What brands can learn from from Marty Supreme’s marketing.
We sat down with Sophia Mohr, who is on our Thinking Hat internship programme, to talk about the PR trends she’s excited about. As an avid follower of pop culture, Sophia loves when film marketing does the unexpected.
Q: Shall we start with a quick intro?
I’m Sophia with a ph not an f! I was born in the UK, but raised near Frankfurt, Germany. I studied media at the University of Amsterdam where I wrote my bachelor’s dissertation on how the reading and writing platform Wattpad fosters and creates niche culture communities online. I found it fascinating how a digital platform could create overnight fame.
With that in mind, I studied Digital Humanities at Cambridge, where my Master’s dissertation analysed how Goodreads has changed the way people consume and circulate literature. In the past people got their book recommendations through word of mouth, organisations, and libraries. It was much more in person and community driven.
Then came Oprah’s book club, which built a sense of community across the US using the medium of television. Its success practically earned her the title of book club trailblazer. In recent years, online book clubs have risen in popularity, with Service95 by Dua Lipa or Reese’s Book Club by Reese Witherspoon having their own dedicated following.
Aside from celebrities, online platforms have allowed practically anyone to become an influencer and have an impact on those around them or their audience. A passion can evolve into a career faster than we realise.
What I specifically liked about PR was how people, brands, books, and films communicate themselves to the public. I think there is a lot of stuff on the internet that still does not have the recognition it deserves, and PR essentially tries to bring attention to that. My fondness of media is what led me to searching for a career within PR, and led me to Thinking Hat.
Q: Has there been an influencer led campaign that caught your eye recently?
I’m sure you’ve heard or seen something about the new A24 movie Marty Supreme with Timothée Chalamet. I have been a fan of his films since the beginning of his career and now he’s one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation. In the past, he was quite ‘mysterious’ when it came to his online presence, making him almost more alluring. I remember he was photographed with this pink Glossier sweatshirt and days later it was sold out. Over the years he maintained a very lowkey online presence, but this all changed for his new movie Marty Supreme.
Q: How did it change?
He’s taken his own unique multimedia approach to get the movie more attention. For example, Chalamet and many other celebrities, including Justin Bieber, Tom Brady, Kid Cudi, and later Susan Boyle were photographed wearing a mysterious bomber jacket with the words Marty Supreme emblazoned on the front.
The jackets were sold at a few select pop-up locations around the world, including London. Now, they’re being resold for thousands of dollars. He also collaborated on a rap song with Liverpool rapper EsDeekid where he’s heard chanting “Marty Supreme”, sparking curiosity for the film from an even wider audience, who may have never even heard about the movie. Then he became the first person to stand on top of the Las Vegas Sphere, which was made to look like a giant ping pong ball for the promotion.
He’s basically being seen and spoken about everywhere, across all platforms.
Crucially, he is mixing this approach with more traditional movie release methods, such as press conferences and late night appearances. However, in these appearances he is very in-your-face and vocal about why people should go to the cinema to watch the movie.
Q. Do you think he succeeded?
The movie is definitely a success. Marty Supremeis now A24’s highest grossing release of all time across the Atlantic, which I find rather impressive for a “biographical” film about someone who was not widely known.
I wonder what he will be like for his next film release, and whether he will continue to promote his films so loudly, proudly, and obviously.
Q: Do you have any thoughts on how brands can capitalise on this kind of marketing?
I think being really assertive is key. Assertive in whatever you are selling, whether it’s a service, a product, a movie, or yourself as a brand.
I studied a term called the attention economy while at University, that has a lot to do with how and why people, young people specifically, have such difficulty concentrating and how companies try to navigate that.
Our attention is being pulled between our phone, social media, algorithms, advertisements and more, while everything around us is changing so quickly. How can you make something stay relevant in that landscape? You need to be persistent and assertive, and we see how that played out with Marty Supreme.
This means brands really need to push and shout about what they are doing and why it’s different and better than the rest, across multiple different channels, because in this attention economy, people can lose interest so quickly, causing brands to slip back under the radar. People need to see your brand everywhere they consume media.
