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12 January 2025 | Issue #120

In this issue:

• The Biggest Marketing Campaign of the Year
• Top AI Image Generators for 2026
• Design Quote of the Week

Have you been watching the biggest marketing campaign of the year? It’s been running for a couple of weeks and it still has 11 months to go.

Did you miss the five-and-a-half-hour livestream that kicked this off back in March of 2025? We’re already 9 months into this promotion, and it hasn’t even really started yet.

After a few rocky years, Marvel is going BIG with its next Avengers movie. Back in March, Marvel released a livestream to announce many of the actors who will be in Avengers: Doomsday.

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Teasers

A few weeks ago, Marvel began releasing teaser trailers to generate excitement.

The first one featured the return of Steve Rogers to the MCU. When last we saw the former Captain America, he was enjoying his quiet civilian life with Peggy Carter back in the 1940s. In this new trailer, we see him cradling a baby. He seems genuinely happy. Which means it probably won’t last long.

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In the second teaser, I started to notice a theme. Thor is praying to his All Fathers for strength so he can get back to his daughter. I thought these two teasers work well to illustrate generations and how these heroes have more to lose than in the past.

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I thought it was going to be building toward a new generation of Avengers (which was teased at the end of The Marvels and a few other movies and shows).

These actors are getting older, and despite what Deadpool said, they're not going to want to play these characters until they're 90 (even though Ian McKellen is 86 years old).

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The third teaser taps into Marvel Studios' new access to the X-Men characters. They're finally bringing the characters who kicked off the modern superhero movie era in the MCU.

Nostalgia

These all tap into the nostalgia of decades of watching these actors play these characters. Even if you haven't fully enjoyed the last few years of Marvel output, these teasers bring you back to an earlier time when there wasn't a glut of superhero content.

But nostalgia can only take you so far.

Customers enjoy nostalgia, but they usually want something new. Nostalgia is not a sustainable marketing strategy. You can use it as a jumping-off point to draw the audience back in and then hit them with the new.

Even the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, announced in July 2024 was a way to bring back the old audience, but offering them something new.

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We're going to continue to see Marvel build hype for this movie and 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars. Marvel is taking its biggest swing because it has to deliver.

Since the last Avengers movie, 2019's Avengers: Endgame, reactions have been mixed. Part of that was due to Disney's then-CEO, Bob Chapek, demanding far more content to populate Disney+. Fortunately, Bob Iger returned as CEO and recognized the damage being inflicted on the Marvel brand by the quantity-over-quality edict.

Marvel is reminding the audience what made it so popular in the first place.

Getting the Audience Involved

Now Marvel has to create buzz to dominate the conversation and translate it into ticket sales. Marvel knows there is an entire industry wrapped around its content.

There are hundreds of videos, with millions of views, dedicated to the most recent teaser trailer

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Countless articles and "think pieces" like this one are created to break down different aspects of these teasers. This video only shows full YouTube videos from the past week. It doesn't get into Shorts, or TikTok, or other platforms that crave new reactionary content.

Is Marvel Going Too Big?

Marvel, and especially its parent company, Disney, knows how to create hype for a movie. The old way of releasing a poster and trailer don't cut it anymore.

​Mark Schaefer's 2025 book, Audacious, profiles multiple companies that use different methods to grab attention. If Doomsday turns into the blockbuster Marvel wants, this could be a good case study in a future edition of the book.

Massive casting announcements 2 1/2 years before the movie release, followed by a 5 1/2 hour live stream with more casting information, followed by weekly teasers announcing additional characters and actors is only going to build more anticipation for the movie.

I've been a part of some big announcement teaser campaigns, but never on this level.

This isn't just a Super Bowl commercial. This is tapping into enthusiasm to get creators to promote Marvel's next big project (I know Spider-Man: Brand New Day comes out first, but Marvel isn't focused on that right now).

And Marvel knows that many of these online commentators will focus on the negative because it drives clicks. Enrage to engage is the way we currently work in this algorithm-driven world, unfortunately.

Marvel is betting on these content creators to engage everyone, for better or worse.

What Can You Learn From Marvel?

Well, I bet it's fun having Marvel-level budgets. But those come with the highest of stakes in the this space.

But Marvel, having had success in the past, is tapping into that audience to not only get them excited, but get them to promote what they're doing. If you're still reading to this point, think about the last time someone wrote a 1,000-word piece on one of your campaigns.

Calling on past customers and getting them excited about your next product release, is a great way to engage a captive audience. Now, I don't think you want to start 30 months before general availability, but there are ways to get people excited about your next launch.

Industry pundits are looking for content, so if they can give them something and make them feel special, they may be more likely to say good things. Remember, people are more likely to promote something if they feel like they contributed to it.

And the excitement needs to build to a crescendo at the right time. I don't think Marvel can keep releasing a new teaser every week. Especially since they have a Spider-Man movie to promote this summer. Lucky for them, it's Spider-Man, and not one of their lesser-known characters.

I'm sure they're smart enough to use that movie as a lead-in to Doomsday.

It's no different than using a webinar or event to lead into a product launch. You're building awareness and good will that results in a sale.

While it may not be obvious how the Avengers: Doomsday marketing campaign can relate to what you do, if you dig into it, you'll find little things you can adopt.

THE VISUAL MARKETER

If you've been looking for the full-color version of one of CMI's top marketing books for 2026, now is your chance. Check it out!​

BEST AI IMAGE GENERATORS

Last week I published a guide that shows the differences between different image generators using the same prompt.

DESIGN QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“A logo derives meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.”
– Paul Rand

My AI disclaimer: I wrote the main article and then ChatGPT helped me with copy edits.

If AI generates the images, I include the prompt so you can see how I got to that image.

Also, if you found the Marvel article interesting, I wrote a similar article a decade ago because Ryan Reynolds (a marketing genius) and Deadpool used a similarly creative approach to their marketing.

Thanks for reading,

–Jim

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