Walks Like a Duck . . .

Written by Brook Schaaf

Mike McNerney of Martech Record recently shared a “pretty cool example of an affiliate deal that’s not being called an affiliate deal.”

The gist: marketers promoting Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, the latest installment of an anime movie franchise, struck a deal with Epic Games’ Fortnite for a crossover. Fortnite players can appear and even fight as popular characters from Dragon Ball Super, increasing awareness of the film. It seems to have helped, as the movie landed in the top five anime releases of all time with over $30 million after ten days at the U.S. box office.

So what does this have to do with affiliate marketing? The article reports that “Epic Games doesn’t charge brands directly for this type of partnership. The company takes a chunk of the revenue share split, meaning the deal will still be massively profitable on Epic’s end.”

In other words, Fortnite is the publisher, and the movie is the advertiser. It’s basically an affiliate deal, though the word “affiliate” does not appear in the piece.