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Josh Safdie’s latest film stars Timothee Chalamet as a troubled table tennis star on the cusp of greatness. It’s a hit with critics and audiences alike thanks to A24’s viral, new-age marketing campaign that has successfully tapped into Gen Z sensibilities.
Marty Supreme, the latest film by Uncut Gems director Josh Safdie starring Timothee Chalamet as a troubled table tennis star, has become a cultural phenomenon.
Released on Christmas Day, this two-and-a-half-hour epic is an intense, stressful, exhilarating examination of personal ambition and destructive egotism, set in the gritty, cutthroat world of 1950s New York. It’s received a ton of praise from critics and is already A24’s highest grossing film in the UK to date. So far, it’s grossed $66.3 million USD in total.
Even if you’ve no intention of seeing the film, there’s a high change that you’ve at least heard of it.
Thanks to an innovative, viral-focused marketing campaign spearheaded by Chalamet, Marty Supreme has managed to successfully infiltrate Gen Z’s digital, collective consciousness, drawing on meme culture, streetwear hype and celebrity notoriety to generate brand awareness in a way that no other movie has.
In fact, A24’s latest film and its marketing campaign is an excellent case study on how to authentically resonate with the humour of younger millennials and Gen Zers, while also prioritising social media sharibility over massive corporate spending and big-budget billboards. Understanding how to build hype with a generation that is notoriously cynical and savvy to the practices of traditional marketing is priceless, and A24’s latest attempt is one of the most successful in the industry thus far.
So, how did Timothee and A24 pull it off?
Let’s examine the various different stunts that have generated headlines over the past month or so. Perhaps the most viral promotional content for Marty Supreme was the satirical ‘marketing meeting’ between Timothee himself and several nondescript employees. This was a full, eighteen-minute video in which Chalamet presents various rudimentary ideas in an unreasonable, nonsensical way, while the A24 staff watch on, baffled.
There are plenty of standout phrases and mannerisms that are begging to be memes, and Timothee plays up to the caricature of an entitled, deluded celebrity extremely well. You can watch it below:
Alongside this video, Timothee went on a press tour playing up the character of Marty, declaring that his performances over the past seven or eight years in different films have been ‘top-of-the-line.’ He’s stated that he didn’t want people to ‘take it for granted’ and has insinuated that the film will be up for Oscars next year. In much the same way as the project’s titular character, Chalamet has deliberately been arrogant and self-aggrandising in order to generate buzz and controversy. And it’s worked.
The actor has also been handing out Marty Supreme jackets to all kinds of celebrities, including Susan Boyle and Kid Cudi, of all people. They’ve been exclusively available to purchase at various different pop-ups in the US, making them hugely popular and in-demand. On StockX, the jacket is currently selling for over £10,000, making it an extremely sought-after item with immense retail value.
Alongside fashion and interviews, Timothee has seemingly been rapping under a stage name of ‘EsDeeKid,’ an anonymous performer ‘from’ the UK. While not confirmed either way, Timothee appeared and rapped in a video ‘with’ EsDeeKid two weeks ago as part of a remix for a track called ‘4 Raws.’ In his verse he mentions Marty Supreme several times and sports the above-mentioned jacket in the video. It’s all brand awareness, baby.
If all that wasn’t enough, Timothee has also been appearing on talk shows with a conglomerate of anonymous, suited individuals with giant, orange ping pong balls as heads. The visual alone is bizarre, but further contributes to the idea that Marty Supreme is a brand, an idea, a visual symbol and a fashion statement, not just a film. This understanding of multi-media branding is tailored toward Gen Z as a demographic, and reflects their affinity for streetwear and recognisable styles.
Marty Supreme’s campaign works because it is self-aware. The entire ordeal is semi-ironic, poking fun at the celebrity status of Chalamet and the realities of marketing a film to young people. Gen Z are aware of when and how they’re being advertised to and by including them in the marketing meetings as a joke, it helps to create a balance of both irony and sincerity, a staple of Gen Z’s attitude toward media as a whole.
A24 as a production company is known for being more focused on internet sharibility and guerrilla style marketing than its peers. As a result, the studio has an ‘anti-Hollywood’ reputation that emphasises creative freedom and left-field filmmaking. In an era of remakes, reboots and endless sequels, A24 is answering Gen Z’s call for more original and moving films that can stand out amidst a sea of, for lack of a better term, corporate slop.
Marty Supreme and Chalamet have utilised this previously established brand awareness to full effect, embracing an approach that fosters consumer participation and makes the most of Chalamet as an unpolished celebrity. It is both authentic and deliberate, satirical yet genuine. This dichotomy plays into Gen Z extremely well, and shows that A24 has an acute understanding of a notoriously tough-to-crack demographic.
It’s important to remember that, for Gen Z, advertising and corporate content is literally everywhere, all the time. In order to stand out and create something exciting, brands need to pour themselves into all sorts of media in order to create a ‘moment’ or era that feels genuine. Remember ‘brat summer,’ for example? Singular pieces of entertainment need an aesthetic and an identity, an associated colour or style that can be replicated and translated across multiple avenues both digital and physical. Attachment, identity and personal connection are invaluable.
Whether other studios will take note is yet to be seen, but it’s likely that more movie campaigns will follow suit in the coming years. Marty Supreme is, in many ways, a trailblazer. This feels like just the beginning.
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