The Problem: Our task was to develop a new character(s) for Marvel's brand to be used in comics, films, merchandise, etc. that both reflected the company image and captured the attention of consumers.
Strategy: As someone who grew up with a love of Marvel's stories and characters, I was incredibly eager to work on this project, and used my never-ending love of superheroes to steer the creative team's concepts in a more fitting direction for the brand. I set the groundwork for this project by establishing the need for characters who are both believably flawed, yet able to inspire audiences with their heroism.
We reached out to both the comic loving crowd and, through Elizabeth, Nicole and Keely's guidance, a younger audience dealing with cynicism and bleak messages in their everyday life. The creative team of Nick Gelbard, Ryan Niland and Sarah Pai developed the concept of the "Atomic Animals" with an environmental message in mind for younger audiences. The concept for the characters themselves primarily came from Nick, with designs made by Sarah. Ryan and Nick collaborated on the story.
The Solution: Digital Marketing. The focus of our project involved a primarily digital campaign for both the 2014 release of the "Atomic Animals" comic book and the 2016 movie adaptation.
The campaign for the comic would begin with a press release in January 2014, followed by a July 2014 reveal at the popular San Diego Comic Con, a hub for comic book culture and announcements.
After the comic itself had built up a reputation and gained popularity among the Marvel fanbase, a viral marketing campaign was to follow, using an Alternate Reality Game (A.R.G.) inspired by J.J. Abram's Cloverfield campaign, and Fox's Verizon FiOS and TED talk-based viral campaign for Prometheus.
By starting the campaign with a video message (and website link) from "Doctor Garcia" at the end of an episode of Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." TV series, viewers could then follow along a trail of websites, forum posts, and Instagram and Snapchat profiles, which woud all provide hints for the movie's story. Collaborating with popular comic blogs, such as Comic Book Resources, would maximize promotion and awareness for the 2016 Atomic Animals movie.
Use of "UnForum" message board posts would also allow the public to interact with our heroes via forum posts, as the characters chronicled their mysterious journey to team up and fight evil for the film itself.
This massive, digitally-foused campaign would propel the team into popularity and make the movie a worldwide attention-getter.
My Contributions: I helped adjust the characters original concepts to better fit the Marvel brand image. This project also allowed me to establish concepts for the Digital side of the project: Keely and I pitched the idea of both an Alternate Reality Game (which Keely Galgano provided additional research and which was then designed by Ryan Niland) to build up to the characters' reveal at the San Diego Comic Con, along with setting up a timed buildup of publicity with viral marketing before the release of a movie in the following year to catch the attention of the wider public.
Using my knowledge of the viral campaign used to promote J.J. Abrams's "Cloverfield" film and Keely's references to the "Lost Game" viral marketing project for the 2012 Olympics, we came up with a way to entice casual audiences about these mysterious heroes and their theatrical debut. Linking both a telvised broadcast of Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." TV series with a viral promotion then led into an immense digital campaign for these new characters. I pitched the SDCC debut knowing the worldwide press it would receive, and helped find a role for the video teaser which would lead in to the A.R.G. I also provided numerous suggestions for the background of the characters and the target audience's age range and points-of-purchase.
Business of Branding Project.
