[youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQjhJf1R4k4[/youtube]

Marvel Entertainment did not wait long before placing their mark on 2015. The Disney owned company is widely expected to have a banner year thanks to the release of both “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Ant-Man”. Marvel rang in the new year by releasing an 18-second teaser trailer for the latter, once again proving their mastery of this specialized marketing medium.

Rather than simply post an 18-second spot online, which likely would have been enough to send fanboys the world over straight to their blogs, Marvel released a version of the teaser that demanded viewers give it a closer look… literally. Under the headline “1st Ant-Sized Look at Ant-Man” a video was posted to Marvel’s YouTube Channel on January 2nd. The video, shown above, features images and clips from the film sized perfectly for viewing by ants.

Of course, if you happen to be human, like most everyone with enough money to pay for a movie ticket, then this means the 18-seconds of footage is microscopic. Even the best squinters in the world would have a hard time making any of it out. Some dedicated fans discovered if the resolution of the video was increased to 1080p and blown up to full screen then the faintest of fuzzy images from “Ant-Man” could be made out. Maybe that’s why the video has racked up more than 6.3 million views on YouTube.

The following day, after dozens if not hundreds of media outlets had written about the tiny “Ant-Man” teaser, Marvel posted what they dubbed the “1st Human-Sized Look at Ant-Man” to YouTube. Shown below, it is the same exact video as the “ant-sized” version. This time however it was large enough to see by those of us who walk around on only two legs and who can carry a wallet, but nothing that is 5,000 times our own body weight.

[youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ent7BoDR1yE[/youtube]

Maybe Marvel was taking pity on everyone trying to get a proper look at the teeny-tiny trailer. Maybe they were just worried we’d all go blind and might be legally liable. Whatever the case, the move sent all the fanboys back to their blogs and forced all those media outlets who covered the “ant-sized” video to update their stories.

Since the 18-second video is meant to be a teaser trailer for the world premiere of the teaser trailer (yes, you read that correctly), our guess is that Marvel figured it would be a good idea if viewers could actually read the promotional announcement. That way they could learn where and when they could see the first “Ant-Man” trailer.

Here too the studio demonstrated their ability to exploit off cross-property synergies across multiple platforms. The first full “Ant-Man” teaser was scheduled to play exclusively during the premiere of Marvel’s “Agent Carter” on ABC, Tuesday, January 6th. This not only makes sense because these are both Marvel titles, but because Disney also owns ABC.

We’ve previously pointed out how smart and savvy Marvel can be when it comes to trailers, based on the way the company handled the leak of the first trailer for “The Avengers: Age of Ultron”. This time around Marvel showed they can get the media to tout an upcoming release not just once, but three times in a single week.

“Ant-Man”, which stars Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas, opens theatrically in North America on July 17th of this year. The first full teaser for the movie can be seen below: