what brands can learn from minions record breaking marketing strategy
how they expanded audiences and became a part of pop culture
*usually posts come every sunday, but marketing case studies are really exciting to work on and I wanted to post this asap to help inspire anyone with future launches.
the usual sunday morning post is still coming!
the launch of @minions was one of the best marketing campaigns I’ve ever seen.
after being delayed for two years, minions: the rise of gru had its world premiere at the annecy international animation film festival on june 13, 2022, and was released in the united states on july 1, 2022.
initially expected to make $70M opening weekend, rise of gru broke records at $125.1M to take the title for the biggest july 4th opening of all time.
becoming a pop culture brand
they positioned themselves everywhere to not only attract older audiences, but turned minions into an iconic pop culture brand.
with engaging and clever partnerships with legacy brands like bathing ape, PSG, mcdonalds, and levi’s to rising startups like drinkolipop and supergoop, minions really did take over the world.
unexpected collaborations
they also launched more unexpected collaborations as well, like this "rise of gru" trailer with @lyricalemonade.
with @colebennett directing the trailer and @yeat1_ providing the soundtrack, the video exploded and is currently sitting at 4.8M views.
trending on tik tok
with this @minions soundtrack, the tiktok #gentleminions trend was born, where people donned a black suit and pulled up to watch the movie in mobs.
the hashtag #gentleminions sits at 175M views at the time of this post.
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and @universalpics took notice and were grateful for everyone’s support of the movie.
this is something a lot of brands can learn from. a catchy song, trending video concepts, and hashtags along with brand partnerships can make your brand blow up way better than traditional, and boring movie trailers.