Revealed: How Sony Pictures Used TikTok To Drive Audience Engagement For Venom: The Last Dance

Forbes - Mar 26th, 2025

Sony Pictures' 'Venom: The Last Dance' has set a new benchmark in film marketing by leveraging TikTok as a central promotional channel. The film's TikTok campaign achieved unprecedented success, generating over 20 million comments on a single post and setting a world record for brand engagement. This approach highlighted a shift in film promotion strategies, emphasizing interactive, community-driven storytelling over traditional trailers and advertising. Rose Phillips, EVP of Global Digital Marketing and Social Media at Sony, credited TikTok's influence in shaping the film's success, showcasing the platform's potential to determine a film's success through strategic engagement.

The campaign utilized TikTok Spotlight, an in-app promotion tool, to maximize reach and engagement. By incentivizing users to unlock exclusive content and participate in challenges, Sony turned passive viewers into active participants, enhancing fan engagement and extending the film's cultural impact beyond its theatrical release. Collaborations with TikTok creators transformed them into organic amplifiers of the film, driving engagement and excitement. This strategy, backed by data-driven insights, optimized content delivery and audience targeting, resulting in higher ROI and stronger brand equity. The success of 'Venom: The Last Dance' serves as a blueprint for future film marketing, emphasizing the need for an interactive, fan-centric approach to maintain cultural relevance and drive long-term growth.

Tik Tok Digital Marketing Sony Pictures Venom: The Last Dance Rose Phillips Brand Engagement Film Marketing Social Media Strategy

Story submitted by Fairstory

RATING

6.4

Moderately Fair

Read with skepticism

The article provides a compelling narrative of Sony Pictures' successful TikTok marketing campaign for 'Venom: The Last Dance.' It effectively highlights the innovative strategies employed and the impressive engagement metrics achieved. However, the story lacks independent verification of the claims made, relying heavily on internal sources from Sony Pictures. While the article is timely and relevant, offering valuable insights into the evolving landscape of digital marketing, it could benefit from a more balanced perspective and additional source diversity. The clarity and readability are strong, making the content accessible to a broad audience, but the lack of transparency and critical viewpoints limits the depth of analysis. Overall, the story serves as an informative case study but would be strengthened by further substantiation and exploration of alternative perspectives.

Accuracy

The story claims that Sony Pictures' TikTok campaign for 'Venom: The Last Dance' achieved over 20 million comments on a single post, setting a world record for brand engagement. This claim is significant and requires verification for accuracy. The story also mentions the use of TikTok Spotlight and creator partnerships, which are essential components of the campaign strategy. While the story provides a coherent narrative of the campaign's success, it lacks specific data points or external verification to substantiate these claims. The mention of a $450 million box office earning is another critical point that needs confirmation. Overall, the story presents a plausible scenario but relies heavily on internal claims from Sony Pictures without independent verification.

Balance

The article predominantly presents a positive view of Sony Pictures' TikTok marketing strategy, highlighting its success and innovation. However, it lacks a critical perspective or any mention of potential downsides or challenges faced during the campaign. The story does not address other marketing channels or compare the effectiveness of TikTok with other platforms, which could provide a more balanced view. Additionally, the perspectives of audiences or independent marketing experts are absent, which could have provided a more rounded analysis of the campaign's impact.

Clarity

The article is well-written and structured, with a logical flow that guides the reader through the campaign's strategy and outcomes. The language is clear and accessible, making it easy for readers to understand the key points. However, the article could benefit from more detailed explanations of technical terms like 'TikTok Spotlight' and 'Easter Egg comment activations' to ensure comprehensive understanding for all readers.

Source quality

The article relies heavily on statements from Rose Phillips, EVP of Global Digital Marketing and Social Media at Sony, and mentions TikTok's features and capabilities. However, it does not cite independent sources or third-party experts to corroborate the claims made. The lack of diverse sources or external validation diminishes the story's credibility. A more robust analysis would include insights from industry analysts or data from independent marketing studies to support the narrative.

Transparency

The article provides a clear narrative of the TikTok campaign and its components but lacks transparency regarding the methodology used to achieve the reported success. It does not disclose how data was collected or analyzed, nor does it reveal any potential conflicts of interest. The absence of detailed explanations about the metrics used to measure engagement or the criteria for claiming a world record leaves readers without a full understanding of the campaign's impact.