Dark Knight - Viral Marketing Campaign

Viral marketing is such an important aspect of what is needed to create a buzz around a film. The best viral campaign i have ever seen is for "the dark knight". It included fans with the film, and got them to follow the film as if the characters were real. As the campaign progressed, the fans either followed the "i believe in Harvey Dent" campaign or the "why so serious?" campaign, taking sides with good or evil. The extent that 42 entertainment was unreal, and it created a real life game that the fans could follow ending up with some 10 million followers, across 75 different countries, across hundreds of websites, video games, mobile phones, print, email, and real world events.

This is their campaign broken down:

• At a Comic-con event, guests were invited to stand outside, in the sky a plane wrote a phone number, and this lead to a message from the joker telling fans that if they wanted to follow him then they needed to prove themselves to him. They were given make up if they chose to follow to follow the joker and just casual if they chose to follow harvey and they hit the streets.
• A ransom note was posted up by 49 different cities telling players to go to a specific place. This lead to a request of hitting famous landmarks dressed as their characters.
• The first addition of "The Gotham Times" was given to all the players, and they were given an email to write to : humanresources@whysoserious.com , this diversed information about corrupt policemen in the"gotham". It also gave a link to the website below.
• They set up a website called whysoserious.com/straightrightup with a hammer game and some teddy bear toys. Each toy had an address on it, each to different bakerys across the US. they were instructed to go and say their name was Robin Banks, as in robbing banks, and they would recieve something. Fans recieved a cake. However inside the cake their was an evidence bag, covered in Gotham police writing. The was carrying a mobile phone, a charger, the joker card, and the instructions. These instruction read:

"'Wow. You really took the cake! Now put the icing on it. Call [number] immediately from this phone and this phone only. Do not give this phone number to anyone else.
Let's hope your fellow goons come through as well as you. Once all the layers are in place, you'll all get your just desserts. I'm a man of my word.'"

• When this number was rang a woman answered from rent a clown. She expressed how she knew who the caller was and put down the phone. after which they recieved a text:

"Good work, clown! Keep this phone charged and with you at all times. Don't call me. I will call you … eventually."

• Harvey Dents campaign was a little diffferent, the phone number led to a message from him expressing the good he wanted to bring to city and asking for support.
• Thousands of protesters hit the streets with i believe in harvey dent tshirts and banners, trying to raise awareness.
• On the website it had a list of cities, and they released adresses on all of the cities at a specific point of their campaign. This led to bowling alleys across the country and was a race to get their first. They were also given a code and a locker number. This lead to an exclusive trailer of the dark knight, however the joker had defaces the whole thing.
• A week before the premier fans were told to meet in downtown New York. At 10pm sharp the bat signal was shone onto a building. Infront of everyone the bat symbol was defaced by the joker. At this moment everything in the campaign was defaced by the joker.
• They were later linked to websites and forums, where information was diversed about the film. They were also given free screening passes to see the first 7 minutes of the film, especially filmed for IMAX.

The outcome of this was:

Over 10 million followers worldwide.

Most advanced pre sale tickets ever with opening morning, midnight, 3am and 6am showings sold out.