Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme has had one of the most unforgettable marketing campaigns of 2025. But why?
With major wins under its belt—including Timothée Chalamet’s sweep for Best Actor at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards, and most recently, the Oscars—Marty Supreme has been crowned with critical acclaim. And yet, you can’t talk about its triumph without giving credit to the social media team that engineered its unstoppable rise.
Timothée, with his charming charisma, became the face of Marty Supreme’s online campaign. Playing protagonist Marty Mauser, he spent two months gallivanting, completing the wildest PR stunts in promotion of the film. And somehow, every stunt landed harder than the next.
The actor stood on top of the Las Vegas Sphere with a ginormous Marty Supreme ping pong ball backdrop, hosted a faux ‘brand marketing’ Zoom call, and appeared as a guest judge on Druski’s satire talent show, Coulda Been Records. He also dropped the verse of the year on EsDeeKid’s “4 Raws Remix” and launched a Marty Supreme apparel line, gifting jackets to superstars Susan Boyle, Kid Cudi and Ringo Starr, to name a few. It’s fair to say the lore runs deep.
Here’s what small filmmakers can learn from this marketing campaign?
Your Digital Footprint Is Everything
In recent years, movies have started creating Instagram accounts to promote new releases. It’s a great marketing technique to keep people interested in the lead-up to the premiere.
Unlike any other movie released last year, Marty Supreme took it further. In fact, it couldn’t have been more online. Racking up over 137K on Instagram, 45+k on TikTok and 4+k on X, the movie was a staple on our screens. On top of that, Timothée’s narcissistic character appeared everywhere— YouTube videos, skits on late-night shows like Jimmy Fallon, and even memes flooding social threads.
Creating a great movie is one thing. Creating a great trailer is another, but fine-tuning the perfect online presence that has the capacity to engross hundreds of thousands of people weeks ahead of its release is gold dust.
Merch Goes a Long Way
Movie merchandise is something you usually find for kids’ movies, and in slightly less interesting formats. Like cinema popcorn buckets, and coffee mugs, but not for Marty Supreme.
Leading up to its release, the movie drip-fed the launch of its apparel on social media. Firstly, dropping the famous sports jacket. Weeks later, Tyler, the Creator, who is no stranger to a clothing line, and plays Wally in the film, came out with his own Marty Supreme x Golf Wang collection.
Although it’s hard to know just how many times people searched “how can I get the Marty Supreme jacket,” one thing is clear: the limited edition jacket sold out almost immediately, and is currently retailing at $8,232 on Stock X (cries in poverty). The jacket alone has become a symbol in its own right, and hilariously isn’t even featured in the movie.
We’re already one month past its Christmas box office release, and the conversation around Marty Supreme is still piping hot, thanks to its small merch line keeping the hype alive.
Consistency Is Key
When you finally watch the movie, a lot of the marketing clicks. The ferocious, larger-than-life attitude we’ve consumed from Timothée mirrors the character he plays on screen. But one trick they miss is how inconsistently the orange ping pong balls actually matter.
The balls have been a key element of this campaign. Across all of Timothée’s side quests, they have been popping up, giving the impression they held weight in the movie. Watching the movie, however, you’re hit with the sad reality that there was little motive or story behind them.
This doesn’t make or break anything, but if you’re an indie filmmaker thinking of hiring a marketing team, any reference you make should correlate to the art as much as possible. If you’re going to go out of your way to spotlight something, make sure there’s a good reason. After all, what is Marty Supreme, if not the visual of the obnoxiously oversized ping pong balls we’ve seen everywhere?
Good Casting Is Critical
Timothée has a rare talent for fully embodying his characters, meticulously immersing himself in every role. Fresh off playing Bob Dylan in the James Mangold-directed biopic, A Complete Unknown, the lead-up to his role in Marty Supreme saw the actor embrace a completely different energy, and on both occasions, he was hit with overwhelming success.
Casting is everything. Very few actors could bring Marty Mauser to life the way Timothée did. For indie filmmakers, every hire needs to fit the character to a T, because when it comes to marketing, will your cast be able to sell the film as powerfully as the trailer does?
We’ve seen how a charismatic lead like Timothée can go a long way for marketing. And, while it partially stems from the character he’s playing, this strategy of placing them in real-world scenarios seems to be an effective tool for getting more press.
Photo credit: Sphere Entertainment