LICENSE A FAMOUS CHARACTER
USING COSTUMES
Utilising the likeness or resemblance of a fictional character in advertising is a popular approach for many creatives.
Well-known fictional characters have already established a significant presence in popular culture. By borrowing their likeness, key visual elements, or personality traits, advertisers can tap into the existing recognition and familiarity that audiences have with these characters – quickly grabbing the attention of the audience and creating a sense of connection. When people come across a familiar character, they’re more likely to engage with the content. The presence of a beloved character evokes positive emotions, nostalgia, or curiosity.
Fictional characters often have distinctive traits or memorable catchphrases that make them easily memorable. Incorporating these elements into a campaign enhances the memorability of the campaign significantly increasing brand recall and recognition. Characters with a strong fan base can generate significant buzz. By featuring characters in advertising campaigns, marketers can leverage the existing fandom and encourage fans to share the content with their networks, amplifying the organic reach of a campaign, increasing its shareability and commonly leading to viral exposure and increased brand awareness.
CONSIDERATIONS:
Rights Holders (and fans) will typically expect the creative to remain on-brand and true to the character. Authenticity is key.
There are certain characters that are ‘off-limits’ or extremely challenging to license. Consult Born Licensing at the early stages of development for a steer on feasibility.
Some Rights Holders will only allow their characters to be shown within ‘their worlds’ which might mean adjusting the creative.
CASE STUDY #1:
Direct Line x RoboCop
RoboCop was licensed by UK insurance firm Direct Line in an advertising campaign which used the likeness of the iconic cyborg character. The RoboCop suit was developed from scratch and was based on the original 1987 film. For this production, the Rights Holders allowed Direct Line’s agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, to use Legacy Effects to create the suit. Born Licensing provided Saatchi & Saatchi with visual references and guides from the Rights Holders to ensure Legacy Effects had what they needed to build an authentic suit.
To ensure the character and the suit were accurate right down to the fine detail, photos were submitted to the Rights Holders for review throughout key stages of development. The suit was made specifically to fit the talent who played the role of RoboCop in the campaign. The campaign went on to win Marketing Week’s prestigious Grand Prix Award in 2021.
CASE STUDY #2:
MoneySuperMarket x He-Man and Skeletor
Iconic hero He-Man and his arch nemesis Skeletor appeared in a series of epic advertising campaigns for UK-based comparison website MoneySuperMarket. The characters appeared in the form of detailed costumes which took over three hours to put on. The costume designs went through a comprehensive approval process with the Rights Holder to ensure even the smallest detail was authentic.
The campaign went on to be named as the highest-scoring individual commercial in 2017 by Adwatch and was considered by Millward Brown to be within the top 2% of the most engaging ads ever recorded. Six months later MoneySuperMarket took things to an entirely new level, with He-Man and Skeletor recreating the iconic dance from Dirty Dancing. The campaign was an instant viral hit, tallying 27 million online views within days and increasing MoneySuperMarket’s Twitter mentions from 100 tweets per day to 35,000 per hour.