Spider-Man & Me: How We Became Best Friends

Our subject of investigation is one of the most successful films, which achieved very good audience figures despite, or perhaps because of, the pandemic. What role did digital communication play in promoting the film's product brand? And how was it structured and orchestrated? We examined the communicators' social media activities and analyzed them using content analysis. This is a method of empirical communication research that allows media content to be analyzed in an intersubjective and comprehensible way.

We wanted to see how the measures were structured and thus identify the strategy behind them. The period covers one year before the film's release before Christmas 2021, i.e. from 2020 onwards. At the time of the preliminary conclusion of the analysis on January 21, 2022, the film was still running, which means that later phases could not be shown here, but the measures taken for earlier films provide good indications. We looked at the channels on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, with the former being used as the central communication channel. What was striking was that communication was spread across many accounts from a central account. The structure can be clearly seen in the overview, here is an excerpt.

• The Instagram account “Spidermanmovie” played a central role, as it already had a large following from previous films.
• The content was taken from accompanying accounts, with those of the actors being particularly important: Tom Holland, a real sunny guy, and Zendaya, the “best friend” of the audience. Both are real casting coups, Zendaya, for example, because she has loyal followers from the neighboring series of the umbrella brand DISNEY—this is how you accompany your fans through different phases of their lives and keep them engaged.

This phase begins more than a year before the film's release, which is the campaign's target date. The first step is to rebuild relationships with followers. How are you, dear friends? What have you been up to? Did you miss us? We're back, so rejoice! What works well here is celebrating birthdays, such as that of Stan Lee, the grandfather and great-grandfather of all Marvel characters, and the actor himself. In our analysis, we counted a lot of things

• the posts and their individual reach and the reactions to them, the number of comments
• the frequencies: when was what type of content posted: image, gallery, video

We divided the content into categories to identify patterns:

• “Best Friends Forever”: this content is used to build and deepen relationships. As a user, I get to know the actors better and better and connect with them, I can write them messages and get replies. This is one of the most important categories!
• “Action”: the classic film category. The user should be left speechless. One effect follows another, I should be filled with endless anticipation.
• “Story”: the unusual plot. I should be intrigued. What happens to Tom/Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Zendaya/Mary-Jane?
• “Fans”: a genuine social media category that cannot play the same role in classic film communication because it does not exist there. Here, however, the fans are part of the “universe” and thus of the story itself; they are proactively involved and can even increase this themselves. And: they are taken seriously!
• “Classic”: classic film PR via other media, established portals, and new blogs.

Now the topic is set: The new SPIDER-MAN movie is coming out. Just before Christmas! Yippee-ay-yeah! This phase began in February 2021, 10 months before the release, and the very first post received a lot of attention, with over 1.9 million likes on the central account alone. The frequency of posts is still low; only at the end of summer in September will several posts per month be published, still at a modest pace, but then things will really take off.

One highlight is the transition to the post announcing the trailer. A really well-made movie in the “BFF” category: https://www.instagram.com/p/CWUX-8XDzTo/. The three main characters watch the trailer, which is the culmination of the entire previous phase. The users see the reactions to the undoubtedly great content of the eagerly awaited movie trailer (which they are now also eagerly awaiting) and the comments.

Two important goals:

1. “We'll get you excited”

There's action and truly breathtaking scenes to see.

2. We are expanding the community...

and growing our circle of friends. Good content twist: Tom Holland visits other stars such as Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi, with the focus on the interactions between the stars, their friendship, and the emotion.

This phase is by far the most intense and important. After warming up, building anticipation, rekindling friendships, expanding and strengthening them, it is now time to get everyone emotionally charged for the film's release. The frequency of posts increases rapidly, with several posts per day being released until the start! From all categories, with content snippets, stars, fans, stories, and lots and lots of interaction. Here are some excerpts from the study.

Fire away: now it's time to sell tickets. “This film is the best and biggest you'll ever see! You can't miss it!” And: “Thousands of others are seeing it too!” Users need to be reassured. And that tickets are in short supply, so they need to act fast or they'll miss out! Success must be reported! Give confirmation. “Activate!” shout all accounts and channels! Several times a day, so that I can't escape the barrage whenever I open my social media app. And it works.

While the film is being released, sales continue. Preferably centrally via the company's own website. Successes are reported, how great and wonderful this monumental event is being received everywhere. No doubt about it – history is being made! The stragglers are caught up, they need more confirmation and another clear message: “You're missing out on something big and incomparable!!!”

This phase follows on from the previous one and involves marketing the film's other digital products. Secondary exploitation on all other channels, such as Blu-ray, DVD, download, and streaming. Although this was not yet underway at the time of the study, it can be clearly seen in previous films or other films. The frequency is lower, familiar and established motifs are used, and the relationship is triggered again so that I take something lasting home with me after the cinema experience. Here's to us never parting ways.

• Build the drama: make it exciting! Create YOUR theme! Build THE story!
• Play to a good rhythm, set a strong beat. Be reliable. Be consistent. Be prolific!
• The design: it always has to be great! Moving & surprising.
• The speed: SPEED wins! Get to the point immediately, be brief & quick.
• Focus on closeness and personal dialogue. Create positive identifiers, heroes! Always and everywhere: be personal, close, honest, authentic, and clear!
• Provide benefits + rewards: create the greatest experience + the most beautiful emotions! Always go for the maximum!
• Bring lots of variety: you should NEVER, EVER, EVER be boring!

We can learn a lot from SPIDER-MAN. Even if we don't have the same budget at our disposal: this is not the limit! Instead, the ideas, the intention, and the resulting plan must always be optimized. The success factors must be incorporated! Because with great responsibility comes great power. Just like Spider-Man.

As impressive as the social media communication for SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME is, the German branch on Facebook takes the cake. For weeks, they have been linking to the previous film, FAR FROM HOME: Oh dear, it's difficult when the films have such similar titles.