Digital Marketing

Empowering users with social media for an epic Dark Knight trilogy

The Batman trilogy has finally come to an end. It has earned the approval of fans and critics alike and also quite a large amount of cash at the box office. But just making a good movie is not enough. Equally important is getting people involved with the movie, make them be a part of the amazing experience and make them anticipate and live each moment of it. This is what Warner Bros have been doing remarkably with this trilogy.

The first Batman movie, Batman begins was not as aggressively marketed as the next two. It was not yet proven how remarkable a raconteur Christopher Nolan really was. But with Batman Begins he made us believe in each part of the movie, humanize the superhero movie, something which was not done before.. So WB took Chris Nolan’s next outing with The Dark Knight far more seriously.

Marketing for The Dark Knight started as early as May 2007 while the film released in July 2008. A website was launched making use of The Joker’s now iconic line of “Why so serious”. Fans had to acccomplish tasks to unlock snippets from the movie. Similarly sites called “I believe in Harvey Dent” and later a vandalized version called “I believe in Harvey Dent too” were launched. You could enlist in Harvey Dents campaign,recieve newsletters and phone calls etc.  Emails sent by fans unlocked pieces of an image which turned out to be the first official image of The Joker. Other tasks included a scavenger hunt to unlock the teaser of the movie and a new photo of the joker.

Marketing For The Dark Knight Rises started of on a similarly unique note. In may 2011 the films official website launched with an encrypted audio file playing what seemed to be chants. On decryption the hashtag of “#thefirerises” was found. Tweeting with this hashtag removed a pixel from the webpage slowly uncovering the first official image of Bane.

A fictional arrest warrant for Batman was also posted on the official site with the police urging them to send photographs of graffiti drawings of bats around the world. This unlocked a trailer on the official website. Other marketing moves included making use of fake CIA memos and transcripts which unveiled “Operation Early Bird” and a countdown timer which ticked down to a map which listed theatres screening the prologue. Tie-ins with Nokia and Mountain dew were made which resulted in 3d maps of gotham city for exploration which had more plot details buried in them.

At every step of their marketing campaign, the viewer was involved in uncovering clues and working together with others all across the world giving them a sense of achievement. The clues were also not very easy to unlock, teasing the viewers for just the right amount of time. This resulted in higher discussions on forums and social networks, thereby indirectly resulting in higher promotion and pulling others in too. But most importantly they did something unbelievable. They made sure that each experience was noteworthy for every fan and the content they churned out during the entire process was of great value to every person who wanted to be a part of this experience.

So this is just an example of the wide reach of viral marketing and the many forms that it can be used in. While I have used the example of The Batman trilogy as I am a fan, you can similarly find other areas where viral marketing has been put to good use to extend brand reach to prospects. Super 8, Inception, Paranormal Activity all have used Viral marketing to boost business. Similarly firms like Cadbury, Nike, Burger King etc have used viral marketing in the form of YouTube videos or out of the box strategies to promote their products.

You can go through some of the sites created for viral marketing here:

http://www.thedarkknightrises.com/

http://www.dewgothamcity.com/

http://whysoserious.com/

http://batman.wikibruce.com/Ibelieveinharveydent.com

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