Spidey Sensation
The studio knew it was going to be a big picture; the question really was how big Spider-Man would be.
“We had one of the last great super heroes to make it to the big screen,” explains George Leon, executive VP, worldwide promotions and product placement for Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia TriStar. Leon and his team began their planning 18 months in advance of the film’s premiere in summer 2002. “With a property like that, we wanted to be selective about our partners,” he says. Taking care not to over-saturate the market, they picked “blue-chip players,” each appealing to a specific demographic niche.
Kellogg’s, for example, provided an avenue to the kids market via its breakfast food line. Spidey was featured on 31 product SKUs, or 120 million packages of such brands as Eggo waffles and Pop-Tarts. In-pack offers included Web-slinger water squirters, stickers and temporary tattoos, as well as sweepstakes entries for prizes such as Sony home entertainment systems and Web-watches.
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| Spider-Man Snares Best Overall EMMA |
A co-promotion with Hershey’s tapped the tweens niche, with branding on 14 product SKUs, or 55 million packages. Dr Pepper had appeal with the teen crowd, with character motifs added to one billion packages and to collectible cups available in theatres. Reebok, which tied the launch of its new line of Cobra sport shoes to the film, also nailed the teen market, as did fast-food partner Carl Jr./Hardees.
Then there was the breakthrough partnering with Cingular Wireless. “We were particularly happy to sign Cingular because it had never done a promotion with an entertainment tie-in before,” Leon says.
“We’ve learned to make the most of the timing,” says Geoffrey Ammer, president of global marketing for Columbia TriStar and Leon’s boss. “That way we can engage our partners in the process; it stimulates the creative, and the earlier we can sign off on that, the better.” The Cingular campaign was “genius,” Ammer says. Cingular saw a 17% increase in new gross activations and a 4% increase in brand awareness during the campaign. “As good as the results were, the creative was even more successful. It was a win-win for both brands,” he says.
All partners supported with a combination of TV, print and billboard ads, worth some $60 million. Promotion spending by partners reached $95 million. All but Reebok provided products and P-O-S materials in more than 30,000 retail settings. Cingular staged an 80-market mobile tour of its stores, featuring a Spidey-detailed Dodge Viper that became the centerpiece of a sweeps. Kelloggs, Dr Pepper and Hershey teamed for retail-tainment events staged at Wal-Mart stores. And all the partners launched Web campaigns with a spin on the Spider-Man phenomenon.
The payoff for Sony: Spider-Man achieved the biggest opening weekend of all time, with $114.8 million in box office sales, and became the fastest film in Hollywood history to reach $500 million. Exit polls revealed that 17% of film-goers were influenced to see the film by promotional activity.
Now that’s a finely spun Web.
SUPPORTING CAST
SONY PICTURES/COLUMBIA TRISTAR George Leon, Sachi Kambe, Lee Dollar, Evan Greene, Angela Merino, Katherine Talutis
