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Inside Wicked: For Good’s fan-driven, collaboration-heavy marketing for the sequel

Wicked: For Good’s marketing leans on fan culture, expansive brand collaborations, retail partnerships, and targeted digital moments to drive excitement for the sequel with a smaller but sharper campaign.

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Payal Navarkar
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If you’ve felt like the world has been painted in shades of pink and green lately, you’re not wrong. With the sequel Wicked: For Good set to release in theatres on November 21, 2025, Universal Pictures has launched an expansive, multi-tiered campaign that departs from the approach used for Wicked: Part One, redirecting its resources toward targeted audience activation rather than broad awareness.

Unlike the first film, which required a large-scale push to introduce its characters and world and carried a reported global marketing spend of $150 million, the sequel’s strategy seems to reflect confidence in an already established audience. The estimated marketing budget has been reduced to about $90 million. The studio is leaning on momentum and awards-season attention generated by the first instalment, aiming to turn that interest into ticket sales and consumer purchases.

Industry projections suggest the film is on track to deliver the domestic opening of estimates between $150 million and $180 million, surpassing the stage-to-screen opening record previously set by Part One, of  $112.5 million in its three-day debut.

A major element of the campaign has been an intensified retail and licensing effort. Universal Products & Experiences expanded its network of licensing partners to more than 300, roughly half of them new to the Wicked franchise. The strategy is aimed at integrating the brand into daily consumer spaces and widening the product range well beyond beauty and fashion.

Timed for the holiday shopping season, the collaborations include a large-scale rollout with Target featuring nearly 200 items, many exclusive to the retailer and priced under $20.

The movie continued its collaborative range with one of the lead artists, Ariana Grande's brand R.E.M. Beauty’s Glinda makeup sets and Voluspa’s ‘For Good’ candle collection.

It launched themed Dutch ovens in partnerships with Le Creuset, themed varsity jackets with Roots, and speciality jewellery with Sydney Evan.

It launched collectible items from Owala and limited-edition American Girl dolls seem to reflect fan interest.

As part of another strategic collaboration, the movie production, in collaboration with Airbnb, is offering public access to ‘Elphaba’s Retreat,’ providing both an experience and an overnight stay tied to the fictional world of the Wicked character. It includes opportunities for visitors to explore the set-inspired environment, with a limited number of fans selected to stay overnight in the space designed to reflect elements of Elphaba’s story.

It has also partnered with LEGO, launching a film featuring the LEGO characters from the movie.

Google has released Wicked: For Good theme packs for Pixel devices, offering wallpapers, icons, sounds and visual styles based on the film to allow users to customise their phones with movie-inspired elements.

The wide-ranging partnerships aimed to position the franchise across multiple consumer categories and maintain steady visibility as the release approached.

On the digital front, the studio focused on exclusive content designed to engage the existing fanbase. NBCUniversal’s internal ‘Symphony’ cross-platform network provided large amounts of owned-media exposure across television, streaming, and online outlets, reducing the need for heavy paid advertising.

Meanwhile, on YouTube, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with Ariana Grande garnered 437,530 views in just a day after the episode was released.

One of the major promotional moments came with Wicked: One Wonderful Night Sneak Peek, a televised special aired two weeks before release. The broadcast featured performances by Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and composer Stephen Schwartz, serving as a coordinated push to concentrate audience attention.

The production released several sneak-peek videos of the event, each drawing more than 200,000 views.

The campaign’s aesthetic, centred on the franchise’s recognisable colour palette and musical cues, continued to circulate widely on social platforms, sustaining online momentum.

Offline, the studio launched the ‘Wicked at Home Experience’ in New York City, a walk-through installation inside a townhouse that drew immediate demand.

A virtual tour and shoppable online pop-up followed, extending the activation into an e-commerce format.

In the final stretch before release, the film’s press tour, starting from November 4 to November 17, adopted a high-fashion approach to maximise editorial coverage. 

The press tour featured large sections of pavement that had been covered to resemble a yellow brick road for residents and visitors to walk along. Life-sized character portraits have also been placed in the windows of the Truman Brewery Bridge, accompanied by themed street signs and stickers.

Cast members Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo appeared in custom designs by Robert Wun, Givenchy, and Jean Paul Gaultier. The strategy generated sustained attention in major fashion and lifestyle publications, complementing the scaled-down traditional advertising spend.

The coordinated mix of retail collaborations, digital activity and targeted media exposure reflects a shift toward mobilising an established fanbase rather than building broad awareness from scratch. As the release approached, the studio’s strategy appeared focused on maintaining steady cultural visibility while managing a reduced marketing budget, positioning the sequel for a strong theatrical debut.

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