Another Example of Viral Marketing...

The Dark Knight

Event though the dark knight is more mainstream than Cloverfield I am still going to research about it because of its successful viral campaign it had before the films release, creating the anticipation and suspense for the audience.

Thge dark knight's viral campaign started off through its famous tagline, 'why so serious?' tagline and a website was launched that pictured fictional political campaign which included Harvey Dent, with the caption 'I believe in Harvey Dent'. A vandalised version of this caption 'I believe in Harvey Dent too' was posted and users sent in emails which revealed a secret image pixel by pixel. The hidden image was that of the infamous Joker which was covered it 'HAHA' and a caption saying 'See you in December. This new approach and style to the Batman Franchise brought a breath of life an intrigue in the audience and recreated an monumental buzz about the new batman film.

Later on in 2007, 42 Entertainment launched Whysoserious.com, which had a scavenger hunt for users. This scavenger hunt led to a new image of the Joker and a teaser trailer. A couple of months later another scavenger hunt was launched, sending followers to find clues which uncovered another picture of the Joker and an audio clip of the Joker which played 'And tonight, your gonna break your one rule'. From this it led to another website, where fans could post pictures of themselves dressed up as the joker, and whoever sent in an image received an electronic copy of the Gotham times, which led to the discovery of additional websites for the fans to look at.

The opening sequence of The Dark Knight and a montage of film clips was shown before an IMAX viewing of I Am Legend. A theatrical teaser trailer was released in cinemas and also on the film's official website. After the death of Heath Ledger the promotional campaign of the film focused more on the Joker as to Harvey Dent. After the film's released in 2008, it generated a gross revenue of $1 billion and the franchise is still very popular today: Role play costumes, action figures and there is even a rollercoaster ride that simulates being stalked by the joker.

Even though this marketing strategy is at a different end of the spectrum in comparison to Cloverfield, in the sense of scale, but it still provides similar attributes that that of the viral marketing campaign of Cloverfield, creating hooks and clues for the user, making users work, to find out other clues. This is a quality that I want my work to have. However, I do not want my work to be too abstract and unconventional as I do not think it is the most effective way to carry out the project I am doing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1clvbS_33mk - The Dark Knight Teaser Trailer

http://whysoserious.com/ - Promotional website