The Digital Marketing Power of Transmedia:Applying Keller’s Brand Resonance Pyramid to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

This paper offers a practical and theoretical contribution to understanding development and marketing of rich intellectual properties (IP) in the entertainment industry, such as films, television programs, comics and games. The impact of digital will be specifically considered. Using a case study of the successful Marvel films, featuring characters such as Iron Man, Thor and The Avengers, the paper aims to show that current ideas about brand equity can be applied. Through a critical analysis of the success (or otherwise) of the marketing of such products, the paper utilizes a leading brand exponent –Kevin Keller– on the importance ofCustomer Brand Equity. Applying Keller’s (2009) ‘Brand Resonance Pyramid’ (BRP) to entertainment industry IP produces different, but complimentary findings to the paradigm of product development, to which the BRP has been previously applied. How to market IP in the entertainment industry needs to be considered due to the rapid technological changes in how IP assets are created and accessed, and the changes in audience and associated buying behaviour where media ip products are driven by globalised audiences who engage digitally. Reaching high levels of brand resonance at the apex of Keller’s pyramid means satisfying the key requirements of loyalty, attachment, community and engagement. Marvel films achieve this by drawing on the concept of Transmedia (Jenkins, 2006), which stresses a narrative thread that moves across multiple platforms, and where it offers an analysis that considers both ip content and the form. Marvel films sell characters with sets of narratives stretching back fifty years and that are globally consumed across a range of mediums. They have a ‘roadmap’ of over a dozen films planned for the next decade which will mutually reinforce each other’s brand equity to mitigate the costs and risk of developing new IP and the ability/need to exploit a franchise frequently across digital channel