Reviewing Top Gun Maverick's Marketing Success
Why did Top Gun Maverick become this year’s summer movie blockbuster? Nostalgia? Tom Cruise? F-14s and F-18s? Or was it just Miles Teller‘s abs? Maybe it was all of it. Let’s fly into this, with a need for speed.
1. It’s A GOOD Movie & It’s a great PRODUCT from the filming industry, its directors & actors
Top Gun Maverick needed just a few days to become a record-setting movie, giving star Tom Cruise his best opening weekend ever. As well as making it his first billion-dollar-making movie.
Marketing success only goes so far for a bad product. A good product creates a snowball effect, word of mouth, etc. The success of the first Top Gun movie was part of this movie’s marketing plan. It also set the sequel up to need to reach a higher bar to compete against. Which it did accomplish.
It was made cross-generational
The marketing of the film has campaigned to very specific generations. With Gen X and Millennials generations being the primary target. However even Gen Z got on the train, probably once the Miles Teller abs trend started rolling across TikTok.
The best part of the movie is that all generations could like it as well. Gen X has been waiting for a sequel for over 30 years. Millennials probably saw the original Top Gun movie on their parent’s VHS players. And Gen Z can relate to Miles Teller as he’s been around in movies over their time period.
2. CONTINUAL TEASING & A LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL
The extra amount of time this movie had for the buildup has proven successful. The movie started filming in 2017, and here we are in 2022 and the movie has arrived. On June 19, 2019, Miles Teller revealed in an interview that he had finished filming just two days earlier:
The movie was already seemingly done before the pandemic hit us, and they wanted to wait for things to reopen so that they could achieve box office success with the movie. Which they did, and did it right.
MORE TEASING = MORE HYPE = MORE MONEY
I believe the extra time worked heavily in their favor. It garnished that much more extra hype in the anticipation. This goes to show that the more hype you can build – without pissing your fans off utterly – the more you can make. Just the sheer fact of numbers – so many people heard about this movie starting filming in 2018 and we started seeing the first posters around 2020.
The pandemic hit in 2020 and it gave them a supposed bonus 2 years of teasing and delaying. This isn’t going to be the case for everyone, nor would we want things to be delayed by pandemics at all. But it does prove that when you have a good product and it’s been teased long enough, people are going to want to see it.
3. THE PERSONAL CONNECTION WITH YOUR PUBLIC
The public liked the original Top Gun more than the critics did, that’s evident from the original Top Gun‘s rotten tomato score:
But the fact that Top Gun connected with people then and still connects with people is a huge factor in leading up with other marketing efforts. This is something we need to think about for our own products. Obviously, we aren’t all making blockbuster summer movies, but we can relate to the branding efforts. How this specific movie connected with people all the way back in 1986 and still does, is a major factor. There have been things that have kept it alive, like meme culture. Or sayings that have gone against the test of time “The Need For Speed” and “You Can Be My Wingman Any Time” to name a few. Or how about the timeless songs that have endured as well “Take My Breath Away” and “Danger Zone”?
If you step back and look at these things, you will see that it’s part of that movie’s overall branding and marketing for a good product. This is also why branding is so important, and why you want to keep your public constantly going back to your product.
As far as branding in marketing goes, branding done right will build trust. Brands have clear-cut messaging and an overall clear identity. All of which give you customer loyalty.
“Branding done right will build trust. Brands have clear-cut messaging and an overall clear identity. All of which give you customer loyalty.”
The timing of the release of the movie was gold
Their marketing team chose the perfect time period to release this movie. Memorial day weekend is the first check on the list. It’s a holiday that could easily relate to the movie series. Also, movies in the theater, in general, had just started picking up on ticket sales. Spiderman: No Way Home proved theatrical movies could make money again post-covid. A mere 4 months before Top Gun Maverick was released.
4. WORD-OF-MOUTH
The word-of-mouth on this movie has been great out of the gates. With its 98% critics review and 99% audience score, it had no problems holding it down. Also strategically releasing the movie around Memorial Day had a few double meanings, one being the movie itself with Rooster honoring Goose. There is careful thought put into this.
Then you have the matter of word-of-mouth from the Internet. In this day and age, things go viral on TikTok and become extremely successful, like Miles Teller’s abs being a popular trend and also a trend of people seeing the movie reacting to that seen being a trend in itself. There’s a lot that goes into making it big, and then bigger with more marketing efforts. All those things boost a good product and will build its momentum.
I hope you enjoyed this Top Gun Maverick blog, please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions and if this helped you at all in your marketing efforts, be sure to check out my other blogs, thank you!
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