It’s never gone away tbh.
M3GAN! She’s got a point, she’s an icon, she’s a legend, she’s the moment. She’s making money. M3GAN smashes $126 million box office (as of now), more than ten times of just $12 million budget. She’s not stopping — she slaps the box office like Dolly Parton slaps world records. M3GAN is everywhere. From every corner of the Internet, she’s crushing it without leaving any crumbs. A dozen M3GANs have been released in New York City, on the subway, on top of the Empire State Building, interrupting The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon or charging the halftime show with energy.
Adopting the same approach, last year, the horror movie Smile, which was made on a $17m budget, grossed a whopping $216.1 million worldwide — safe to say — largely thanks to its viral creepy promo campaign. You see paid smilers show up in the background at a handful of huge events such as during a live weather segment for NBC’s Today show or Major League Baseball games. Talk about hitting a home run!
Guerilla marketing is making a comeback — it is burgeoning in popularity across the globe and injecting itself into the cultural conversation. Guerilla marketing is a marketing tactic in which a company, oh wait I’m not going to bore you with the definition. The tactic has been proven a low-cost and effective way to drum up publicity, boost word-of-mouth and increase brand exposure. Not to mention the high chance for viral marketing — which, warn you, can be tough when there’s always someone who whispers into your ears “Can we make this go viral?” when the content sometimes is just brick and mortar.
The recent ground-breaking success of M3GAN and Smile does make one wonder if guerilla marketing is making a comeback and if more studios are going to adopt this approach. In the age of social media where everything can be everywhere all at once, word-of-mouth and viral marketing seem promising.
Some people might argue this type of “in-your-face, wacky” marketing can be a root of agitation, unpredictable or invasive. But will predictability be an option in this current climate? You wake up tomorrow and there is a ChatGPT in a human form conversing with you about Aristotle. As En Vogue put it, free your mind and the rest will follow. When done well, it shouldn’t be the next big thing floating down the Thames, but can add value to your overarching campaign. Here are three underlying principles.
Killer content is key (no pun intended)
You can’t justify a terrible script with even genius guerilla marketing. With 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s the content that keeps the audience engaged after that first step of marketing.
Any marketing campaign should be thoughtfully designed and connected to the wider strategy. Content on various platforms can always complement each other. Know all too well how to adapt to different formats and audiences. Community management should also be considered when it comes to content planning. M3GAN (or the marketing team) is making herself known by constantly replying to tweets in an unhinged way. Turning criticism into chaos and not taking herself too seriously. Embrace the creativity that comes from chaos. It’s been 1047 years since the last time we said “I’ll do it when things get back to normal.” Hate to break it to you, it won’t.
Culture enters the chat
What cultural or seasonal conversations are happening that you should care about? You don’t have to be part of every conversation, but know when you should and can insert yourself into a conversation. When cringe is a new social media currency, Gen Z will sniff it miles away when you are punching above your weight. In this case, M3GAN’s TikTok-esque dance moves made her a viral sensation when the trailer came out months ago. They BROUGHT it (from real life to social media). It’s not all quiet on the western front since then — on TikTok, #M3GAN has more than 1.1 billion views and #M3GANDANCE has amassed 218 million views.
Community takes the reins
There has been more support for M3GAN from the queer community than there was for the film Bros which is a story about two gay men. M3GAN is already a queer icon!
People might write ten different think pieces about why that is, about “chosen family”. Even the writer of M3GAN talks about the idea of “found family” which is why she thinks it resonates with the community. Well, it’s not necessarily wrong, but maybe M3GAN is just camp, and that’s enough reason. She sings, dances and slays. Find a better reason not to love.
But that is to say that holding on to the power of community is forever important. Memes, gifs, and clips. Speak the language that the community speaks. Universal reports that 44 percent of the film’s opening weekend audience was under 24.
Yahoo! called the “outrageous” M3GAN marketing campaign a “triumph” but Guerilla marketing doesn’t need to be all wacky — last year, Amnesty International honoured World Cup’s migrant workers with their own football kit. Like any trend, how long will the guerilla-core last? We’ll have to wait and see.
