Marketing and Promotion

The Dark Knight - Viral Marketing:

May 2007: Why So Serious?

• In the months leading up to the Dark Knight, an alternate reality game attracted more than 10 million unique players
• All over the world comic-con players gathered to 'take orders from the Joker'
• Scavenged for clues (phone number in the sky)
• A ransom note was brought to life in 49 cities
• Hit local landmarks in full Joker makeup from London to the Middle East to Pennsylvania to India
• Worldwide community was formed
• Players picked up cakes from bakeries in America with a hidden package inside - a Joker phone
• Dentmobiles rallied campaigners in 33 cities across the US
• Citizens marched, protested, rallied, screamed and charted
• One of the most interactive movie-marketing campaigns ever hatched by Hollywood - The Los Angeles Times, March 2008
• Scavenger hunts around the world revealed the latest trailer (Jokerized trailer)
• A transmedia experience with over 10 million participants in over 75 countries played across hundreds of web pages, interactive games, mobile phones, print, email, real world events, video and unique collectibles
• The dark knight had the most advanced pre-sale tickets ever with opening night, morning, midnight, 3AM and 6AM showings SOLD OUT
• Biggest opening day of all time
• Top grossing film of the year
• Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Scottsdale, Tucson, Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, Kansas City, Columbia, College Station, Austin, Houston, St. Louis, South Bend, Chicago, Madison, Salt Lake City

Online Marketing Strategies:

1: Do Something Remarkable - the publicity stunt

Seth Godin, one of the brightest minds in the marketing world, summed it up perfectly when he said: “by definition, remarkable things get remarked upon”.

word of mouth is one of the most powerful form of marketing. If you want to leverage viral marketing of any sorts, you must begin by doing something worth talking about.

When Game of Thrones marketed their latest series in the UK, they erected a bus-sized dragon’s head, appearing to have been washed up on a Dorset beach.

When these guys launched Chronicle, they flew remote controlled humans through New York City, scoring free publicity from hundreds of media outlets.

2: Pre-roll video advertising

Pre-roll video ads are an incredibly effective tool for drumming up interest and seeding your trailer online. They’re relatively inexpensive, and you aren’t charged if the viewer clicks ‘skip’ within the first five seconds. Using a service like TubeMogul you can easily have your trailer appearing before related videos on YouTube, as well as sites like IMDB, 4oD, Vimeo, and many other sites.

The important thing to remember with pre-roll advertising is to give the viewer a call to action i.e. something to do right now. This could be visiting the movie’s Facebook Page and engaging in a social game about the film, or entering a competition to win premiere tickets, or perhaps just going through to the movie’s official website to watch the full-length trailer. Of course, the more interesting you can make it for the viewer the better.

3: Be smart with press junkets

Press junkets are one of the movie industry's most powerful publicity tactics

The press can conduct interviews with all of the main actors and directors from the film.

Influential bloggers and fans

4: Let your viewers experience their story

The hunger games had one of the most forward thinking digital marketing campaigns of the decade. 

Virtual hunger games - users could join a district and compete against other districts just like in the film. The virtual game enabled viewers to experience what the characters in the film would experience while engaging with other fans of the film.

The game also tied in aspects of gamification and social integration to incentivize users to invite their friends, share updates and ultimately spread the word about The Hunger Games virally.

5: IMDB Listings and Advertising

IMDB is a search engine, and much like Google or YouTube, their algorithm is driven largely by relevance and popularity, so you’ll want to make sure that your film page contains as much information as possible, and is well linked throughout the site.

6: Involve your audience in the making of the film

Warner Bros launched the award-winning 'Why So Serious' campaign for the Dark Knight which brought Gotham City to life, encouraging over 10 million fans around the world to visit landmarks around the world in full Joker makeup, creating a buzz and hype for the film

7: Make an interactive social media platform

When you visit the Breaking Bad, Hunger Games, or World War Z Facebook Page, you’re presented with a huge variety of games, contests, and fun apps to use. On top of this, the updates are frequent and very engaging.

8: Use niche social networks

Smaller social platforms such as Pinterest and TikTok

For example, Sundance Film Festival use Pinterest to highlight the best independent films. While they may only have 4,497 followers, many of these followers actively share Sundance’s pins on their own wall – enabling them to spread virally.

9: Auction props used in the film or TV show

This is what What We Do In The Shadows did when they were marketing their film. Props from the set could be bought on sites such as TradeMe.

Breaking Bad also did this, posting a link on Facebook that allowed people to be able to access where to buy props from the set from.

10: Using celebrity and brand partnerships

Coca Cola have 74.5m fans on Facebook and 2m on Twitter, which is 30x larger than the total audience of the 007 / James Bond social media accounts. When the two partnered on the launch of Skyfall, James Bond utilised Coke’s social media following to the max, enabling them to drive a huge amount of engagement in a short space of time.