The Spin Cycle

The Force is with Star Wars Cross Promotion

By November 11, 2019 November 13th, 2019 No Comments

The new Star Wars movie – “The Rise of Skywalker” – is more than a month away from hitting theaters, but the cross-promotion force is already with us!

Numerous brands are jumping on the galactic battle faster than you can shake a lightsaber!

Recently, Hallmark launched a new holiday spot with 180LA, in which a daughter surprises her parents on Halloween by making a last-minute costume switch from Princess Leia to Luke Skywalker, according to Ad Age.

Le Creuset has cooked up some out of this world products, unveiling

a new carbonite-frozen Han Solo roaster, Death Star and Millennium Falcon trivets, droid-themed mini cocottes, and a Darth Vader round Dutch oven.

For its latest safety video, United Airlines staff walk through the standard FAA safety regulations with different Star Wars-themed destinations displayed in the background. At one point, a flight attendant shows how to buckle a seat belt at the Star Wars exhibit in Sydney. Another crew member discusses the plane’s safety features in front of Star Wars street art in São Paulo, according to Ad Age.

Airplanes and spaceships have strong crossover – they are both flying vehicles – the safety video doesn’t mention the similarity, which seems like a crashed opportunity.

Porsche, on the other hand, is shifting into high gear on co-branded space travel, aligning its road vehicle expertise with Lucasfilm’s spaceship experts. In its new cross-promotion with the studio, in partnership with Wired Brand Lab, Porsche’s Michael Mauer, vice president of style, and Doug Chiang, an executive creative director at Lucasfilm, are working together to design a new space craft set to be revealed at the film’s premiere.

General Electric is also entering the Star Wars publicity sweepstakes with a new marketing campaign for GE appliances, “Harnessing the Force of Innovation.” The campaign, which includes video spots and a merchandising presence in 10,000 stores, follows a daughter as she “uses the force” to help her family activate a variety of new GE features like a voice-activated washing machine and hands-free autofill water dispenser on its fridge.

Lucasfilm is also working on Star Wars cross-promotions with Bose on an audio augmented reality experience, Samsung Mobile, General Mills, Dannon, and McDonald’s, which will feature Star Wars-themed collectible characters in its Happy Meals, according to Ad Age. Disney for its part is heavily promoting its Star Wars franchise this quarter as it prepares for the release of a new Star Wars universe TV series, “The Mandalorian,” on its Disney+ service in addition to the theatrical release of “The Rise of Skywalker.” 

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