I decided to use blogger to keep record of
my work during the Digital Media in Film module due to the knowledge I already
have of using it from other modules.
It is really easy to use and has a very
clear layout for writing making it easy to follow and understand my thought
process as well as being able to add images that back the ideas up.
During our first class we discussed the
different methods used at promoting new films through campaigns mainly that of
the “Why so serious?” campaign towards the Dark Knight film. I’m going to look
into this campaign along with Nine Inch Nails’ viral marketing campaign for
their album ‘The Year Zero”.
Why so serious?
For the release of the new Batman film “The
Dark Knight” in 2007 Warner Bros set up a large viral marking campaign. It
began with a fake newspaper called The Gotham Times that told the news from the
city of Gotham where Batman lives. While this was mainly a document online they
began to give out hard copies of the newspaper in Chicago.
At the San Diego Comic-con in the same year
the website whysoserious.com was launched by 42 Entertainment. They sent fans
on scavenger hunts to unlock the teaser trailer.
This was then again moved up to another
level on Halloween when the website constructed another scavenger hunt that
sent fans to different locations in major cities around the USA to take
pictures of what they found. The clues when combined revealed photos of the
joker and an audio clip from the film.
This method of viral marketing meant that
fans felt very involved with the run up to the film. This also meant that the buildup
to the film meant a large attendance to the film viewings boosting it in the
box office.
The Year Zero
In 2007 Nine Inch Nails fans became
involved in a treasure hunt set up by the band to find clues and other
materials linking to their new album. During the tour leading up to the new
release of the album ‘The Year Zero” specific letters were highlighted on the
t-shirts on sale at the dates. These letters spelled out the phrase “I am
trying to believe”.
After much searching fans discovered the
website iamtryingtobelieve.com which warned of a drug parepin that was being
added to water supplies that would protect citizens in case of a dirty bomb or
biological warfare. This story was of course fictional but combined with lyrics
from some of the songs on the album created hype for the new album that people
wanted to get involved in propelling the album sales when it was released.
To add to this they held listening parties
where they handed out badges that also contained clues towards the puzzle
surrounding the album. However these were a lot harder to decipher due to many
just containing images that linked to song titles or just lyrics themselves.
A final push by Nine Inch Nails was the
hiding of flash drives containing different songs from the album in cities
around the world. This caused a lot of
excitement due to fans searching around venues looking for these files that
were sometimes hidden in places such as the toilets or behind seats in the bar
areas.
By the time the album was released the lead
up to it that had gotten many people interested whether they were fans or not
meant that when the album was finally released many bought it to see how the
clues linked into the songs.
