First Lesson and Viral Marketing

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.