Last night, I attended a midnight screening of The Dark Knight. Hands down it’s the best movie I’ve seen all year, and might be my new favorite film of all time.
Slightly delirious after getting only 2 hours of sleep, I felt compelled to recap a couple of the incredibly unique viral marketing efforts that went into making this the (presumptive) biggest movie of the summer.
I believe in Harvey Dent
In May of 2007, Warner Bros. kicked off its Dark Knight promotion with a series of unbranded, guerrilla tactics built around the fake election campaign of Harvey Dent for District Attorney of Gotham City.
friendsofharveydent.org gave visitors a first glimpse at one of the film’s main characters (Dent) through numerous videos, fake endorsements, a blog, and even a “loyalty” toolbar that could be added to one’s web browser for regular election campaign updates.
A van featuring politically charged messaging, called the Dentmobile, helped to support the online campaign by visiting cities across the U.S. Those lucky enough to meet up with the van were given “I believe in Harvey Dent” buttons, bumper stickers, and t-shirts.
Why so serious?
Late last year, eager fans embarked on a multi-month adventure that sent them searching for movie clues related to the Joker. Whysoserious.com served as the starting point for these hardcore movie buffs.
In one of their many scavenger hunts, fans hunted for clues in major cities across the U.S. and were instructed to take pictures of their findings. Once put together, the clues revealed the first-look at the Joker’s face, and a secret mp3 from the Joker himself.
In December, a new page was added to whysoserious.com, letting users complete a simple carnival-like game in exchange for a cryptic message and random street address.
Participants who followed the directions were given a free cake with a phone number spelled out in icing. Inside the cake was a new cell phone, charger, and a Joker playing card with instructions written on it.
The note read:
“Wow. You really took the cake! Now put the icing on it. Call [number] immediately from this phone and this phone only. Do not give this phone number to anyone else.
Let’s hope your fellow goons come through as well as you. Once all the layers are in place, you’ll all get your just desserts. I’m a man of my word.”
Participants who followed the Joker’s orders were rewarded with exclusive gifts, including IMAX passes to see the first 7 minutes of the film.
Countless blogs and forums followed gamers as they made their way through the clues, and shared the exclusive content with readers almost a year before the film even hit theaters.
Image courtesy of firstshowing.net
