Movie marketing is changing. Not quietly, marginally, but unmistakably. And it signals a new potential era for impactful audience engagement, that – if harnessed effectively – we believe could spark genuine real-world change.
When Universal Pictures launched its Wicked For Good campaign ahead of the much-anticipated movie sequel, it felt like more than just another promo. Inviting audiences to channel the spirit of heroine Elphaba through everyday acts of kindness and environmental care – and do something meaningful even before they step inside the cinema – is a bold step for a Hollywood blockbuster franchise, beyond merchandise or character association.
This kind of purpose-led approach isn’t new, but the scale, ambition, and cultural visibility of a franchise like Wicked adopting it suggests the trend is entering a new phase. It signals a growing appetite among major studios for participatory issue marketing that aims to extend a film’s moral universe into our own reality.
More and more, films are using their marketing platforms not just to entertain or intrigue, but to provoke, educate, support or activate. Wicked For Good is a timely spark to ask – is this type of film marketing really trying to make a difference? And if so, how could we push it further?
Turning Public Space Into A Message
Some of the most memorable film marketing campaigns in recent years have succeeded because they addressed an issue, and brought a film’s world viscerally into our streets and feeds.
Some campaigns did this by blurring the boundary between fiction and reality.
- Ex Machina famously launched a Tinder profile for Ava, the AI protagonist – an immersive stunt that pulled audiences into uncanny conversations about intimacy, technology, and trust. Hundreds of viral matches later, the campaign had achieved more than ticket sales; it led people to deep reflection on how easily we commit emotionally to technology – a message of even keener relevance today.
- The Tomorrow War used augmented reality billboards in multiple cities to throw passersby into live alien invasions, atmospherically demonstrating how quickly familiar spaces can be reshaped by external factors like conflict and climate disruption. These visual cues weren’t just memorable, they were effective; the film went on to record over 1.2 billion minutes of viewing in its opening week, one of Amazon’s strongest original debuts.
Other campaigns have used public space not as a spectacle, but as a mirror.
- For Toxic Town, Netflix launched reactive digital billboards that visualised local air pollution. These made the environmental crisis of Corby’s toxic waste scandal feel personal to passers-by in multiple locations. Instead of asking audiences to step into the story, marketing revealed that they were already in it.
- Steve used building-scale murals to confront pedestrians with stark statistics about the struggles of teachers, turning public walls into catalysts for reflection, and making systemic problems impossible to ignore. The film has since charted in the Netflix U.S. top-10, and ranked No.1 in Ireland, and is being pushed for major awards as a prestige social issue drama.
When Marketing Becomes Social Engagement – And Sometimes Activism
Some of the most striking film marketing campaigns have been those that have converted attention into direct community benefit – prioritising real-world outcomes over short-lived PR wins.
- Marvel’s Black Panther funded cinema trips for hundreds of children from the Harlem Boys & Girls Club, aligning a gesture of access perfectly with the movie’s themes of representation and empowerment.
- A24’s Sing Sing organised educational screenings in more than 1100 U.S. correctional facilities, generating film buzz by using distribution to reach an audience usually excluded from cinematic conversation.
- Spanish distributor Tripictures linked trailer views of Autumn and the Black Jaguar to reforestation efforts in Colombia, with a physical billboard sprouting greenery as engagement rose; a rare positive feedback loop between online attention and real ecological restoration.
In some cases, strong marketing campaigns organically overflowed from a film’s timely resonance, or took more direct routes to action, driving unique press and legacy.
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri inspired activists across the world to replicate its iconic red billboards to challenge major social injustices, from anti-corruption to femicide. Imagery escaped the screen and became a tool for public pressure far beyond anything the studio imagined.
- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’s marketing budget, famously repurposed by Casey Neistat into Philippines typhoon relief efforts, reframed film promotion as humanitarian action, proving that sometimes the most effective message is simply to do good.
Issue Marketing Growth : A New Frontier?
Cause marketing in film started as a handful of creative one-offs, but it seems now to be rapidly becoming a mainstream element of PR toolkits. The Wicked For Good campaign arrives at a moment when this type of audience engagement is not only more visible – it’s more expected. Industry reports show brands generally are focusing more on purpose-oriented ad campaigns – responding to rising consumer demand for meaningful, authentic brand actions.
Studios running issue-centred marketing campaigns often, in the same breath, push socio-political impact to arms length distance. But it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Especially since cause marketing is in fact contributing – to some extent – to strengthening a circular impact economy: a study on Netflix’s comedy-drama Don’t Look Up, for example, found that pairing the film with climate-focused marketing significantly increased viewers’ support for climate action. Imagine if the film’s release had also paired with a targeted impact campaign, what kind of issue momentum might truly have been achieved.
While we can read into signs that audiences are rewarding films whose marketing gives them a role to play, data is still missing to prove the link conclusively. If studios and streamers were more transparent, they could provide valuable evidence of how leaning into the issues their films encompass and represent stimulates audiences to respond – and thereby inform even wider takeup of purposeful marketing approaches across the industry for wholesale change.
So if investing in impactful marketing pays off commercially, and if distributors and studios are willing to put their money behind real social change initiatives, is this creating a window for PR and impact to join forces for even greater good?
Navigating The Line Between Purpose and Purpose-Washing
As more studios embrace issue-centred campaigns, the risk of purpose-washing grows. A clever stunt can raise awareness, but without follow-through it risks feeling hollow. Authentic impact requires close alignment between a film’s themes, its marketing choices, and real-world outcomes. The most credible purposeful marketing campaigns build long-term partnerships, follow through on stated commitments, and avoid gestures that feel like moral veneers rather than genuine contributions.
This is where impact and marketing could powerfully go hand-in-hand. As well as making tangible real-world change, impact can valuably boost the chances of commercial success for a film and support financial return. The more legitimate a film is made through the impact work in which it is engaged, the further it can travel and longer it can last in the market. Dark Waters is one key example of this: more than five years since its release the film still hits strong, thanks to impact initiating and catalysing widespread chemical-banning policy and corporate business practice. Its continued presence on streaming platforms is boosting long-tail commercial potential – as well as continually bringing new audiences to forever chemicals activism – showing clearly that by partnering strategic film impact with high-profile cause marketing efforts, everyone can benefit.
Wicked For Good should be watched closely on this front. Its call to kindness and environmental care is thematically true to the franchise, but we are yet to see how the studio’s toolkits and social media will make an actual impact. Only time will tell whether the campaign will lead to an outpouring of real audience actions, or pass as a vapid promotional flourish.
A Turning Point, And A Real Impact Chance
Seen together, the many high-profile examples of intentional cause marketing film campaigns point to a real shift; this is certainly no longer niche. Issue messaging is becoming a creative and cultural tool; one that can be powerfully leveraged to help even the most mainstream films break through the noise, build deeper resonance, and even spark concrete action.
For those of us who work at the intersection of film, impact, and communication, this is an exciting and critical moment. Cause marketing can valuably deepen storytelling and inspire audiences to support social justice movements. Yet if action is genuinely the goal, authenticity, not aesthetics, must be at the core. And that means not waiting until a film is released – it requires embedding impact experts into productions as early as possible. Creativity alone is not enough – for marketing to be part of achieving true social change, justice, and equality, ambition must be matched and steered with strategy.
If Wicked’s bold step is any indication, we may be entering an era where audiences don’t just see films – they participate in their values. As more influential and deep-pocketed film industry players step into the social issue space, there is responsibility, as well as opportunity. But in these times of political upheaval, repression, and censorship, seeing these moves does give us a reason to stay hopeful. When participatory marketing is genuinely intended and thoughtfully designed – then, a film’s impact could have an even greater chance to last far longer than its runtime.
