It’s Back to the Future Day. It’s obvious that some brands from the film had to get in on the action. Amobee Brand Intelligence gathered some of the engagements around the anniversary.
Looking at the month heading into Back to The Future Day, DeLorean was of course the brand with the most Back To The Future-related digital content engagement; with 15 percent of all Back To The Future digital content engagement between Sept. 21 – Oct. 20 directly mentioning the vehicle. Yes, the original DeLorean brand went out of business in 1982, but in 1995 an unaffiliated DeLorean Motor Company bought the rights to the “DMC” logo and and began to sell and service refurbished DeLoreans, so there still is a brand benefiting from the association to the movie.
In the same time Sept. 21 – Oct. 20 time period, Pepsi had 47 percent as much Back To The Future-related digital content engagement as DeLorean. Pepsi Perfect was a soft drink featured in the future portrayed in Back To The Future Part 2, and with 2015 finally upon us, the brand is actually releasing the cola. They previewed it at New York Comic Con and are making a limited number of bottles available for purchase online on Sept. 21 for $20.15. They’re also releasing a promotion video for the drink.
Meanwhile The Cubs, which Back To The Future Part 2 prophesied would finally win the World Series in 2015, was 33 percent as associated to Back To The Future as DeLorean in the previous month. While the team is technically still in the playoffs; down 0-3 to The Mets, that dream is hanging by a thread. Also in the last month, Nike was 30 percent as associated to Back To The Future as DeLorean, with LEGO having 23 percent as much Back To The Future related digital content engagement as DeLorean.
There’s been widespread speculation that Nike is going to debut a new version of the Nike MAG self-lacing sneaker featured in Part 2, with proceeds going to theMichael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, while LEGO is associated around the LEGO Dimensions video game, which features characters from the Back To The Future movie.
Of the top ten brands most associated to Back To The Future between Sept. 21 – Oct. 20, five of them were auto brands. Apart from DeLorean; Toyota, Ford, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz were also the top associated brands in digital content engagement around the movie. Toyota produced a campaign around their Toyota Mirai vehicle starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, explaining the car’s fuel cell technology, and how the can turn trash and anything else into fuel. With the full 5 minute video released on Oct. 21, ahead of Back To The Future Day, the teaser video which was released on Oct. 14 already received 2.9 million views on YouTube.
Meanwhile, between Oct. 21 – 26 Ford is offering flux capaciters as an optional upgrade for the 2016 Ford Focus and 2016 Ford Fiesta through their website. While the capacitors can’t actually power a time machine, they can still be added to your vehicle for the modest price tag of $1,219,390. With Lexus, they’re associated to Back To The Future around a functional hoverboard inspired by the franchise, which uses utilized magnets and superconductor technology.
While the full video showcases their hoverboard first debuted in August, innovation that seemingly is able to bend the laws of physics has staying power. With Mercedes-Benz; they released short videos around the Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion concept car; inspired by Back to the Future.
Since their Back to The Future themed teaser video first went up, digital content engagement around Toyota Miraihas increased 494 percent, comparing Oct. 14-20 to Oct. 7-13.
Between Oct. 5-20, or since the announcement that the soft drink would be released the public; 8 percent of all Pepsi digital engagement was around Pepsi Perfect related content.
Just between midnight and 7 a.m. ET on Oct. 21 or Back To The Future Day, there have already been 339,732 Tweets around Back To The Future; with Twitter sentiment around those Tweets being 30 percent positive, 64 percent neutral, and 6 percent negative.