As of late, cinema culture has been dominated by biopics, sequels, and live-action films that are guaranteed to have an audience before they even hit the big screens.

Advertising is charged by reputation, pre-existing fame, controversy. The guarantee of people’s vested interests before the film appears, rather than innovation and creativity.

 

To huge effect however, the drop of Marty Supreme and its unique, passionate, and somewhat absurd approach to advertising, has quite literally shaken up the movie marketing sphere. 

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How did an indie film about a hell-bent, ambitious table tennis player hustling to grasp the elusive American dream, garner $147 million at the global box office- surpassing A24’s current record holder, Everything Everywhere All at Once?

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While A24 has a devoted following of cinephiles, a film’s launch towards the community of casual movie-goers always requires sizable traction. This is especially true in the case of Marty Supreme; bouncing between subject matters of ping-pong, self-identity, and ambition- a unique combination of ideas that don’t fit into a specific demographic mould. Whereas ironically, it is universally understood that having a set target audience is an irrefutable requisite to marketing success. 

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However, it is precisely this erratic and passionate marketing for Marty Supreme that is currently making waves across the internet right now. 

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Round 1: The Zoom Meeting 

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A month before Marty Supreme hit cinemas in the US, a supposedly ‘leaked’ marketing meeting recording silently slipped onto A24’s YouTube channel. With the Marty Supreme star Timothée Chalamet at the bow, the video humorously satirises the classic (and perhaps all too relatable) Zoom meeting experience to push its own reach and agenda. Curious viewers lured in by this exclusive, enigmatic premise were guided along an escalating current of satire, absurdity, and sheer chaos. 

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From big plans like painting the Statue of Liberty orange to match the ping-pong balls in the movie, to flying an orange blimp raining ping-pong balls over the LA music festival, these ideas are nothing short of eccentric. To most viewers, these campaigns are pure insanity, some wild ideas that would never come to fruition. But by contrasting Chalamet’s explosive ideas against the Zoom gallery of deadpan faces, a jarringly stark contrast is created that gets people to notice, get them laughing, remembering, sharing—even getting them curious:

 

Will they really paint the Statue of Liberty orange?

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- Probably not. But beyond all expectation, they did “fruitionise” the blimp, and even made history by turning the Las Vegas Sphere into a ping-pong ball with Chalamet on top, as the words ‘Marty Supreme Christmas Day’ worship from below.

 

That’s not to say that flying a blimp will deliver reproducible success. Rather, this success stems from something more arbitrary. From A24 and Chalamet keeping people anticipated, hooked and hyped by this transformative materialisation of absurdity. 

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And this pipeline of idiosyncrasy and comedy doesn’t just end here. Condensed into quotable phrases like “Marty Supreme Christmas Day”, and hilarious repost-worthy moments, the Zoom meeting translates easily onto short form social media content. That’s where the magic of virality takes place. Needless to say, social media platforms were thrown into full orbit around these Zoom meeting gems, generating discussion that was uniquely transformative in allowing this indie film to attain a global reach, especially amongst younger audiences. 

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“This has gotta be like one of the most important things that happens on planet earth this year, MARTY SUPREME CHRISTMAS DAY. I wanna say that so many times. If I go on Jimmy Fallon, I wanna say ‘MARTY SUPREME CHRISTMAS DAY MARTY SUPREME CHRISTMAS DAY MARTY SUPREME CHRISTMAS DAY.”

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And that’s what he did. Chalamet’s unwavering dedication to this fervent promotion continued outside of just the 18 minute video; his appearance on Jimmy Fallon, other skits, and even on press tours make this mogul and his infectious personality feel all the more genuine. This ultimately cemented Marty Supreme more firmly in its fun-filled craziness, rather than letting a single viral skit float away into internet obscurity. 

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“All will be revealed in due time” was what Chalamet replied to rumours of him being the true identity of anonymous British rapper EsDeeKid. Hyping up the enigma, and building anticipation, the marketing campaign rode the social media current and just when curiosity hit a maximum, a collaboration song between Chalamet and EsDeeKid broke the internet, hitting millions of views and also housing a few Marty Supreme shoutouts. It’s not just what strategies you employ or ideas you come up with, but also how you respond to opportunities and the wants of the audience, all of which determine the pace and success of the campaign. Where most people would’ve just shrugged off rumours like this, Chalamet saw the opportunity and took it.

 

This collaboration highlights one of the biggest joys of marketing campaigns: while they can be planned and executed, successful marketing is ultimately a response to public interaction and reaction.

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Round 2: Branding & Audience Connection

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“When you think of Barbie, what do you think? I think PINK.” 

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In true chaotic fashion, Chalamet pulls up (to the bewilderment of the marketing team), an orange square that his visual designer took “six months” to configure. His passion doesn’t just upholster the video with that perfect amount of tongue in cheek humour, it also aligns perfectly with his personal brand in being “one of the greats”, echoing Marty Mauser’s own fervent ambition. 

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And the orange square? It’s not just straight orange. According to Chalamet, it’s “HARDCORE orange, CORRODED orange, FALLING APART orange, RUSTED orange”. 

“If we do straight orange, we’re literally just copying the vibe of Barbie.”

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A24 reminds us that distinguishing a brand works on a multidimensional scale. It’s not as simple as just picking a colour and sticking to it. While that intuitively feels like ‘marketing 101’, it’s the idea of being able to visually materialise the essence of a brand, rather than accommodating around the picks of other movies. Orange isn’t just the colour of the Marty Mauser ball, it also represents the stroke of genius he has to make the ball stand out against a white sheet of paper, arguably a microcosm of A24’s launch of the movie into cinemas around the globe. Even though the orange formulates one short segment of the movie, it has become one of the most recognisable elements of the show. As pink meant Barbie, orange meant Marty Supreme, with Chalamet and his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, donning an orange ensemble at the Marty Supreme premiere, and orange collectible ping-pong balls being offered at select cinemas. 

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And it isn’t just in movies that this has been so successful. From Olivia Rodrigo’s signature purple and Sabrina Carpenter’s iconic baby blue album branding, to Wes Anderson’s renowned “Andersonian” colour palette, to Barbie pink, and now Marty Supreme orange, colour branding stands as one of the most effective methods to speak to the wider audience. It leans into high consistency and exposure to create fast connection and association. When done well, a simple colour and HEX code immediately sparks memory and association of what is being advertised. “Everywhere I stepped I would be inundated with pink”, Chalamet notes about Barbie’s marketing. And what does it mean to ‘inundate’ if not to open the floodgates and immerse people headfirst into your brand? In synonymising brand identity with a particular visual cue, not only does this induce recognisability and connection, but classic studies on the mere exposure effect have demonstrated increased exposure to foster familiarity and liking (Zajonc, 1968). 

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A24 and Chalamet show us what it means to brand. And this goes beyond matters of the 150x150px “corroded” orange square. One of the other most prominent aspects of their campaign was the signature Marty Supreme jackets. Given to select celebrities, such as Misty Copeland, the Jenners, Charles Leclerc, and Bill Nye, this diverse selection of ambassadors increased the reach of Marty Supreme to new demographics, to everyone. It even had people continuously guessing who the next jacket would be given to. What’s more is that the application of celebrity status to these jackets added perceived value to this piece of merchandise; If you owned one, you were part of the hype. Flash sales and limited time street pop-ups selling the jacket were met with lines, tents, and sleeping bags occupied by determined individuals. And all of this would keep feeding back into the exposure of Marty Supreme. Every repost, every Instagram story, every news headline.

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And in a random, but really not-so-random spur, Chalamet beckons the team to “imagine Marty Mauser ‘SCHWAP!’ on the cover of a Wheaties box”. In truth, this is secretly genius: marketing needs to also consider accessibility. Does the world want to see Marty Supreme as something exclusive? Or something for everyone. The Wheaties are a cheaper, easier to access alternative to the jackets, allowing more of the public to engage and buy into the hype. 

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“I’m gonna go buy Wheaties to get my kids cereal in the morning right? - NO. I’m getting inceptioned to go see Marty Supreme.”

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Sporadic as it seemed initially, upon further inspection, none of Chalamet or A24’s moves are simply just for the love of the game. By slapping Marty Mauser onto the ‘breakfast of champions’ alongside sports legends like Michael Jordan, the campaign stays true to the theme of sports in the film whilst also channelling the “level of greatness” Chalamet and A24 heavily advocate for Marty Supreme to be seen in. Successful branding needs to be highly relevant and holistic. And Chalamet does not stop there;exclusive score listening events rallied together Daniel Lopatin fans and music lovers, an underground ping-pong tournament run in collaboration with Airbnb tapped in with the sports crowd. The marketing run for Marty Supreme cleverly closed the gap between the film and the audience, employing diverse strategies to give the public freedom in gravitating towards which aspect of the film connected with them the most. Echoing the same idea as the orange colour branding, marketing strategies shouldn’t exist to copy or claim, they need to all tie back uniquely to the brand. It is easy to mimic with a forced copy paste of another’s successful marketing campaign, but the reality of movie marketing success lies in the flexibility and passion of promoting the core values of the film. 

Round 3: Dream Big

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Echoing the unyielding ambition of main character Marty Mauser, A24 and Chalamet remind us to “dream big” and that ultimately, marketing is a creative practice. 

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Of course, that’s not all there is to marketing success, because this idea of dreaming big and standing out is most definitely grandiose and abstract. But more importantly, it prompts us to see marketing beyond the substance of just theory and trends. Instead, marketing should continuously challenge the bounds of what already exists and what’s possible.

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Chalamet puts it best: “We’re not trying to be chic, we’re planting our flag”. 

The Marty Supreme marketing campaign unabashedly ensured that it was rooted in the minds of everyone who came across it. From inaugural ideas such as the hilarious zoom meeting, to age-old strategies drawn to their fullest saturation, it is clear that society hasn’t seen any marketing quite like this in a while.

 

It teaches us to not shy away from asserting a brand:

“We have to be intentional, relentless, aggressive”

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Whilst being a trend-follower has its leverages, it also poses the cursed pitfall of simply just blending in. 

To achieve a one-of-a-kind, bombshell of a campaign like Marty Supreme, one must strategically leverage the strengths of their team and the identity of their brand. A24 maximised the precarious alchemy between Chalamet’s passion and charisma, and A24’s aptness for innovative marketing strategies.

Their collective pioneering and unyielding zeal to “dream big” keeps people constantly on their toes, constantly hooked and constantly wanting to see more. 

 
Studies cited:

Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9(2, Pt.2), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0025848