7 posts tagged “marketing”
Marketing this movie is going to be tough, but from what I've seen of the website and these recent clips I'm impressed. I'm pleased that they're not shying away from some of the more complex aspects of the story. The great thing about the Daemons is they can be utilised in much the same way as other hugely popular kids toys like Pokemon. It's a mixture of education and entertainment. You can even answer a short quiz that will tell you what your Daemon would be if you existed in this beautifully rich fantasy world.
Well, after releasing the co-ordinates to a meeting of dangerous minds, the latest 'The Dark Knight' viral revealed its secrets to the net:
Hundreds of whacked out, made-up individuals hit the location hoping for some sign, a hint at how they could enlist in a maniac's dastardly plan. And from there a clever, marketing stunt unfolded involving this large cast of colourful freaks and ending in the apparent death of the one they call, 'The Joker'.
Ok, either I was drunk or this was not there last time I checked Rorschach's Journal:
Click on it and you'll get a little pop-up asking you, the many few to help Rorschach, ahem, find the masked killer by printing off either/or of the following:
I do hope this means the site is actually gathering some kind of attention rather than some mugging off session by an aggrieved webmaster. There's definately a sense of progression in the viral narrative so to speak, and I admire the effort gone into it, but it's going to be a real kick in the teeth if the WB marketing machines steps forward and pumps out some bland flash site with...well..really none of the flash.
instructions.
need to find mask killer.
spread the word.
print image.
place in public place.
take photo.
email to me.
Well, hoax or not, a day later and this inane little e-mail:
Subject: Dear 'Loquacious' Lunatic
Twas I that tossed the Comedian like a fat drunk in a back alley bar.
Whattya gonna do about it?
Mr Nada Yourbeesnees
I get this:
you did not kill blake.
know who did.
admitted it to me.
.ЯR.
Nice to see someone is making the effort to maintain a viral, and it's certainly one of the more interactive. Let's see if we can't help it along.
There's a few people who are already crying hoax over at the AICN Talkbacks regarding this Rorschach's Journals site. Apparently some of the embedded code starts you off on a trail that supposedly ends up at some fan film blog. Devin Faraci over at CHUD.com, a fantastic film journalist, has delved a little deeper and revealed that the owner of the blog is:
'one Michael Regina, better known as Xoanon, one of the guys behind The One Ring. What’s interesting is that Regina and Warner Bros have a bit of a history, with Regina getting very uppity about WB going with bluetights.net as the official ‘fan’ site for Superman Returns (read up on the fiasco here)'
He goes on to suggest that this could be the studio teaming up with Regina to produce this bit of viral. As much as I admire a lot of the fan efforts that are circulated on the internet, it does make these kinds of things hard to verify, and sites like AICN who are absolutely giddy about films, and normal schmoes like me, can get suckered on first look. I hope that isn't the case here because it's a really nice idea and the first real signs of marketing taking the film seriously.
According to Harry Knowles over at AICN (aintitcool.com) he was contacted via the site and after considering the veracity of it he sent this random, abusive message to the address as a way of testing it out:
Subject: rorschach you psychotic twit
Go fuck yourself, you're the one that deserves to be in prison you
sadistic fuck!
The Harry Man
and not to long after he received this in response:
knowles.
have you on my list to visit.
watch your fridge.
.ЯR.
This back and forth apparently went on for a while with one rejoinder from Harry garnering the fantastically characteristic response of 'hurm'.
How cool is that? Have a go and see if you get anything. This is
far better than the Dark Knight virals that went out last month, and it
looks like they're totally getting that it's Rorschach who's the
narrator and main character in the Watchmen film. I've sent mine, and if there's any joy I'll post it up. Let's see if we can get this circulating around.
Hmmm forgive me for the hesitancy, but after the last hundred or so photoshopped, fan fakes, and what seemed to be a legit pic got canned by the press and the public you'd have to be a fool not to be a bit suspicious when the next 'official' Joker image from The Dark Knight is revealed.
However this seems to be different. Continuing Hollywood's marvellous new trend of clever viral marketing this image comes from the vandalism of the recent 'Harvey Dent for District Attorney' mini-site, the central display of which I posted a day or so ago. It's not clear whether this is the final Joker or part of a steady evolution over the entire film, but colour me impressed. I like how realistic and scruffy it looks. It's a little nod to Nicholson's Joker, but also grungy and a lot darker.
You can read about the viral marketing campain in more depth here and here, but I'm just going to show the steps taken to reveal the image:
Step One:
Step Two- Vandalised site:
Step Three:
Step Four:
It's so good to see Hollywood execs taking the fandom more and more seriously. The internet is an essential tool for any film's marketing campaign and the increasing complexity used to engage the audience is a clear sign that Hollywood realises this. It's now important that Hollywood doesn't simply use this in a random way, and smoothly integrates the online narrative with the film it's marketing. The playing cards and and the vandalism of Dent's campaign poster are nice touches, revealing facets of the Joker's character and it helps build expectation for the film with a little added mystery for those willing to make the effort.
Of course the use of the internet is a doubled edged sword. With audience's understanding of the internet becoming increasingly sophisticated then so too must the marketing campaigns. People won't stand for being patronised and so it'll be a challenge for the marketers to come up with increasingly novel ways of wrapping us up in a mystery. This of course can only be a good thing for film as it becomes far more of an experience.
