For the long-awaited release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (aka the Snyder Cut), Home Brew envisioned a social campaign unmatched in scope and size to delight the fans that had waited years for this film to premiere. With a very actively engaged audience spanning across the globe, we wanted our campaign to lead the conversation while remaining nimble enough to adapt to real-time trends so that the campaign stayed culturally relevant at all times. In close partnership with HBO Max, we set out to create a holistic digital marketing strategy, best-in-class creative, strategic content rollout plan, and an approach to community management that would authentically capture Zack Snyder’s vision for the film, successfully engage and excite the passionate fan base, and ultimately drive awareness for the film’s debut on the HBO Max streaming platform.
Before it was ever announced for HBO Max, the Snyder Cut had developed a dedicated following. During the making of 2017’s Justice League, Zack Snyder was forced to leave the project due to a family tragedy and was unable to finish the original vision he had for the film. As years went on, rumors circulated that he had a rough final cut of the film and fans began demanding the chance to watch it. In 2020, WarnerMedia announced that they would be financing the completion of the Snyder Cut, now titled Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and launching it in 2021 on HBO Max.
With the pressure of a legendary director’s cut mixed with high expectations from the fans, we knew the primary task was to get it right. Everything we did in this campaign was in service of Zack Sndyer’s vision for his film and the passionate fanbase who had been hoping to see it for years.
When it came time to establish emojis for the campaign, we knew we needed to pay homage to the legacy of the Snyder Cut. For years it was rumored that Zack’s director’s cut existed but only in a black and white reel in Zack’s possession. In honor of this history, we collaborated with HBO Max and Twitter to launch black and white branded hashtags for each of the main characters and villains: #Superman, #Batman, #WonderWoman, #TheFlash, #Cyborg, #Aquaman, #Darkseid and #Steppenwolf in addition to each of their alter egos like #ClarkKent #BruceWayne, ec.
For the official hashtags of the campaign (#ZackSnydersJusticeLeague and #SnyderCut) we used the Justice League logo on a black and white film canister which paid homage to Zack Snyder’s viral social media post in which he confirmed the Snyder Cut’s existence by sharing a picture of film reel canisters where reportedly his version of Justice League existed.
We kicked off the campaign by revealing the official hashtags first before celebrating each of the characters in a week-long “character roadshow” which debuted a new character-branded hashtag and emoji every day. The fans excitedly anticipated each day to see which character would be revealed next in addition to new never-before-seen footage from the upcoming film.
The branded hashtag emojis for this campaign were a huge hit. Not only did #ZackSnydersJusticeLeague and #SnyderCut routinely trend on Twitter including over 1 million uses during the film’s premiere, but each individual character emoji trended on Twitter every day they were revealed.
Exceeding even our highest goals, our campaign worked with the passionate fan community to make Zack Snyder’s Justice League the #1 Most-Discussed movie on Twitter in 2021.
