At $170 million in media value, the promotional partner campaign for Disney/Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the biggest in some time, ahead of the pushes for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Deadpool & Wolverine and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and even rival studio summer campaigns such as Jurassic World Rebirth ($150M).
Spider-Man: Far from Home, the 2019 pic from Sony, remains the record holder when it comes to overall worth of an MCU promo partner campaign at $288M. Among post-Covid MCU brand campaigns, Fantastic Four‘s overall value ranks behind Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s $202M and counts such brands as Little Caesars, Zillow, Pop-Tarts, General Mills, Citizen watches and more. Several advertisers joined in on the movie’s fun embracing its 1960s retro-future spirit, a motif woven into their in-world partnerships.
The movie starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Julia Garner is expected to make around $45M in its second weekend at the box office with a firm grip on No. 1. By Sunday, a $200M running total stateside is likely. Two newcomers — Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys 2 and Paramount’s hopeful revival of big-screen comedies in The Naked Gun — look to open to $20M and $15M, respectively.
Fantastic Four partners strategically leveraged their IP across cultural touchpoints — from high-impact traditional advertising to irreverent social media executions to buzzworthy experiential tactics to unique AR content, custom publishing and consumer giveaways.
Interestingly enough, the North American campaign doesn’t feature a car partner. Automobile companies typically contribute the boatload of media value in a movie promo campaign. That said, among overseas brand, Fantastic Four‘s has an automobile partner in Australia’s Chery, which is launching a line of hybrid family vehicles.
Fast-food partners are another enormous contributor to a movie’s brand campaigns, and for Fantastic Four, that’s Little Caesars. The “Pizza-Pizza” retailer was one of five brand partners for the film that developed custom “in world” commercials. Little Caesars also was one of two commercials, , along with Zillow, directed by Fantastic Four: First Steps production designer Kasra Farahani. Little Caesars also was written and produced internally by the Marvel Partnerships team.
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The movie reps Little Caesars’ second-biggest partnership with a motion picture to date, with media support across streaming, linear and digital throughout North America and select Latin American markets. Farahani’s commercial features Giganto and re-creates the iconic 1961 comic No. 1 cover. The spot has racked up north of 7M views across YouTube. There was also a $4 Fandango movie ticket offer combo in addition to four custom pizza boxes made, each featuring a character from the movie. Little Caesars also sold its “Fantastic 4-In-One” pizza (four different topping combinations on one pizza).
Real estate site Zillow gave fans the opportunity to tour the period futuristic-themed penthouse from the movie, located in the Baxter Building. Featured highlights included Space Age conversation pit and a rotating fireplace/TV, indoor BBQ, cosmic nursery and Mister Fantastic’s futuristic lab. In addition to directing the commercial, Farahani also directed a virtual home tour and co-designed a variety of bespoke print imagery, including an ad for The New York Times. Fans were invited to dial a special telephone number for a personalized tour and explore downloadable high-res images of the Marvel landmark. The campaign kicked off on July 7. Zillow listed the home for $4.44M.
Pop-Tarts‘ push for the pic spotlighted “FanTASTEic Four,” a humorous team of giant pastry mascots that charm Gen-Z audiences but hilariously fall short at heroism. The in-world spot emphasized snack appeal over superhero skills.
General Mills embraced retrofuturism with limited-edition 1960s-themed cereal boxes including Honey Nut Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms and Reese’s Puffs. Walmart (which featured Cocoa Puffs with Galactus) and Kroger (which had Trix featuring H.E.R.B.I.E.) were among key retailers. There also was a limited-edition Lucky Charms box with Johnny Storm available at Walmart. General Mills was an MCU promo partner on Loki with “Loki Charms,” Thunderbolts* with Wheaties and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. There was support from social media influencers with Evan Tanaka (327K followers) creating his own commercial:
Snapple launched packaging inspired by each of the heroes. Each bottle unlocked an augmented reality (AR) experience with details about the film and a memory card game featuring Galactus. The push included 22M+ themed ice teas of four different flavors.
Synchrony is a longtime MCU partner, and its period spot spotlighted a fiscally savvy family, blending nostalgia with financial literacy. The commercial features a H.E.R.B.I.E.-themed savings calculator, a character-inspired digital board game that transforms budgeting into a heroic journey and even a piggy bank of The Thing.
How did the pre-swinging generation keep track of time and visualize the future? Citizen watches had an idea with their vintage inspired design and advanced technology Marvel edition Citizen Zenshin timepiece collector’s set. The watch features a film-themed blue dial, with icons at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock representing each hero’s powers. There were co-branded spots and media placements such as the ABC Super Sign in NYC, taxi media exposure, as well as digital and social media amplification.
Having just partnered on Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World, sports bar restaurant Topgolf created an in-venue experience where groups of four or more players teamed up and battled Galactus in a themed Block Party digital game available at all U.S. and Scotland locations.
Google Play integrated The Fantastic Four into a priority game launch tied to Google Play Rewards. This was further boosted at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend. Take a look:
Other Fantastic Four: First Steps brand partners included Juicy Fruit and Doublemint gum and Formula E, which had a themed takeover of its annual championship ePrix race last weekend in London. Formula E previously teamed with Marvel on Thunderbolts* for a wrap of one of their cars. Marvel Studios also worked with Dairy Farmers of America/Trumoo, which served up their line of TruMoo “Fantastic Berry” low-fat blue milk, inspired by the campaign’s bold color palette. There’s also film-themed packaged regional milk brands (e.g. Altadena) available through September at retailers such as Target, Walmart, etc. The promotion included four “Power Up Your Pour” color-changing drinking glasses, with one of each of the Fantastic Four character designs released weekly from July 18-August 8.
“Our team built a truly fantastic global promotional campaign — one that felt completely authentic, immersive and organically woven into the world of the Fantastic Four,” Lylle Breier, Disney’s EVP Partnerships, Promotions, Synergy & Events, tells Deadline. “It was a true collaboration between our best-in-class brand partners, the talented filmmakers and our amazing internal creative team who wrote and produced the fully custom spots that seamlessly transformed our promotional content into an extension of the film’s marketing campaign and pop culture.”