Is Ryan Reynolds a marketing genius? After seeing that Diageo (owner of Johnny Walker, Smirnoff, etc.) bought @aviationgin, a company Ryan Reynolds has stakes in, I got curious about him. After some research, I think @vancityreynolds is impressive. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53810737

Reynolds has been in some big blockbusters in Hollywood, going from Buried and Green Lantern(?), to X-Men Origins: Wolverine and, of course, Deadpool. But he’s also a marketing guy, involved in trailers and ads, like both Deadpool movie trailers.

If you’ve watched the trailers/ads he’s done, then you know the guy has talent. He has a unique comic quirk that’s unmatched by any other movie star. That’s why his marketing works, and why he’s so famous. Consider the trailer for Deadpool 2, for example:

When did he get involved in these marketing efforts? Well, probably since the first Deadpool. Ryan had been trying to sell this idea for almost a decade. According to Deadpool Wikipedia, the movie’s been in development since 2004. And it’s always been him behind it.

What happened? Well, several things happened. One, Ryan Reynolds wasn’t a big star yet. Second, no one wanted to make that movie, mainly because Deadpool is such an eccentric character and probably no one would want to watch the film, right?

Well, luckily for him, he became Deadpool in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Probably not the kind of Deadpool he wanted to be, but he still made it. This helped cement everyone’s idea of a funny and action-packed Reynold’s Deadpool movie.

He did his best in that movie to portray the wittiest Deadpool possible. In this scene, you can see Ryan Reynold being himself in an elevator with Hugh Jackman (who Reynolds affirms had a massive role in getting Deadpool to be made)

Yet, the real marketing for his Deadpool movie started in 2014. Back in 2014 there was a “leaked” CGI scene from the film. This scene went viral. And guess whose voice was in the Deadpool suit? You guessed it, Reynolds himself.

Why is this important? Suffice to say, Reynolds was the person behind this leak. He wanted to make this movie so bad that he made a CGI scene from a script he already had and “leaked it.” Sure enough, this “leak” was incredibly successful.

Everyone was talking about it on the internet. And it reached production companies, who are behind most of the movies that ever get made. After this huge success of the CGI scene, Ryan Reynolds was given the Green Lantern. I mean, the green light to make the movie.

They gave him almost total control of the movie (production, script, and marketing). But they didn’t give him much $ to work with. This made him struggle. But this struggle also made him realized that having these money restrictions was also a blessing.

The marketing team now had to come up with something compelling but also cheap to promote his movie. He didn’t want decade-long efforts to go to waste. So he did his best. That includes a weird-ass video with some kids dressed as X-Men in 2015.

This video got some views and worked as a sneak-peek of the movie. Fans already knew something was cooking and Ryan Gosling was behind it all. I mean Reynolds. Anyway, remember the CGI trailer he made to bring the idea to life? Fox made it into a real one

By now, you should well-aware of his marketing skills. Yet, while the comic touches and the unique marketing seem to be directly from his brain, he’s actually not alone. He’s been working alongside George Dewey, an ex-McCann creative.

According to Ryan, Dewey has also been part of his previous marketing stunts for Deadpool. These two decided to cement their partnership later on. They founded Maximum Efforts Productions in 2018 alongside Patrick Gooing. And they’ve done well with Deadpool marketing.

But that’s not everything they’ve been involved in. Some of Reynold’s other movies have also been promoted with this marketing. Like this big “LEAKED POKEMON MOVIE” stunt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_title&v=tAA_yWX8ycQ

And of course, I couldn’t forget the teaser sneak peek of Deadpool 2 back in 2017 “No Good Deed.” This video has over 28 million views, reinforcing what we already knew about Reynolds and company marketing wits.

Now, you may think that doing marketing for his movies is what he does best. Well, you’d be wrong. There’s a lot more he’s been involved in alongside Maximum Efforts Productions. Among many things, you can include Aviation Gin ads. And they’re super cool.

The exciting part about these ads is that he doesn’t spend much on them (less than $1M each). It’s all about creativity and his celebrity status. This includes inviting other people to his ads, such as Hugh Jackman with his coffee company (Laughing Man):

Another super-popular ad he made was with Richard Branson. He’s the founder of Virgin Atlantic, a British airline. As you may guess, Virgin and Aviation Gin have something in common. Just for that minuscule likeness, the ad was a success

Ryan and the company’s creative wit don’t end here, though. He’s also made other unique advertisements. Like this one for his movie 6 Underground, where talks about the movie, Aviation Gin and… a Samsung TV. Yes, you read that right.

Soon after his 6 Underground multi-brand ad, he was involved in one of the most popular marketing stunts of 2019. A few days before this stunt, Peloton released a seemingly ordinary ad featuring actress Monica Ruiz. This was released on December 1st.

As soon as this Peloton's ad was released, it got mauled on the internet. Many people started to make fun of it. Others said that it was classist, sexist, and hilariously ineffective. Some people even decided to make their own (satirical) version of it: https://twitter.com/evaandheriud/status/1201610153549848580

Suffice to say, Ryan and his marketing team saw a huge opportunity. And they acted on it. A few days after Peloton’s ad, they decided to hire original Peloton’s ad actress Monica Ruiz, and this golden Aviation Gin ad was released (on December 6th): https://twitter.com/VancityReynolds/status/1203118775815622664

Only a few days went by and they already had something planned and executed on. Of course, the ad was a total success. Everyone loved it. And it boosted Aviation Gin sales exponentially. Everyone was talking about it. And even actress Monica Ruiz was interviewed everywhere.

All these ads and marketing stunts cement what I already had in mind. Reynolds and company are some of the wittiest marketing guys out there. And they don’t only work in movies and Aviation Gin. They also have ads for other companies, like Mint Mobile:

You may think that Ryan and his marketing team are pretty talented. Well, the company had been growing over 15% every year since Reynolds joined. On August 17th, the owners got a whopping $610 million for a company founded in 2016. https://twitter.com/Forbes/status/1295408448071520257

I can’t say how much Ryan’s stake was. But it probably was enough to say it was a good investment. If you consider that every commercial he made for Aviation Gin was less than $1 million spent, then you can say it’s was more than worth it.

Ryan Gosling is easily one of my favorite actors and now, marketers. There are tons of lessons to learn from his path as a marketing guy. Sure enough, I’ll be waiting impatiently for whatever comes next.

If you made it this far into the thread, thank you. This whole effort was inspired by @kevinleeme and his amazing threads about things he was interested in. @david_perell was another inspiration, he's always sharing gems.