Gateway Galaxy
LET’S-A-GO…into the Galaxy! Following the seismic cultural impact of the original Super Mario Bros. Plumbing website (see our case study), Universal Pictures and Illumination sought to expand this billion-dollar franchise into its new intergalactic setting. With a passionate audience exceeding 200 million, protecting fan trust was paramount.
The goal was to transform a standard marketing touchpoint into an authentic extension of the Marioverse, allowing global audiences to explore, discover, and engage beyond the screen.
By evolving the interactive experience established in the first campaign, we created Gateway Galaxy, a digital destination localized across 17 markets that invited fans into a living narrative world across both theatrical and home entertainment windows.
Our approach
Staying true to the source material, we constructed the Gateway Galaxy - an intergalactic space terminal serving as a central hub where visitors navigate to new worlds through pipe portals.
First teased via an Out of Orbit email leak from the original SMB Plumbing site, the hub officially launched during Nintendo Direct on MAR10 Day. Audiences explored the space through interactive features, guided by a custom R.O.B. Chatbot navigator. The platform featured clickable warp pipes revealing planet overlays, plot-teasing notices, hidden glyph codes, interactive slot machine, an dynamic evolving "UP" World and a glitch which took fans into the Minus World.
Bridging digital immersion with real-world action, we partnered with Fandango on a first-of-its-kind ticketing initiative. We introduced Galactic Passports and Galactic Souvenirs, which rewarded fans with exclusive Google and Apple Wallet collectibles for theater visits and home entertainment rentals.
The results
The campaign achieved breakthrough global engagement, turning dedicated fans into active promoters who created walkthrough videos, shared screenshots, and drove massive online conversation across Reddit, YouTube, and social media platforms.
The experience recorded a 97% returning user rate, an average launch engagement time of nearly three minutes, and outperformed global retail purchase benchmarks by 17%.
Over 22,000 digital Luma badges were stamped on fan passports, with 31 Superfans seeing the movie six times each to complete their collection. The momentum continued into the home ent window, where more than 6,500 digital home entertainment collectibles were claimed.
Ultimately, the microsite made fans an active part of the story, contributing momentum as the film became the first release of the year to cross $1 billion at the box office. WAHOOO!
