For our epic, six-month long campaign for Puss In Boots: the Last wish, it was imperative to capture the attention of both existing franchise fans and younger audiences who may not have been as familiar with the character or the wider Shrek universe. To keep the campaign feeling current, modern, and relevant, especially to new fans, we leveraged trending formats whenever possible to inject and keep Puss in Boots in the forefront of social conversation around movies and what was happening in the wider popular culture online.
Since over ten years elapsed since the first Puss in Boots movie and the 2022 sequel, it was important to capture the attention of new audiences by leaning into current social trends. When the Twitter quad graphic format featuring Pope Francis blessing the host began to trend, we immediately jumped into the fray with a meme that added everyone’s favorite swashbuckling feline adventurer into the conversation. In the format, the host is replaced with some other image creating humor by juxtaposing the sacred with the everyday. For the piece to work, the perfect image of Puss in Boots had to be chosen. Since this meme was created two months before the film’s release, we decided to intrigue older fans by using an iconic GIF of the character from the first movie. However, by blending this familiar image with a trending format, we were also able to capture the attention of younger fans as well and generate conversation that crossed generations. With just the right crop, we soon had Pope Francis “blessing” the character on Twitter, continuing our strategy of injecting the movie into current and trending conversations.
To date, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has grossed over $425 million dollars worldwide. Through strategic pieces like our Puss in Boots/Pope Francis meme, which earned 614 likes and was retweeted 103 times, we successfully captured the attention of younger fans and helped make the character feel relevant again after a ten year hiatus.
