Kingsman: The Golden Circle debuts in US theaters this weekend and if manners maketh man, then marketing maketh brand.
This star-studded sequel to the hit 2014 action spy comedy has the Kingsman members banding together with their American spy counterparts—Statesman, including Channing Tatum and Jeff Bridges—to defeat a global threat. The film also features Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Halle Berry and Sir Elton John.
The marketing team at 20th Century Fox wanted to draw audiences into its cinematic world of spies—including where they hang out and what they drink.
Expedia staged an interactive takeover of its VisitBritain site, allowing users to explore images from either the Statesman or Kingsman realms and be entered to win a trip to Britain. Kingsman: The Golden Circle was filmed across Britain and features iconic landmarks including Savile Row, Hyde Park and Eventim Apollo.
“The collaboration with 20th Century Fox and VisitBritain was built around the idea that films are powerful motivators for travel,” Andrew van der Feltz, senior director of Expedia Media Solutions told AListDaily. “Research by VisitBritain shows that more than one-third of all potential visitors to Britain want to visit places they have seen in movies or on TV, and leveraging the new Kingsman: The Golden Circle film was a natural fit. The film’s uniquely British style is a powerful opportunity to inspire US travelers to take a trip to Britain, and the campaign on Expedia’s points of sale helps VisitBritain reach a highly qualified travel audience.”
Another location used to film The Golden Circle is the GlenDronach distillery in Scotland. In honor of the film, GlenDronach has released a new GlenDronach Kingsman Edition 1991 scotch whisky. Only 240 bottles of the whisky will be made available to the US market, priced at around $600 each.
The Statesman got their own spirit—bourbon—courtesy of Brown-Forman.
“Our objective was to take what they’d used in the film, this fun, interesting creative bourbon storyline, and bring it to life,” Old Forester president Campbell Brown told Forbes. “So we’ve created an Old Forester Statesman product that is very different from the Old Forester that you would be buying today. It’s in an older sort of bottle, it’s a premium expression of what we make.”
For pop culture fans, spies and alcohol may remind you of the hit Fox show Archer. An animated crossover has Kingsman Eggsy dashing for his agency’s hideout when he runs into none other than “the world’s greatest spy.”
The team over at 20th Century Fox couldn’t ignore the obvious connections between its film title and another golden circle happening in the sky. But rather than simply promote around the solar eclipse, the marketing team took credit for it. Calling it the greatest movie promo ever, 20th Century Fox mocks itself with marketing tropes such as “millennials” and “low hanging fruit,” resulting in a humorous campaign that included a sponsored hashtag on the day of the eclipse.
The marketing brand message for Kingsman: The Golden Circle is simple: enjoy the finer things in life and don’t take the film too seriously. The sequel is expected to debut between $40-45 million, outpacing its predecessor.
