Star Wars: The Force Awakens was one of the most anticipated films of 2015 and landed at the top of many lists for most popular key word searches of the year. Star Wars has one of the most loyal fan bases when it comes to movies, but Disney and affiliates like Target took it one step further; they decided to create a marketing approach that would not only appeal to existing fans, but draw in the next generation of new Star Wars fanatics. And they knew what they were doing. Here are four ways we can learn from their marketing strategy when selling to millennials.
1 Storytelling: Disney had some great material to work with here. You know the Star Wars conflict is one of the most well-known storylines of all time and Disney used it to their advantage. Storytelling is the new trend for content marketing and Disney created a new story for every Star Wars ad and so did their affiliates. They avoided gimmicky sounding lines and instead drew the customer in with an interesting narrative. Even if you don’t have a movie with a cult following you can still use storytelling to make sure your product appeals to millennials.
2 Subtlety: millennials are over gimmicks and tricks in advertising, especially online. The age of infomercials is over and the way you showcase your product is very important. Millennials are the most informed consumers out there and studies show they are most likely to research their purchases online beforehand. Showing products in action and making them part of the story is key; you can’t be redundant. Studies show they don’t respond well to these traditional advertising approaches. Star Wars was all over social media but it was never in your face, it was just subtly there on Pinterest, Instagram, and snapchat. Disney made sure they got exposure in all the right places without making it obvious. And the ads were the same, for example the Target ad that ran on TV right before the movie was out. A few kids were being chased by storm troopers through the familiar backdrop of giant presents that Target has used frequently for holiday ads. Star Wars was not mentioned once during the commercial but I wanted to go see the movie every time I finished watching that ad; it demonstrated the excitement of the adventure. Even if your brand is smaller and less well known than Star Wars (which is pretty much everybody) you can still find ways to be subtle and remind people who you are.
3 Organization: Attention span is at an all-time low for the online shopper at 8 seconds. Especially on social media. That means that you have to grab the customers’ attention in the first few seconds of the ad or you will definitely lose them in the shuffle of overexposure online. This is especially true for snapchat where customers have the option to skip ads if they want to. Disney did a great job of keeping things to the point and pulling you in at the beginning of the ad. This is important when using storytelling since you want to make the audience feel like they aren’t really watching an ad. This is especially true for video content which you should definitely be using in 2016.
4 Timing: timing is important too. In my opinion Disney got the timing down perfectly for the Star Wars release. Millennials, as I mentioned, have extremely short attention spans and are constantly dealing with overexposure online. If you get the timing wrong while rolling out your new ad campaign, you will be lost in the shuffle.
I am a digital marketing consultant who specializes in marketing to the millennial and centennial generations. You can find more tips on my website at www.sierraclairconsulting.wordpress.com Thanks for reading!
Sierra Clair Consulting 