CLASSWORK: How Star Wars Marketed Rouge One

Nine months ago, Disney’s Star Wars Rogue One was released in cinemas and turned out to be quite a success. Most of the success wouldn’t have come without the marketing however. Disney used a variety of marketing techniques which helped popularise the film before and after its release.

One key marketing technique were the trailers of the film. The teaser clips cherry picked some of the significant moments in the film but made sure they left out enough information to leave fans curious. In addition, the trailers were released roughly 29 weeks before the films screening which allowed the fans to build up their excitement and anticipation just enough for them to keep interest

Disney also released merchandise and toys prior to the film’s release. To ensure they could capitalise on the films momentum, they released its merchandise a full 15 weeks before the film’s release. This allowed them to make sales in the prime weeks before the screening of the film.

In addition to the merchandise, Star wars teamed up with Uber. If you were getting an Uber to the cinema, users would have been able to unlock special Rogue One features and access exclusive video content including behind-the-scenes footage in the Uber app. The promotion ran through December in hundreds of cities worldwide. In addition, the vehicle will appear on the map as one of many iconic Star Wars vehicles such as a rebel X-wing Starfighter.

Nissan got in on the action as well when they debuted its Star Wars Edition TV campaign back in November of 2016, traffic to Nissan’s website went up by 300 percent and the company experienced record sales of 24,682 units. Not only did this popularise Nissan but it also spread the word about the new Star Wars at the time.

Twitter also had a major part in marketing the film through a partnership with Disney and People magazine to livestream a special Star Wars event that included unseen content from the upcoming film along with an exclusive Q&A with the director and cast members. Furthermore, the public assisted the spread of the movie by using sponsored Twitter emojis and hashtags such as #RogueOne, #DeathStar, #StarWars and #StarWarsRogueOne. This helped to spread the word of the highly anticipated film.

A lot more females got involved in the marketing of Star Wars. Including a heart-warming advert by Globe that promotes donations to the Philippine General Hospital Medical Foundation. The ad featured a girl with a physical disability and how she was too embarrassed to show herself, so she used a storm trooper mask to cover her identity. In the end all her classmates accepted her for who she was and as tribute they all wore the storm trooper masks as well. The advert helped star wars to become recognised as a charitable company as well as a popular film franchise.

In addition, Disney’s smart and cunning methods to market the film proved to be a success as the movie recived mostly positive feedback from fans and others watching.