Milking the box office for 'Babygirl'

Babygirl starring Nicole Kidman has been teased in theaters for many months leading up to its Christmas Day release.

For those of you not counting down, the plot of the movie can be summarized with, “A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much-younger intern.”

The movie’s marketing campaign hones in on one of the pivotal clips that was released prior to the movie’s run: the milk scene.

In the milk scene, a glass of milk arrives unannounced to Romy (Nicole Kidman) who quickly realizes it was sent by Samuel (Harris Dickinson) with a request for her to drink it. She deletes it without taking a breath, showing the dynamic of their intricate relationship that’s about to unfold.

The marketing team chose this scene to release, and accompanied it with key messaging in interviews during the PR circuit.

For example, Harris Dickinson did a milk taste test during the Babygirl press tour:

Ultimately, I think it’s a smart move.

By “owning milk” as a symbol for the movie, Babygirl can associate itself with an object that is found in most households around the country.

Better yet, it’s a little ambiguous.

People may be wondering—what’s the milk scene? Why are the actors continuously asked about milk in their interviews? What’s the story behind that?

It forces potential moviegoers to ask questions, and it piques their interest.

Nicole Kidman even wore a Babygirl shirt with just a glass of milk on it to one of the premieres:

In many ways, this is a form of social currency that leverages association to keep Babygirl top-of-mind this holiday season.

But did they go far enough?

Some ideas to expand this strategy and make it more ubiquitous with the moment could include:

• Milk Packaging Cross-Promotion: Printing the Babygirl logo on milk carton sold in stores could be another way to drum up conversation about the film. Perhaps a trendy direct-to-consumer milk brand or a company like Fairlife would take a bite for a limited run?

• Santa x Milk x Babygirl: In a game of three degrees of separation, Babygirl, seemingly missed the connection of milk to Santa and the fact that the movie comes out on December 25th. This might help make the release date sticky in the minds of viewers by giving them another concrete trigger to associate the release date with.

• The milk emoji: I love the strategy of “owning” an emoji for any property or brand. The blue hat became synonymous with Outdoor Voices or even Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign. If you see a cup of coffee emoji, you might think of Morning Brew. The brands constant infuse emojis into their channels to drive viewers’ association with them. And when there is a milk emoji — 🥛 — just waiting to be used, it’s almost a shame they didn’t take it and run with it wholeheartedly.

All in all, there seems to be a level of intrigue for this movie heading into the holiday season—but will it be enough to propel it forward?

Either way, sit back, relax and pour yourself a nice glass of milk to enjoy.