As the COVID-19 pandemic continues I found myself rewatching one of my favorite movies. After completing the 2018 movie Crazy Rich Asians I started to question why this movie was one of my favorite selections. It has your typical romantic comedy movie storyline of a modern Cinderella version. Did I like it because of the storyline or was there more to the movie than just your typical Cinderella story.
Crazy Rich Asians is an adaptation from the hit novel by Kevin Kwan. It is a romantic comedy that discusses Asian culture and traditions. Crazy Rich Asians grossed $174.5 million in the United States and Canada, and a worldwide gross of $239 million, against a production budget of $30 million. It became the first Hollywood film with an all-Asian cast to hit the big screen in 25 years. It surpassed many movie critics and insiders’ expectations in terms of revenue and popularity. The question is how did they achieve such a success when most critics felt they would not meet consumers’ expectations? The answer to this question is strategic marketing and an understanding of its target audience.
Target Audience
Crazy Rich Asians producers and marketing teams heavily targeted the Asian-American community; this narrow target audience proved to be a driving force behind their success. Its main focus was not to promote the romantic comedy but the culture and traditions in the movie. The movie aims to bring awareness to the Asian-American community. After 25 years it became the first movie with an all Asian cast and the message behind the production resonated with the Asian-American community. The producer staying true to the novel proved most effective because the community became brand advocates and “word of mouth” remained the best form of advertising.
Social Media
Crazy Rich Asians’ marketing strategy focuses on Asian American influencers and celebrity promotion of the movie. Warners worldwide marketing president Blair Rich mentioned in his interview that their marketing team ambition was to give the Asian-American community ownership of the film. Before the movie hit the box office, Warner Brothers did a private screening to Asian American celebrities and social media influencers. Warner Brothers succeeded in creating a community within the social media platform by following these strategies.
Justin Lin, film director of Fast and Furious and Star Treks tweeted his support for the movie.
Arden Cho, an actress, singer, and model best known for her role in Teen Wolf promoted the movie through her social media account.
A group of Silicon Valley venture capital and tech minds gathered together to discuss the promotion of the movie. To show support the group launched the #goldopen event through social media. The event is to promote awareness of the Asian American community. The social media campaign not only generated promotions for the movie, but many Asian American industry leaders rented out movie theaters for a special screening of the movie. The campaign aims to spread interest in the film, creating a path for greater Asian-American representation in Hollywood.
Crazy Rich Asians cast was honored with the Hollywood Breakout Ensemble Award at the 2018 Hollywood Awards.
Warner brother’s marketing team focused on differentiating their product and succeeded in creating awareness for the movie through different social media platforms. Crazy Rich Asians not only surpass movie critic expectations but successfully created a new brand for Asian American films. As I finish the show I am excited to see what is next for the Asian American community and the new subgenre. Crazy Rich Asians’ marketing formula has shown to be socially purposeful.
Reference:
Sun, R. (2019, January 2). Inside the Smart ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Marketing Campaign That Led to a $174M Box Office Win. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/inside-campaign-trail-led-crazy-rich-asians-box-office-win-1169867
Thilk, C. (2019, January 25). Crazy Rich Asians – Marketing Recap. Retrieved from https://cinematicslant.com/2018/08/15/crazy-rich-asians-marketing-recap/
Williams, R. (2018, August 20). ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ leads with social media mentions, box office sales. Retrieved from https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/crazy-rich-asians-leads-with-social-media-mentions-box-office-sales/530430/
Yin, D. (2018, August 30). How ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Nailed Brand Strategy And Became A Box Office Hit. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidyin/2018/08/27/how-crazy-rich-asians-nailed-brand-strategy-and-became-a-box-office-hit/#6b27241f4438
Yoon-hendricks, A. (2018, August 15). ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Has Affluent Fans Opening Their Wallets. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/movies/crazy-rich-asians-gold-open.html
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