1. The Dark Knight Rises' awesomely
complex viral marketing campaign
Fans unlock the stunning new trailer for Christopher Nolan's
upcoming blockbuster one frame at a time by spotting
strategically-placed graffiti all over the world

2. • A new trailer for the surefire summer blockbuster The
Dark Knight Rises was released Monday night — and
Batman's superfans worked hard to get it. (Watch the
video below.) As part of a buzz-driving marketing
campaign for the final installment in Christopher
Nolan's Batman trilogy, Warner Brothers announced
the trailer on the film's website, telling fans that to see
it, they had to help the Gotham City Police Department
locate Batman by tracking down hundreds of pieces of
graffiti from around the world. For every piece of
graffiti that a fan found and tagged on social media,
Warner Brothers unlocked a frame of the trailer.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, obsessively eager fans had the
whole thing unlocked in a matter of hours. Here, a
guide to the shrewd campaign — and the impressive
new footage:

3. • How did this campaign start?
A fictional file for a criminal investigation was
posted Monday morning on
TheDarkKnightRises.com. It contained a warrant
for the arrest of "John Doe aka The Batman,"
who is on the lam after taking the fall for corrupt
District Attorney Harvey Dent at the end of The
Dark Knight. The file included a press release
explaining that Batman left graffiti drawings of
bats around the world, imploring the public to
take pictures of the graffiti and submit
photographic evidence by Twitter or email.

4. • How did people find the graffiti?
Warner Brothers posted the exact street
addresses of the more than 300 locations,
including sites in Australia, China, Holland,
and the U.S. After each piece of bat graffiti
was located, a corresponding frame of the
film's trailer was posted on
tdkr07202012.com. All of the frames were
unlocked by Monday night.

5. • How is the trailer being received?
With rapture. It's "honestly one of the most
thrilling trailers I've ever seen," says Eric Eisenberg
at Cinema Blend. The moody music and startling
visuals should make you "grow the biggest
goosebumps you've ever felt in your entire life."
It's "eerily somber," says Jen Yamato at Movieline,
all culminating in a "gorgeous, strangely poetic
shot" of two bridges exploding in tandem. More
impressive, says Jen Chaney at The Washington
Post, is the human drama that balances that
scene. "It's not the sight of a bridge collapsing that
compels; it's the image of young children on a
school bus watching it fall."
•

6. • Was the campaign a success?
It was a "brilliant way to get fans in a tizzy over
seeing a trailer," says Yamato. And the campaign
came at a good time, says Travis Leamons at
Inside Pulse. The impressive viral marketing for
Ridley Scott's Prometheus had been stealing all of
The Dark Knight Rises' thunder. And judging
purely from the speed with which fans rushed to
unlock the trailer, says Mark Hughes at Forbes,
the campaign seems to be a rousing success.