STAR WARS – Real Time Marketing Stunts & Failures

“A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…”

Star Wars magic does take a breath away! “The Force Awakens” –  eagerly-anticipated VII episode in the sci-fi saga that received a standing ovation after the US premiere on Monday’s night, opens across the rest of the world theatres tomorrow, Friday, Dec 18th. A Big Day!

The latest film in the blockbuster production features veteran cast members Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia and takes place 30 years after “Return of the Jedi”. It is also the first episode in a decade. No wonder it brings such a great deal of emotions!

I am not a Star Wars Fan, unlike a majority of the Brand24 Team (I hope I will not fall into their disfavour by admitting this!), but what I love about this cross-generation film production, except for its soundtrack, is its immense sociological and marketing side effect. With fierce fans snapping up tickets and planning their costumes months ahead of the premiere and marketers employing all their creative potential to surprise us with great Star Wars real-time marketing stunts and hoping to go with them viral. Who did well this year and who needs to wait for the next episode to improve their real-time marketing skills? Check it out this post!

Here is the list of  the best and the worst brand’s Star Wars real-time marketing reactions!

STARS WARS Social Listening Insight

Before we dive into the Star Wars galaxy, a bunch of numbers and social listening insight. With no surprise, long before the premiere, a #StarWars hashtag started trending and the number of online mentions for the keyword “star wars” reached an impressive level of 66 000 Friday, Dec 11th. The majority of them shared on Twitter.

The official Start Wars trailer released mid-October has been viewed by more than 73 million people and this number is still growing! Watch it now to get inspired for the best and the worst  brands’ Star Wars real-time marketing reactions!

STARS WARS – Real Time Marketing Stunts & Failures

First in the row, Japanese Airline ANA got ready for the Star Wars premiere by equipping their flight attendants with quite unusual tools.

Tesco announced their weekend promotion making a reference to the most iconic scene in sci-fi history taken from Star Wars Episode V “The Empire Strikes Back” – “I am your father”

Spotify surprise us with a funny and engaging quiz that answers the question “Which Star Wars Character are you” after analysing your listening habits. Good idea! A very good idea Spotify.

On the other side of the Force, Facebook decided to let us add a lightsaber to the profile picture this week. Have your tried it yet?

An interesting case of a “real-time marketing reaction” is being observed among Star Wars enthusiasts after the film world premiere in Los Angeles Monday night. The premiere has created first a wave of “no spoilers!” variations being posted by its fan on their social media timelines and then as an answer to this, a stream of fun tweets with fake reveals using hashtags like #StarWarsSpoilers and #ForceAwakensSpoilers. Just wait till these hashtags get into some clever marketer’s hands or the Philadelphia Police!

Duracell did a pretty nice job too, first realising a Duracell Star Wars commercial late October (15 577 119 views)…

…and then fuelling the emotions even further with “the most powerful alkaline battery in the universe” message!

Even Mark Zuckerberg allowed himself to make a little newborn-y reference!

On the other hands, we can hear voices of the audience being already tired with the omnipresent Star Wars references. This raises a question –  where are the limits and the critical point where instead of enhancing your brand image with the real-time marketing Star Wars references you can jeopardize it? Here are some examples of brands that clearly did not know where to stop with Star Wars cross-promotion and fans that did not hide their frustration.

Fancy some Star Wars cosmetics?

or maybe some Darth Vader Apples?

or R2-D2 cookware?

Dreaming about perfect hairstyle? (L’Oréal Paris are your serious?)

and my favourite: Chewbacca Crocs!

OK. Enough!

Have you spotted any breathtaking Star Wars inspired real-time marketing stunt or maybe the most embarrassing marketing failure? Or perhaps you are eager to discover the most trending Star Wars social discussions with an Internet monitoring tool?

Check our free Internet monitoring trial and share your favourites in the comments section! Let’s create the most powerful list of the best and the worst Star Wars brands’ reactions! Anything can happen before the tomorrow’s show!