For Venom: The Last Dance, we set out to redefine fan engagement through cutting-edge digital innovation. With generative AI revolutionizing the digital landscape, we saw an opportunity to create a first-of-its-kind venomization tool — one that would let fans transform their pet or any animal into a Venom Symbiote-infused creature.
Our approach was to merge Venom’s iconic aesthetic with advanced AI technology, ensuring that every transformation retained the character’s signature traits while allowing for limitless creative expression. This tool expanded the imaginative boundaries of what a Symbiote bond could look like across all animals. The objective was twofold: to generate buzz for the final installment of Venom by offering fans an innovative experience and to drive organic social engagement through shareable user-generated content. By empowering fans to co-create within Venom’s world, we fostered a sense of ownership and excitement, turning passive viewers into active participants. This activation not only exemplified our commitment to innovation and creative storytelling but also set a new benchmark for how generative AI can be leveraged to enhance fan engagement in our film marketing.
The Pet Venomization initiative was inspired by a key moment in the film, when the Venom Symbiote bonded with a horse to create the Venom Horse. This concept sparked the idea of extending the Symbiotes transformative power to other animals not seen in the movie. The digital marketing group took this idea and reimagined it as an interactive experience for fans, enabling them to venomize their pets before further expanding the scope to venomize any animal, such as kangaroos, flamingos, and many more.
To bring this ambitious idea to life, we researched generative AI models and identified Getty Images and NVIDIA as the ideal partners to execute this vision in a safe and ethical way. Their cutting-edge technology provided the foundation to create a unique custom model capable of transforming any animal image into a venomized version. By training our AI model on thousands of official Venom movie assets, we maintained the highest quality in design, producing results that were instantly recognizable and authentic to the franchise. This meticulous training process ensured high-quality, visually striking outputs while adhering to strict ethical guidelines to using copyright-cleared data. To further adhere to privacy standards, we also purged all user-submitted data immediately after each generation. Overall, this approach allowed us to deliver an innovative and engaging experience for users while pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with generative AI.
We chose to make this execution website-based for accessibility and ease of use for global access. Users simply needed to either take a photo of an animal or upload an existing photo of an animal and click a button to have it instantly venomized.
Recognizing the global appeal of Venom, we localized the platform into 14 languages, adhering to regional AI laws and ensuring compliance with Sony’s rigorous AI ethics policies. Overcoming challenges such as legal vetting, information security approvals, and AI model optimization required collaboration across multiple departments, including internal ISG, legal counsel, and our AI ethics team.
One of the most significant hurdles was training the AI to accurately integrate Venom’s visual traits into a wide array of animal images. Through iterative testing and refinement, we ensured the outputs retained the creative integrity of Venom while offering personalized, unique results for each image. Additionally, we optimized the model’s performance to deliver transformations in seconds, ensuring a quick user experience. Finally, we streamlined social sharing, making it effortless for users to showcase their venomized creations with friends.
The Venomize My Pet activation delivered outstanding engagement, boasting a 78% global engagement rate, and an average time spent on the experience of 3 minutes and 23 seconds — more than twice the industry benchmark. With 3MM users visiting the site and 560,000+ unique venomizations, the experience captivated fans worldwide.
The venomization tool’s success was driven by its high replay value, as fans eagerly venomized multiple animals, further amplifying its organic reach. The overwhelming participation and sustained engagement proved that the activation not only met but surpassed our objectives, making it a standout success in the campaign.
Beyond the numbers, this initiative set a new standard for generative AI in entertainment marketing, seamlessly blending storytelling, technology, and fan creativity. By balancing creativity with ethical considerations, we delivered a campaign that not only amplified awareness for Venom: The Last Dance but also set a benchmark for future generative AI activations in entertainment marketing. This project showcased the transformative potential of AI in storytelling and fan engagement, driving organic buzz and reinforcing Venom’s iconic place in pop culture.
