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Strategy

Merch Win: Marvel’s ‘Super Hero Day’ Promos

The initiative sees Marvel Entertainment partnering up with professional sports teams for Marvel-themed gameday giveaways. An upcoming New York Jets promotion is especially unique.

Marvel knows how to merch.

On Monday, a Captain Marvel-branded notebook collection became available for pre-order as part of the opening marketing salvos for the forthcoming feature film named after the female heroine. But that wasn’t all the swag happenings in the Marvel universe this week. The famous entertainment brand is also advancing its “Marvel Super Hero Day” campaign, which centers on gameday giveaways featuring popular Marvel characters.

On Wednesday, for example, attendees of the Philadelphia Phillies home game against the Washington Nationals will receive an Incredible Hulk bobblehead with the Fightins’ logo. The first 5,000 fans to purchase tickets through the promotion receive the gift, but all in attendance are encouraged to dress up as superheroes.

Some 5,000 lucky fans will receive this Incredible Hulk bobblehead at the Aug. 29th Philadelphia Phillies game.

On Friday, the San Diego Padres are undertaking a Super Hero Day promotion, too. They’ll be giving away a Padres-logoed bobblehead of Black Panther to 5,000 fans. Themed in-game entertainment is also on tap.

MLB’s San Diego Padres are giving away this Black Panther bobblehead on Aug. 31.

In all, Marvel has partnered with 57 teams in major and minor league sports for more than 70 Marvel Super Hero Day events, according to media reports. The goodtime giveaways began last year, and are expected to run through December 2018.

One promo we’re especially looking forward to this football season involves the New York Jets – an initiative that will mark Marvel’s first Super Hero Day with an NFL team and feature unique elements. The promotion includes a Jets-inspired Hulk bobblehead, a special comic book about a battle between the big green guy and Thor, and more. The bobblehead features a Jets-branded field for Hulk to stand on. The logo for Toyota, the Jets’ longtime team sponsor, also appears on the bobblehead – 15,000 of which will be circulated. Another 500 Hulks that produce audio will be available for VIPs. Top 40 distributor BDA (asi/137616) is behind the bobbleheads (Well done, guys!).

Jets-branded comic book for gameday promo planned for Oct 21. Photo from Marvel.

The Jets’ primary team color is green, of course, so that makes for a satisfying tie-in with the Hulk. In more promo cohesion, the Oct. 21st game is against the Minnesota Vikings, making Hulk’s battle with Viking god Thor in the comic book spot on. Ten thousand fans will receive a copy of the book on gameday. If you miss out on the hard copy, there will be a digital version available to all after the game. Upon exiting the stadium Oct. 21, 55,000 fans will also receive a poster of the book cover. As part of the fun, the Jets are encouraging fans to come to the game decked in green to create a “Green Out.”

The Jets are hoping for a good return. “If history is an indicator, we will generate excitement around the bobble, so we’ll definitely be tracking the earned media that this creates,” Seth Rabinowitz, the Jets senior vice president of marketing and fan engagement, told New York Business Journal.

March on with the merching, Marvel. March on.