As Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits cinemas worldwide new has revealed that the Disney marketing machine is driving a very strong social media buzz.
The latest Adobe Digital Index data, shows that with 600,000 social media mentions, Darth Vader has emerged as the most talked about character, with Droid BB-8 and Yoda following closely behind.
The ADI data also reveals which Star Wars products are the best-selling, and the impact that Force Friday, Black Friday and Cyber Monday had on merchandise sales.
Key findings:
1. EA, Lego, Sony and Disney are the brands that sold the most Star Wars products this season. The top selling Star Wars products are Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars Complete Saga, Star Wars Advent Calendar, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Lego AT-AT, Lego Imperial Star Destroyer, and Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. Social mentions indicate how well a product is selling. The Droid BB-8 toy has produced over 513,000 social mentions and emerged as one of the most popular items.
2. Force Friday, Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw the biggest growth in online sales of Star Wars products. Close to 50% more Star Wars toys were sold on Black Friday than Force Friday and 300% more than on an average day. Cyber Monday saw 15% more online sales of Star Wars toys than Force Friday, 260% more units than sold on an average day.
3. The Star Wars marketing machine is driving strong social media buzz. Force Friday (9/4), the shopping day created by Disney, kicked off the marketing campaign generating over 215k social mentions in a day. Over the last 90 days Darth Vader emerged as the most talked about character with almost 600,000 mentions while Droid BB-8 came in second (513,000 mentions) and Yoda third (483,000 mentions). Social buzz spiked on October 19, when the Official “Force Awakens” trailer was unveiled during Monday Night Football. Additional spikes occurred in November with the release of the movie poster, the international trailer and “official” TV spot.