• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 22, 2015

That could well be the title of the prequel to 20th Century Fox’s digital marketing strategy leading up to the release of blockbuster “X-Men” franchise’s “Days Of Future Past.”

“We were under a very compressed timeframe to do this,” said Julie Ryan, executive director of digital marketing for the studio’s home entertainment division, adding that the campaign caused her to lose some of her presence -- vis a vis her ability to sleep nights while gearing up for it.

“The stakes were very high,” she said, noting how important the X-Men franchise was to the studio.”

What she didn’t say, was how important the film -- an adaptation of one of the most important story arcs in the X-Men universe, written by time-warping scribe Chris Claremont. Her strategy: To mobilize geeks like me that knew that X-Men trivia fact -- the hardcore fans.

Seems I wasn’t alone. To begin her presentation at OMMA Art & Science in Los Angeles this morning, Ryan asked the audience to stand and began an inductive process asking different cuts to take their seats again -- beginning anyone who has ever seen an “X-Men” film to the hardcore fans that had seen “Days of Future Past” in the theater.

In the end, it was me and about a dozen other folks in the OMMA audience -- pretty much (no surprise) all guys.