Once upon a time, the word “minions” likely brought to mind nothing more than faceless servile beings or the person barking orders at them.
Flash forward to the release of Despicable Me prequel Minions in 2015, and minions are far more than their dictionary definition. Minions are Minions. They’re pint-sized, sassy yellow creatures with high-pitched voices used to speak exclusively in gibberish – duh, everyone knows that. At least, everyone knows that now that Universal Studios told everyone to know that.
What we have here is an impressive feat of marketing. How a company could manage to virtually take ownership over the word “minions” and change its meaning in the minds of an entire generation is more than impressive, really – it’s genius. So how did they do it?
Well, first thing’s first – a big budget doesn’t hurt. Bloomberg has reported that Comcast, Universal’s parent company, spent nearly $600 million on publicity for the film.
But the main factor contributing to their success is creativity. They didn’t just stick to traditional print advertising or TV ads – they stuck Minions just about anywhere they could (which, due to their size and malleability, presented a generous assortment of options). Minions could be found in the form of iPhone cases, in a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, adorning kids’ toothbrushes – pretty much everything was turned yellow to spread the word.
So maybe you can’t afford to partner up with Kraft – that doesn’t mean you can’t seize every opportunity for success in your field. Want to emulate the meteoric rise of the Minion with your own marketing? Contact us today!