Star Wars Election '08
My time working at Zazzle.com presented me with the unique opportunity to help design a marketing campaigns with one of the company’s premiere partners, Lucas LTD.
While brainstorming potential design strategies to increase revenue for the licensed property, the idea of Star Wars Election ’08 was born. The 2008 Presidential election was a timely and well-conversed topic, not only in the US, but throughout the world.
The plan was to campaign apparel, buttons, and posters, as well as many other products, featuring the images of the Star Wars franchise as well as creating customizable merchandise to which the customer could place their name as a candidate for various Star Wars related offices.
The project started on shaky legs with Lucas Ltd., but as things began to take shape, working with a skilled team of designers and marketers, Lucas agreed to premier the campaign at the Star Wars booth at San Diego Comic Con 2008. Zazzle passed out a limited run of 6 campaign buttons and supplied an immense crowd with custom print-on-demand shirts.
Star Wars Election became a success within a few short months earning 40% of all property revenue as well as creating a strong viral campaign on the internet and an unexpected television appearance when Tina Fey wore a Leia ’08 shirt on Saturday Night Live.
Star Wars Pop Culture
After the success of the Election ’08 campaign we set out upon creating something that would appeal to a more core audience of consumers. The next project was to target the current trends of internet pop culture, appealing to customers who were more prone to make purchases online.
We began with the “is My Homeboy” meme, placing Star Wars characters before the phrase and expanded upon that with alternate “is a Hater” designs.
Taking the idea one step further, “Chewie is my Co-Pilot”, “Vader; World’s Greatest Dad”, “Wampa is my Icebeast”, “Jabba: Orginal Gangster”, and the top selling “AT-AT FAIL!” designs were created.
“AT-AT FAIL!” and “Vader; World’s Greatest Dad” designs enjoyed wide spread success, becoming the second and fourth highest selling products, respectively, in the Star Wars Zazzle store. the “AT-AT FAIL!” design also gained a strong viral campaign through a number of blogs.
In 2010, ESPN prominently displayed the “Ackbar is my Homeboy” poster for their Ole Miss commercial.
Star Wars Back to School
The last of my Star Wars campaigns were launched in September of ’08. Examining sale figures for the Star Wars Shop, we found that a number of parents were purchasing shirts with stock images and customizing them with the names of their children. Taking that into account, our next steps were to create designs for customizable children’s apparel.
I set upon creating Back to School collegiate style designs. Realizing the strengths of one of my fellow design teammates, I managed the talented Heather Ihn Martin on the creation of the Star Wars kids’ design line.
