Rebrand & Re-imagined: When a Poster is No Longer Enough
- Sarah De Donato
- Sep 18
- 2 min read
Posters are like landlines: technically still around, but nobody’s using them to close the deal. Audiences expect a whole experience before they even buy the ticket.
Here’s the industry reality check: in 2025, branding is the show before the show. The campaign isn’t just an ad; it’s an experience, a cultural thesis, a 360-degree mood board that whispers, “Yes, you’ll buy the ticket — and post about it before the curtain even rises.”
Take the Brooklyn Film Festival’s rebrand. They ditched the dusty laurels and went full existential: a campaign called “Good Screen Time”.
Bold type, glowy cinematic treatments, 3D hearts, brains, and eyes floating like props in a Brecht play. The subtext? This isn’t just cinema. This is therapy, a workout, and a religious awakening disguised as popcorn. Suddenly a neighborhood festival feels like a global wellness retreat — and all they did was tweak the kerning and add a blur effect. Attendance rose 18% over last year, proving the point that a strong identity isn’t cosmetic — it’s commercial.
Meanwhile, Wicked: For Good — the second installment in the two-part film adaptation — is back with a global campaign. Amazon built an omnichannel Oz experience: social assets, interactive perks, Prime member screenings. It’s less a musical campaign and more a pop-up theme park where your ticket stub comes with loyalty points. The trick? Nostalgia with novelty. They keep the iconic green, but they layer in enough freshness to make even your aunt — the one who’s seen Elphaba fly 12 times — buy another seat in Row G.
Now here’s where context matters: the current For Good rollout is borrowing heavily from the Part 1 playbook. That earlier campaign generated over 200 million hashtag views across TikTok and Instagram in its first week. Those numbers are already industry gospel — proof that Wicked’s marketing magic converts clicks into butts in seats. With For Good, Universal and Amazon are doubling down on tactics they know resonate.
And here’s the kicker — audiences now expect it. They want immersion before the overture. They want the campaign to give them a narrative, a vibe, a reason to care. If you don’t give it to them, someone else will — usually a fan edit with better music choices.
So when Broadway producers or indie directors shrug, “We just need a poster,” it’s giving big Cheesecake Factory décor energy: excessive, generic, and fifteen years out of style. The smart players are investing in identity systems, campaign decks, and key art suites that scale. They’re treating branding like set design — integral to the experience, not the afterthought.
Because in this market, you’re not just competing for attention. You’re competing with everything else glowing on someone’s screen. And as Brooklyn reminded us, not all screen time is created equal.
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