Earlier this week Marvel and McDonald’s names collided after the latter shared a post to X, formally known as Twitter, revealing a blink-and-you-miss-it clip of Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief and his variant Slyvie (Sophia Di Martino) from Loki season two.
The highly-anticipated Disney Plus show is scheduled to premiere on October 6. That’s exactly 60 days after McDonald’s attention-grabbing tweet. And that’s about a full month and a half earlier than any promotional campaigns for Marvel’s most recent dud, Secret Invasion.
The six-episode espionage thriller left a bitter taste in Marvel fans’ mouths after concluding its already divisive season with a head-scratching season finale that sports a Rotten Tomatoes rating worse than any Marvel property to date — nay, the entire comic book genre. Indeed, the finale was abysmal, but the show’s faults began long before its season premiere.
The lukewarm reception to Secret Invasion actualized when it failed to scrap a million views domestically in its opening weekend. That was a slight improvement from Ms. Marvel’s 775,000 domestic views before it, but nothing to celebrate, to be sure.
Loki‘s marketing campaign is proof Marvel is working overtime to fix its Secret Invasion blunder
It’s any wonder Secret Invasion managed to accumulate even 994,000 domestic views in its opening weekend considering the show was surviving off word of mouth alone. 13 days before its premiere, concern over Marvel’s nonexistent marketing plan for this $212 million spy thriller reached the tipping point. The studio did eventually release a promo, but it was pandering to an audience whose skepticism had already seeped in. Not even a cleverly engaging password-encrypted website could turn the tide. Again, this was all within two weeks of the show’s premiere.
Unlike Secret Invasion, Marvel is working hard to spread the word about Loki months in advance instead of just weeks. Ahead of the second season, Marvel will be collaborating with McDonald’s to offer a green Loki sauce to its customers, possibly as part of a Chicken McNuggets deal, according to a behind-the-scenes TikTok video. On average, Mcdonald’s sees about 69 million customers a day as of 2023, according to Zippia. That’s 69 million people who will be exposed to Loki ahead of the show’s premiere, subconsciously or consciously.
It can’t be overstated that pre-exposure to a brand or product prior to a major release is paramount to its success.
Why is Marvel promoting Loki so early when it refused to do the same with Secret Invasion?
There could be a number of reasons why Marvel didn’t promote Secret Invasion, but it’s probably due to the behind-the-scenes team scrambling to stitch together footage that was originally intended to release at a different point in the MCU’s timeline, resulting in the disjointed season finale that hardly made a lick of sense.
Marvel’s decision to promote Loki months in advance could mean a number of things, or it could mean nothing at all. A partnership with McDonald’s is hardly an indication of a good script, but it is a sign that Marvel wants as many eyes as possible on this show, either because it’s confident in its quality, or simply because all of the footage is complete, freeing up the team to devote attention elsewhere (i.e., its marketing campaign).
If confidence truly is the driving force behind Marvel’s marketing decisions, as appears to be the case, then was the studio secretly hoping nobody would watch Secret Invasion? Or perhaps Loki just has more money to spare on its marketing endeavors since it cost a massive $80 million less to make. Either way, Marvel is doing something right because the excitement for season two has already manifested, and it’s not even out yet.
Loki season two premieres on Disney Plus on Friday, Oct. 6, chicken nuggets and all.