By Sean Yoo

Jon M. Chu’s film adaptation of the award-winning Broadway musical “Wicked” premiered in theaters on November 22 and shattered box office numbers across the world. The movie focuses on the mysterious world of Oz before Dorothy’s arrival through the story of Elphaba and Glinda in their journey at Shiz, a prestigious magical university. The film’s spectacular soundtrack and message brought audiences to the theaters again and again. However, the hype for this movie began long before its release with the colossal amount of merchandise that hit the store shelves.

The massive $150 million budget for this film had Universal Pictures’ marketing team on overtime promoting it. This effort allowed them to secure more than 400 brand partnerships ranging from Wicked-themed Crocs to a Wicked-themed Lexus. All these products and advertisements took over store shelves and TV screens by storm.

One of the most interesting advertisements is the Google Pixel ad. It featured the Pixel and iPhone walking down the yellow brick road talking about AI features. The iPhone says it wants to come out with the Gemini Live tool which allows users to have a back-and-forth natural conversation with Gemini. The iPhone also hopes for a Pixel studio tool that generates images through AI. Finally, the iPhone hopes for the wizard to grant them the circle to search tool. The pixel continues to tell the iPhone how the wizard wasn’t responsible for these AI features which leads both to sing the infamous “Defying Gravity.” This unlikely friendship between the iPhone and the Pixel captured the eyes of the audience and gave the promotion of Wicked a huge boost.

Another unique feature of the Wicked marketing approach was the offering of two flavors of everything. Crocs weren’t just “Wicked” Crocs but two different versions. The green with the classic Crocs style and the pink with added height reflects the duality of the characters. Lexus also didn’t just have one “Wicked” car but one green and the other pink. All these different types of merchandise give fans a chance to express themselves in different ways. It reflected the message of authenticity within the film and allowed audiences to be a part of this magical world.
The sheer volume and variety of partnerships that came with this movie ensured that it appealed to all audiences from Broadway megafans to casual moviegoers. Social media was also able to play a huge role in promoting this film. Fans sharing photos of their “Wicked” merchandise turning marketing into a participatory event. This massive trend helped to create a new layer to this promotion campaign.

Furthermore, the marketing campaign also successfully leveraged nostalgia as a key component. For long-time fans of the musical, the merchandise and partnership served as a reminder of the memories of the story and music. This sense of nostalgia brought many together into the theaters helping to leverage this promotion campaign.

They also welcomed new fans into this enormous global community.

All these efforts to promote this movie did pay off, as the film became the highest-grossing domestic box office movie based on a Broadway musical. The film gained $214.3 million by the second weekend, blowing out the lifetime grossing of the 1978 classic Grease. It also became the best worldwide debut of any film based on a Broadway show, gaining $162.5 million in its opening weekend.

Whether this movie was a success or not in the long term, the marketing for this film was spectacular. Everywhere you go, you’d see “Wicked.” While scrolling, you’d see “Wicked.” When watching TV, you’d see “Wicked.” “Wicked” was and still is everywhere.