For those who haven’t been residing below a rock, you’ve most likely seen the marketing for The Satan Wears Prada 2, whether or not it’s a glamorous outfit from Anne Hathaway or Meryl Streep throughout social media or a Food plan Coke can plastered with the signature double-spiked crimson heel.
The worldwide press tour, which spanned cities akin to Mexico Metropolis, Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai, culminated on the film’s star-studded world premiere at New York Metropolis’s Lincoln Middle earlier this month with Hathaway, Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci current.
As studios promote trailers for upcoming releases, it’s no shock that they’re additionally utilizing premieres as large advertising autos as effectively.
Within the first film, Hathaway’s Andrea Sachs is an aspiring journalist and fish-out-of-water who scores a job at a fictional style journal referred to as Runway, solely to butt heads with its icy and manipulative editor-in-chief, Miranda Priestly.
Launched in 2006, it was set throughout a time when legacy media was nonetheless comparatively nearer to its prime.
Within the sequel, Miranda and the remainder of the Runway world are grappling with the transition from print to digital media, declining promoting income, management modifications, and the battle for consideration in an algorithm-driven on-line world.
Martha Morrison, head of promoting at Disney Leisure, Studios, mentioned that when the staff was planning the premiere, internet hosting it in New York felt like a full-circle second because the films are set within the metropolis.
“It felt prefer it was pure to increase the celebration of those characters coming again to New York,” Morrison instructed Quick Firm. “We needed it to really feel prefer it was a celebration, however we additionally needed to really feel prefer it was kind of an expertise.”
The premiere (produced by 15|40 Productions) was greater and flashier than the unique, with not solely the principle forged, however a number of influencers, style journalists, and even Anna Wintour in attendance—a crimson carpet match for Runway itself.
What was additionally outstanding on the premiere have been model activations throughout the wonder, style, know-how, hospitality, and meals and beverage classes. These included:
- A L’Oreal Paris photograph sales space the place friends might pose for their very own Runway cowl.
- A Runway-branded elevator door sponsored by Zillow, the place attendees might recreate their very own strut and catwalk.
- A Waldorf Astoria desk the place friends might get their very own customized style illustrations drawn by an artist.
- An interactive Runway closet the place friends might nearly attempt on garments utilizing Google Buying AI know-how.
Different manufacturers Disney and twentieth Century Studios partnered with embody Dior, Lancôme, TRESemmé, Tweezerman, and Gray Goose for varied commercials and branded merchandise.
Morrison mentioned the credit score goes to Lylle Breier, who leads Disney’s international advertising partnerships.
“Their objective was to verify we had a powerhouse collective of all the finest at school companions and types and tradition defining collabs that we presumably might,” Morrison mentioned. “It makes all of it really feel actually particular and actually in-world and chic.”
“One thing tactile and particular”
However maybe one of many largest advertising stunts from the marketing campaign is the limited-edition fictional Runway journal the staff created that was handed out not solely on the premiere, however on the varied L’Oreal Paris, Gray Goose, and different branded pop-up newsstands in Los Angeles and New York.
The journal—which options Blunt’s Emily Charlton on the quilt—is stuffed with editorial options, adverts selling the model partnerships, and style taken from the sequel.
There’s even an “editor’s letter” from Miranda and articles written by Andrea, however all of the contributors are precise style designers, artists, and creators the studio partnered with. (Disney declined to reveal the advertising finances for the sequel.)
“It felt like we needed to meet the mark as we have been going to make our personal Runway journal,” Morrison mentioned. “A number of effort and care was put into ensuring that it matched what individuals’s expectations are of what they might get if they’d an actual Runway journal of their fingers.”
Morrison famous that whereas a lot of the promotion of the movie lives digitally, she mentioned it was essential that they gave followers one thing bodily as a souvenir.
“In a world the place we now have a whole lot of issues taking place in our marketing campaign which might be residing on-line, residing in digital, there’s additionally one thing nice about having one thing tactile and particular you’ll be able to have in your fingers and really feel such as you’ve obtained one thing that feels actually unique,” Morrison mentioned. “There’s an actual energy in that as effectively.”
In the end, all the pieces within the marketing campaign goes again to celebrating the followers and their love for the films and its characters, in line with Morrison.
“Nostalgia may be very sizzling,” she mentioned, even because the film very clearly depicts how individuals are impacted by the passage of time.
“[The characters] have advanced and altered, and there’s a motive for everyone to come back again collectively,” Morrison mentioned, including that the staff’s objective was to “make this really feel like an plain cultural second that’s actually firmly within the zeitgeist.”
