As the highly anticipated release of Marvel’s “The Avengers: Age of
Ultron” approaches, brands are reveling at the opportunity to attach themselves
to the year’s biggest movie release so far. Eight advertisers have recently released
co-branded national TV commercials, promoting themselves and the movie. Since
its first TV airing in early January, the movie trailer’s nearly 50 variations
have been seen nationally more than 1,800 times across 40 networks and earned
more than 254 million online views.
Half of the eight advertisers debuted ads Monday, April 20, a little
more than a week before the movie’s theatrical release on May 1. Since early
March, Hasbro, Target, Audi, Nesquik, Subway, Dr Pepper, Kellogg’s and Yoplait
GoGurt have been embedding plugs for the movie into their TV commercials. The
majority of these cross-promotional spots have been seen across Nick, Disney XD
and Cartoon Network.
Hasbro was the first to release a co-branded spot with a commercial for
its Avengers Hero Gear. Hasbro is also the only brand to have three different
creatives, just ahead of Nesquik’s two spots. Both are also the only
advertisers to extend their demographic toward Spanish-speaking audiences
through Univision, Telemundo and Galavision. Hasbro leads with 910 national TV airings
in the weeks building up to the release.
Audi’s new commercial “The Avengers: Striking,” lands among the
automaker’s most effective spots with more than 5 million online views. The Avengers spot earned a 9.4 Ad Effectiveness rating in an industry with an average rating
of 5.4. Since it first aired April 13, the commercial has been seen more than 700
times on 26 networks, primarily on MSNBC, BBC America and FXX.
TV networks have also joined in on the advertising action. Eight
networks, half of them owned by Disney, Marvel Studios’ current owner, have co-branded
promotions for the movie. These networks include ABC Family, Disney Channel and USA Network.
With Marvel’s superheroes about to occupy the box office for the foreseeable
future, advertisers are sure to cash in on all things Avengers. Tune into iSpot.tv
for all the analytics in digital, social and TV on these advertisers and others
for what is potentially Marvel’s biggest movie yet.
Andrea Davis-Gonzalez