“Trying to bet on virality is just, it’s not, it’s something you can prepare for, but you can’t actually create.”

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Great Podcast on the Marketing of M3GAN with CMO of Universal Pictures

While I haven’t yet seen the movie M3GAN, I have seen the TikToks, the YouTube videos, and the box office numbers. And played my willing K-factor role sharing one of the clips with my wife (she wasn’t as amused as I was). When some piece of content breaks big this way on social it’s always interested to see if the business results follow, which often is not the case in our meme of the moment culture. Well, this one did, breaking $100 million in two weeks.

Media reporter Matt Belloni spoke with Michael Moses, the Chief Marketing Office of Universal Pictures, about how his team build the campaign for M3GAN and turned out an audience that was 50% under the age of 25. Numbers to DIE FOR….

I recommend you listen to the whole thing but here are some great excerpts.

On virality

I can certainly try to say that there is a science to it, but it’s not a business plan.Trying to bet on virality is just, it’s not, it’s something you can prepare for, but you can’t actually create, you can’t all the consultants and all the agencies out there in the people who purport to say, I can get your Tweet in front of six million people by tomorrow.

None of that is real. It’s all BS. Look, they can get it but then what happens, you know, things that Fascinate, the internet have a very short shelf, life and so it needs to be something that that that that the internet itself decides to kind of adopt and make their own and, and extend its life expectancy.

The Dance

So look, we knew we have this dance.And and when you look at the language of TikTok dance is just fundamental to to what happens there from music, but also movies, and TV shows what’s happened with the Wednesday Addams, dance, and the Matilda dance, these things.

Why Gen Z Fell Hard for M3GAN

I think this is also a case of this is this Generations first homicidal doll movie Every Generation tends to have them.

It’s been a moment, such a moment for all of us.It’s a classic but it’s almost 10 years since since Annabelle and it’s longer since Chucky.And you know this, A repeatable refreshable thing.

More gold in the podcast about timing of campaigns, Minions and Netflix maybe starting to understand marketing.