YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD....POSTAL CARRIER

SPIDER-MAN TEAMS UP WITH THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE

I was watching March Madness basketball the other night on the television when a commercial featuring your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man popped up on the screen.  In an interesting move the United State Post Office has teamed up with the Spider-Man in a cross-promotional campaign to market their priority mail service and the upcoming movie "Amazing Spider-Man 2."  I have to give a nod to the USPS for making a nice marketing move that adds some hip to a somewhat stodgy brand and provides it with the hype of a block buster movie to break through all the advertising clutter out there.  The television commercial that kicked off this marketing campaign features some excellent visual effects showing off Spider-Man web slinging across New York to get a special delivery for the postal service to none other than the legendary Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee.  Check it out:

In addition to the television commercial, this promotional campaign will feature limited-edition Spider-Man Priority Mail Flat Rate Shipping Boxes, postal trucks in select urban markets branded with Spider-Man images, and Spider-Man postage stamps available at self-service kiosks.  Additionally, the campaign will feature comic book inspired graphic renderings  to serve as story-telling vehicles and features highlighting U.S. Postal Service employees who have been real-life super heroes in the communities they work in.  Last year, the Postal Service recognized 262 postal employees for heroic acts in the Postmaster General's "Heroes" program.  In my neighborhood, the letter carriers still deliver the mail by walking home to home, which in those types of circumstances provides a wide variety of opportunities for them to come across someone in need of assistance or notice something suspicious that could help stop a crime.  It is nice to see those that help other in need get recognized because that really is going above and beyond their job.

This marketing campaign will also include special exposure of the USPS and its logo in the upcoming "Amazing Spider-Man 2" movie.  So that's something to keep an eye out for when you see the movie knowing that is something going on behind the scenes as a brand sponsorship for the show's production.  Here's a trailer for Amazing Spider-Man 2 opening in theaters on May 2, 2014: