Two major brands have built campaigns around Marvel and Sony Pictures’ next Spider-Man instalment, using the film’s New York setting and its most relatable side character to push new product lines.
Liquid I.V. lands its biggest entertainment deal yet
The Unilever-owned hydration brand is the film’s exclusive functional hydration partner, its largest entertainment collaboration to date. The campaign, titled “Your Friendly Neighborhood Hydration Brand”, follows Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) wandering obliviously through a sweltering New York while Spider-Man silently rescues him from masked thugs and falling construction tools. Ned eventually reaches a corner store, runs through the product benefits and mixes a stick into a bottle of water, declaring himself ready for a brand new day.
The work supports two limited-time co-branded flavours, Hydration Multiplier Arctic Raspberry and Sugar-Free Raspberry Lemonade. Blue Raven handled the creative, with Alen Petkovic directing. The spot runs across TV, digital and social, timed to a genuine New York heat wave. The partnership also covers in-film appearances and a planned fan experience.
Samsung builds toward Galaxy Unpacked
Samsung’s commercial extends a Spidey Tracker mobile experience the brand launched in June. Directed by Kasra Farahani, a Marvel production design alum, the ad is set partly in Peter Parker’s apartment and cuts in footage from the film. Ned checks the tracker as Spider-Man swings past, then the hero heads home and grows exasperated at a heap of cracked phones that failed to survive his stunts. He builds a new foldable Galaxy instead, described by a virtual assistant as a flip phone with intelligent AI for communications on the go. Samsung has signalled it will continue the story at Galaxy Unpacked on 22 July.
Why both brands went for the same character
Neither campaign puts Spider-Man front and centre as a spokesperson. He is wordless in both, fiddling with gadgets for Samsung and quietly saving Ned for Liquid I.V. Ned carries the dialogue in each. That choice lets the brands borrow the franchise’s cultural weight without asking the hero to sell anything directly, which tends to break the fiction and irritate fans.
The timing is the other calculation. “Brand New Day” opens on 31 July and is tracking for a US opening of $180 million to $190 million according to Deadline, positioning it as one of the summer’s biggest releases. Both brands have anchored product news to that window, Samsung to Unpacked and Liquid I.V. to two limited-run flavours.
The wider signal
Brand and product integration with popular intellectual property is now reshaping the agency landscape. M+C Saatchi North America launched a dedicated entertainment marketing practice earlier this month, led by a former WME executive. Liquid I.V. itself is building a slate, having recently tied up with the Amazon Prime Video series “Off Campus”.
The takeaway for marketers is that IP partnerships are shifting from logo placement toward product-led storytelling, where the integration carries an actual launch rather than decorating one.
