What Marketers Can Learn From 10 Popular Movies

Films can inspire marketers to excel at work

Popular movies have a lot to teach us about the world of marketing.

Films are more than entertainment. They are marketing in action. For example, why did you pick the last movie you watched? What sparked your interest? Was it how they packaged the movie? Was it the trailer you watched before the movie? Was it the story? Or was it because you like the cast?

Why you pick a movie usually comes down to three main things: The power of the story; the production value, such as the lighting, sound, scenery, and computer graphics; and how well the movie was marketed.

When you look back at popular movies, their success is usually the result of great marketing, storytelling, and elements of production like costumes, music, writing, actors/actresses, and computer-generated graphics.

Some popular movies are instant classics and are successful at the box office — think Forrest Gump and Back to the Future — while some don’t become successful until they land on TV — think It’s A Wonderful Life and The Shawshank Redemption.

Marketers should watch popular movies to learn how to become better storytellers, for inspiration, and how to make a difference in the world. Popular movies have the power to help us find answers to questions we have deep inside us, and they help us to see the world from a different perspective.

I have compiled a list of 10 popular movies and what marketers can learn from each one of them. Let’s dive into what Hollywood can teach marketers.

1. Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a drama and romance film about the character Forrest Gump, played by Tom Hanks, who is a simple and kind Alabama man who wants to reunite with his childhood sweetheart. Throughout the movie, you see historical events ranging from Vietnam to Watergate and how Forrest Gump experiences them in his life.

Forrest Gump is a great storyteller in the movie. One of his famous quotes:

My momma always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.

What can marketers learn from Forrest Gump?

Forrest Gump is a great movie because of its storytelling. With content marketing at the center of today’s modern marketing, storytelling is an essential element of a successful approach. It helps marketers build better relationships and develop trust faster with their customers. Marketers who are good storytellers teach their customers why they should care about their brand. Storytelling helps marketers humanize their brand by describing the people behind their company’s products and services.

2. Back to the Future

Back to the Future is a 1985 adventure and comedy film where a high school student Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, is sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling machine — a DeLorean —invented by scientist Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd.

Toward the end of the movie, Doc Brown says this famous quote:

Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

It’s a great line to get excited about the 1989 sequel, Back to the Future Part II. Back to Future was an instant classic, and the director bet that this quote would help set up the second installment and pique the interest of the audience.

What can marketers learn from Back to the Future?

It wasn’t easy for this movie franchise to get off the ground. Back to the Future script was rejected over 40 times by every major film studio. Some studios rejected the script more than once. As a result, the writers and directors made many script changes, better researched their target audience, and improved the story. All these tweaks helped make the movie a hit. This movie is a good reminder that overnight success is very rare, so it’s important to work tirelessly toward your company’s purpose. If you believe in your ideas, don’t let a no stop you.

3. The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 drama film about two men, Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, and Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding, played by Morgan Freeman, bonding in prison and finding redemption through good acts.

One of the most famous quotes from the movie:

Get busy living or get busy dying.

What can marketers learn from The Shawshank Redemption?

This movie was a box office bomb but turned things around to become a classic. A successful marketing strategy takes a lot of patience and endurance to see through to the end. If you want to succeed as a marketer, you need to be persistent and overcome challenges. This movie wasn’t a success until it became a VHS home rental, and TNT aired the movie as part of its film programming lineup years later. This movie is a prime example of the difference between success and failure in marketing — persistence. To create brand awareness, especially if you are a startup, requires a lot of perseverance and determination to compete with the bigger companies.

4. Moneyball

Moneyball is a 2011 biography, drama, and sports film where Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, puts together a baseball team on a lean budget using a data-driven approach to acquire new players. The movie is an adaptation of Michael Lewis’s best-selling book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.

One of the most memorable quotes from the film:

When your enemy’s making mistakes, don’t interrupt him.

What can marketers learn from Moneyball?

This movie shows that baseball and marketing have a lot in common. They both make data-driven decisions. Both professions look to maximize every dollar they spend because they are under pressure to do more with less. By using an analytics approach and getting more value from their data, marketers can upset the status quo and find a competitive advantage like the Oakland A’s did in this movie.

5. Gladiator

Gladiator is a 2000 action, adventure, and drama film where a former Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius, played by Russell Crowe, seeks revenge on the corrupt emperor, played by Joaquin Phoenix, for murdering his family and forcing him into slavery.

One of the most famous quotes in the movie:

What we do in life echoes in eternity.

What can marketers learn from Gladiator?

When Maximus says this quote in the movie, he is preparing his troops to go into battle like a coach gets his players ready to play a big game. To be a good marketing leader, you need to be a good coach who rallies the team to do a lot of tough things. For example, everyone at your organization probably thinks they know marketing. So, there’s a lot of advice and suggestions from your colleagues on how to best market your products and services. As a marketing leader, your team will need constant reassurance that they are doing a good job. This will help them overcome the internal high expectations and strong opinions of internal stakeholders about marketing.

6. The Martian

The Martian is a 2015 adventure, drama, and sci-fi film where an astronaut named Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, struggles to survive on Mars after being left behind by his crew. He relies on his ingenuity to talk to Earth and the efforts to rescue him.

You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem…and you solve the next one…and then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home.

What can marketers learn from The Martian?

Just like it’s in our human DNA to build and solve problems, marketers need to construct their companies through marketing. Successful marketers understand the power of ingenuity. A great example is the invention of the iPhone and iPad. Being original, clever, and inventive makes a big difference. It helps differentiate a company in the marketplace. Look at Apple.

7. The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects is a 1995 crime and mystery film where a shootout’s sole survivor, named Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint, played by Kevin Spacey — a con man who acts helpless and harmless — is interrogated by the police to share his story about a gun battle on a boat. Through flashbacks and narration, he tells the story of a mysterious crime lord known as Keyser Söze, who is Kint’s real identity. He escapes by making up his entire statement to a detective, on the fly, using a bulletin board in the police’s office. Mind blown!

One of the famous quotes from the movie:

After that, my guess is you will never hear from him again. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, he’s gone.

What can marketers learn from The Usual Suspects?

This movie is a thought leader for screenwriting because it’s smart, sophisticated, and makes you think. Marketers need to position their company’s subject matter experts as thought leaders in their industry. Thought leadership helps companies shorten the sales cycle, increase credibility, and subtly sell products and services with unique and smart perspectives on new trends or issues. Research shows 58% of decision-makers said thought leadership influenced them to work with that organization, and 55% of decision-makers use thought leadership pieces to vet potential vendors. Thought leadership is a big factor in building a brand, opening new doors, and closing deals.

8. Raiders of the Lost Ark

Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 action and adventure movie where archaeologist Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, is hired by the United States government to find the Ark of the Covenant before Adolf Hitler’s Nazi soldiers do.

One of the most famous quotes from the movie:

Forget any ideas you’ve got about lost cities, exotic travel and digging up the world. We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and X never, ever marks the spot.

What can marketers learn from Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Before Indiana Jones locates the Arc of the Covenant, he learns everything he can about it. He does this so he can beat the Nazis to it and accomplish his mission. Marketers need to be continuous learners and research everything you can about hot topics like account-based marketing (ABM). Think of learning as a daily mental fitness program, where you need to keep yourself in shape by constantly learning about marketing. Successful marketers have an innate curiosity to become better marketers and learn more about the profession every day.

9. Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is a 1993 comedy and romance film where a TV weatherman, played by Bill Murray, lives the same day repeatedly — February 2, Groundhog Day. He’s the only one who remembers the days he has repeatedly lived. He initially uses the situation for personal gain but realizes that he needs to re-evaluate his life. Only when he sees the good in everything, including falling in love with his producer Rita Hanson, played by Andie MacDowell, he stops living the same day again.

One of the most famous quotes of the movie:

Maybe it’s not a curse. Just depends on how you look at it.

What can marketers learn from Groundhog Day?

It’s important to look at marketing problems from different perspectives. What seems like a bad thing may be a blessing in disguise. We repeat our marketing problems over and over again, like relying on advertising too much until we learn how to deal with them the right way. That’s the power of this movie. We can create new realities when we change how we look at marketing. It’s a great reminder that we have to look inside ourselves to change something we don’t like. It starts by looking at ourselves in the mirror.

10. It’s a Wonderful Life

It’s a Wonderful Life is a 1946 family drama movie where an angel from Heaven helps a frustrated businessman named George Bailey, played by James “Jimmy” Stewart, see what life would have been like if he wasn’t born. It has become a holiday classic that plays on TV around Christmas.

One of the most famous quotes from the movie:

No man is a failure who has friends.

What can marketers learn from It’s a Wonderful Life?

Marketers need to make a difference in the world. The angel shows George that life without him would be a disaster. George realizes the world is a better place with him, and marketers should think the same way. Why does your company exist? Why did you get into marketing? To make the world a better place, it starts with you. Be thankful you can market your company and be influential with your family, friends, and colleagues.

Bringing It All Together

Marketers can learn a lot from popular movies. Make some popcorn and watch these 10 popular movies again, or for the very first time. Popular movies with compelling stories give marketers a lot of inspiration. They show marketers how to make a difference in the world, how to tell a great story, the power of making data-driven decisions, and that success lies in being persistent.