent numbers from Marvel movies and how they’ve quickly approached the $10 billion dollar mark in sales! Who wouldn’t want to be associated with these types of numbers!
To stress this point even further, we are going to highlight a few of the most interesting ways we are seeing brands blending super heroes into their businesses to bring in new audiences and customers at the same time.
Batman, Superman, Spiderman and Endless Opportunities
How many super heroes can you name? Even if it’s only a few, it’s enough to get your attention. The crazy thing is that there are thousands of comic heroes and villains that many people don’t even know about, yet Disney, Marvel and DC are churning them out into their own movies and TV series as fast as they can.
As I started writing this article, I remembered I wanted to order something through Amazon.com — then it hit me! An advertisement for Batman vs. Superman right on Amazon!
This is just another perfect example of how powerful brand association with super heroes is.
Now let’s take a look at a few stranger ways brands have associated themselves in the world of comics and super heroes.
Even Super Heroes Need Smoother Skin
One of the most popular ways to promote a product or brand through association with super heroes is to simply sponsor a product or have paid placement within a movie or comic book. That is exactly what we have here in this example of Captain America and Kiehls (which is a body moisturizer).
Like many other people, you might be thinking what the heck do the two have in common? Well… simply put, it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the placement and attention to the brand. You can see their logo on the comic book on the top right, then visually in the background as well with both the brand name and products.
So how does this all come together and make sense? As listed in the comic book site description, it says: “From an A.I.M. base on the surface of the moon to ancient tunnels beneath Kiehl’s historic flagship store, join this Triple Threat of Super Heroes as they fight to save the world in the Mighty Marvel Manner!”
Ah… makes perfect sense now 🙂
This is an effective and powerful way to get your brand name out there, while reaching a brand new audience that might not have paid attention to your product or service in the first place. Throughout the actual comic and a few dedicated ads at the end of the book you will see brand name placements and information on Kiehl’s products.
Super Heroes hit the Gaming Floor
If you’ve ever had the opportunity to visit a local casino or gambling hot spots like Atlantic City or Las Vegas, you will likely have seen celebrities and super heroes being used to promote many of the slot machines throughout the gaming floor. The same holds true for online gaming as well.
For example, if you were to visit a site like au.slotsheaven.com, you will see they have a wide variation of games on their site. The “Spiderman: Attach of the Green Goblin” and “The Incredible Hulk” games would definitely stand out right away to any comic fan who visits the sites. What’s even more fun and addicting about playing slots based around something you like, is that many of them will tell a story as you earn more credits and the longer you play.
Even if you aren’t into gambling or playing with real money, you can play a free version on their site and still enjoy the super hero experience.
Star Wars & Disney Decides to Sponsor Everything!
As mentioned earlier, one of the most insane promotions was the massive brand associations with Star Wars. Never before had we seen so many products and food being associated with a movie release. The promotions were so extreme that hundreds of people took their own pictures and posted them to social media.
The Dark Side has apples. #starwars pic.twitter.com/K4DuJ7YOK9
— Ahyasuck (@AhYaSuck) December 14, 2015
However, as pointed out by Time, it wasn’t just product placements in stores that StarWars had covered, they were also associated heavily with Covergirl, Fiat Chrysler and Hewlett-Packard as well!
Super Branding with Super Heroes
As we can see, brand association with super heroes is key. It doesn’t matter if it’s for a movie release, product placement or even to get users to start playing games on your site — the audience is there and all you need to do is slap a logo or a super hero on something for people to start paying attention to it!
The next time you go to the mall or food shopping center, be sure to keep an eye out for the sponsored super heroes amongst you!
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