Digital Media Management was excited to partner with Warner Bros. for their social theatrical campaign of the superhero blockbuster, Aquaman. We strategically appealed to fans all over the world, both new and existing, by highlighting the key characters and drawing viewers into an immersive, heartfelt experience.
Since Aquaman was the first in the newly rebranded extended DC film universe, we strove to utilize and emphasize the “lightness” of the film, as compared to some of its predecessors. Our social content for this campaign leveraged not only the action and the film’s centralized power struggle, but also reinforced the many emotional connections and our badass female characters.
Arthur/Aquaman
When introducing Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, we wanted to reinforce the aspects that fans expected (his dual-heritage, his family ties and his affinity for the oceans), while also dispelling some myths. Creatives in this series varied from the beloved Hero Suit debut to the Arthur-to-Aquaman progression, all of which emphasized Arthur’s character arc. Throughout the campaign, we wove in themes surrounding family, home, and duty that would relate to viewers of all kinds.
Supporting Characters
While Aquaman was our key focus, we also wanted to highlight the film’s supporting characters, many of which were highly-anticipated by fans because of the talent’s pedigree. To kick off character introductions, we created brief, atmospheric GIFs of Mera, King Orm, Queen Atlanna, and Black Manta. We also gave our female heroes special attention, by highlighting Mera’s combat ability and Atlanna’s character arc as a tough yet emotionally conflicted queen. To round off this theme in the campaign, we designed creatives that showed each character as they related to Aquaman, such as Mera’s influence and encouragement and Arthur’s family as his motivation.
Home Is Calling
As the overwhelmingly positive fan sentiment continued to build, we shifted focus to explore Atlantis and its history in more detail, as well as leveraging fan praise for the film. Creatives in this Atlantean series ranged from connecting Arthur’s story to Atlantis to the reveal of the Trident that is ingrained in Atlantean history. Building upon the positive sentiment, we created pieces surrounding the excitement for the first trailer with a fan reaction video and an early screening review video leading into the film’s international release dates.
Talent Participation
Throughout the campaign, we leveraged the film’s popular talent – all of whom appeal to a varied audience demographic. To kick off this initiative, we partnered with Jason Momoa to debut a trailer announcement video. This surprise piece felt wholly organic to Jason’s feed, with the added benefit of announcing the first trailer for Aquaman. Our team also partnered with Nicole Kidman’s social team here at DMM to secure posts of exclusive content tailored to her character’s complex arc, while fitting with the theme of Nicole’s social pages. Additionally, we provided Amber Heard and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II with their own exclusives.
At the end of the social campaign, we generated over 82M organic impressions, 81M in organic reach, and 8M in organic engagements. Overall, were were able to utilize the social campaign to drive towards leveraging talent, an iconic storyline and creatives to match, as Aquaman saw unwavering success both at the box office and social media around the world.
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