Case Study

Warner Brothers' Viral Marketing Strategy - The 'Dark Knight' Campaign

The case focuses on the alternate reality game (ARG) 'Why So Serious? The Dark Knight', by Warner Brothers to promote the Batman film - The Dark Knight. The campaign was launched around 15 months prior to the release of the film and witnessed participation from millions of enthusiasts from across the world. The campaign revolved around 'The Joker' one of the characters of the movie, and was set in the fictional Gotham city. The underlying theme of the movie Good Vs Evil was very much evident all throughout the campaign.

The campaign started with some teasers followed by campaign for the district attorney of Gotham City in which Harvey Dent was contesting.

The introduction of The Joker followed quickly, and from then on, the participants were engaged in games and scavenger hunts through clues and were also rewarded from time to time, not only materially, but also in the form of posters, teaser trailers, memorabilia, participation in the events related to the movie, and finally tickets to the movie. These activities helped in sustaining the interest of the audience in the movie and also in the ARG.

The ARG was highly successful and helped in establishing connection between the previous Batman movie, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The campaign ended from where the film took off. The success of any ARG is measured through user content and the Dark Knight ARG resulted in thousands of blog posts, Google searches, websites and participants. The success of ARG translated into the success of the film, and it went on to become one of the few films to gross over US$ 1 billion in box office collections.

Issues:

» Explain the emerging trends in advertising in a web-enabled world.

» Evaluate the use of ARG as a promotion and advertising tool.

» Analyze the pros and cons of using ARG for marketing.

» Examine how ARGs can be used as an audience engagement tool.