May the 4th: A Roundup of the Best Brand Executions of 2019

May the 4th, arguably one of the best days of the year for Star Wars social media fans! When sitting down to enjoy a feed of puns, sentimental or nostalgic moments and being ready to feel pumped for December, we were a little surprised at the scarcity of brands posting about the monumental day this year. To be fair, there are a lot of conversations happen on social right now: the Met Gala, Justin Timberlake ‘It’s gonna be May’ memes last week, Avengers and of course Game of Thrones (shout out for this GoT / Star Wars crossover from @housestarkbr).

We love seeing brands successfully execute on timely holiday social posts, it demonstrates they are agile and scrappy. Of course, we’re not recommending brands post just to check the box, because true fans of any holiday will be sure to call them out for it. Without further adieu, enjoy our roundup of the best May the 4th content social had to offer.

The passing of Peter Mayhew, who was the OG Chewbacca, sadly came a couple of days before this infamous holiday which heavily impacted posts on social. As fans should, they paid homage with loving posts and beautiful art.

• • @jjabramsofficial
  • @starwars_lore (and bonus points for this Revenge of the Fifth post!)
  • @sombradeimperio

The fan art this year was amazing and truly were the superstars of this year’s May the 4th:

• • @tomwilltell
  • @kevinplane_tattooer
  • @juliedessine

Things were a little quiet on the celebrity-front. As we mentioned, so many fandoms are at a fever pitch right now. When it gets closer to December, we suspect more celebs will go into Star Wars hyperdrive.

Here were a few of our favorites:

• @hammilhimself - Why we loved it: Leave it to one of the OGs to know when the fans need to hear from him. Mark Hammil, the original Luke Skywalker, had a series of wordplays starting on May the 1st that were perfectly Hammil (and maybe a little Joker?). He’s Luke Skywalker, he can do no wrong.
• @samuelljackson - Why we loved it: Because this is the lightsaber he GIFTED to Captain Marvel herself (that he apparently wasn’t even supposed to have).
• @praisethelourd - Why we loved it: Sob! No explanation necessary. We miss you General/Princess!

Even though we were underwhelmed by the overall quantity of May the 4th posts, we have to give credit to the brands who seized the opportunity. Here are our favorites of the brands that did post.

• Disney - Why we loved it: These posts had a fun mixture of content that tied to moments dedicated Star Wars fans love and added levity to the monotonous scroll through the Instagram feed.
  • These are the droids you're looking for!
  • Disney Eats - Dough. Or dough not. There is no try.
• Lego - Why we loved it: Lego found a great balance of posting niche superfan content as well as the more general Lego fan. They also cleverly promoted some new products strategically launching that day! These posts tick all the boxes for successful holiday posts.
• • • Toughest furball in the galaxy for Peter Mayhew
    • New Tantive IV product release
    • New BOOST Droid Commander product launch

• @StarWars - Why we loved it: How can you not double tap BB-8 giving you a thumbs up on the best day in the galaxy? It was on brand, fun and easy.
• @Pixar - Why we loved it: It’s Up and Star Wars together! What’s not to love? Also, it’s an awesome crossover of Disney brands.

A few honorable mentions. These are the brands that you may not typically associate with Star Wars, but they did some fun tie-ins that made sense with their social tone:

• @hellosunshine - Why we loved it: ‘Cause it’s true! Between Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Arya and Rey, we have so much female fandom to look forward to. Plus things like this are happening - Go Brie!
• @greenpeaceusa - Why we loved it: It was a cute play on the original phrase, and it makes us think of Endor and Ewoks.
• @wow.disney_ - Why we loved it: Because woah, it DOES look like the Death Star.
• @starbucks - Why we loved it: It was pretty cool, we’ll never look at a Venti cup the same way again! It’s also amusing how explicit Starbucks was that you cannot actually order this. And no one in the comments listened.

Until next year, nerds! Let us know if we missed any of your favorites, feel free to leave a comment below.