So far with Warner Brothers’ viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight we’ve seen some amusing and (if you like treasure hunts) addictive stuff, but not everyone has the desire to spend time sifting through websites like those for the City of Gotham Police Department and the new Gotham Police Major Crimes Unit.
That’s what the Superhero Hype forums are for. A poster there dug up a neat little video clip of Gotham’s ADA, Rachel Dawes speaking to the press about the value of Harvey Dent. It’s not our first real look at Maggie Gyllenhaal as Dawes (there was a trailer you might have seen) but it is the best look we’ve had at the character, and the first major use of a primary actor in the viral campaign.
A word about the viral stuff. Every time we post one of these, the comments section is littered with insightful commentary suggesting that this material won’t do anything to draw in a broad audience for the film — effectively, that this isn’t marketing.
Does anyone actually think that WB is targeting anyone but the web geeks with this collection of websites and clips? This campaign represents one basic idea: Christopher Nolan and Warner Brothers know what hardcore fans expect from The Dark Knight, and they think they’re going to deliver. None of it is required viewing. This is supposed to be fun stuff for the fans that plays to their expectations, nothing more. If you’re not interested, or just want to see the film, by all means move along.
Here’s the Dawes clip.
And if you want more of the deep role-playing viral stuff, here’s an audio interview meant to support the case against Harvey Dent.
9 comments
Why is it that Gotham police officers and/or whatever look to the right..? What's to the right? Can't see the Dawes vid cos this sh*tty computer I'm using right now wouldn't know how to do it but it's nice to see more of the viral campaign
Warners is bar none the best studio when it comes to appeasing the coveted "male, 18-35" demographic. After 300 became a blockbuster thanks to net marketing, this will be their new standard for all tentpole releases (like with the Watchmen videos). Frivolous crap to be sure, but it makes the long wait a little more bearable.
This material won't do anything to draw in a broad audience for the film. This isn't even marketing.
Fanboy Savant is right. Its not marketing, this whole "Viral" thing is only really put out there for the people closely following the production, who in any case are already going to se the film open weekend anyway. Its awesome for us who are following but I cant see how people can praise it as a marketing scheme. It should be called something more like Viral Foreplay For Fanboys.
In the end word of mouth will decide if this will be a blockbuster or not.
In the end it's still a comic book movie,so it will mostly apply to comic book fans.
I personaly think that this marketing nonsense is targeted to exactly those peole
Nice work, Ed. The breeze you felt was Savant's joke flying over your head.
You'd think that after reading the article, Ed would have seen the joke a million miles off. Apparently not. Anyway, Dark Knight better not have a shitty third act, like Begins.
Y'know, if you're not careful with that deep role-playing, you'll end up with a bad case of that viral stuff.
So lets contrast this with the marketing for the new Hulk then.
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.