The Dark Knight was a major Hollywood blockbuster production by Warner Bros. that utilized both traditional and viral marketing techniques. An extensive viral marketing campaign that resembled an alternate reality game was launched 18 months before the film's release and involved puzzles, websites, and real-world activities that engaged fans. The film had massive commercial success due to this multifaceted marketing approach along with its wide theatrical distribution to over 4,300 theaters domestically, breaking previous records.

1. THE DARK
KNIGHT
(2008)
CASE STUDY
BACKGROUND TO
THE FILM’S
PRODUCTION

2. • G322 Key Media Concepts (TV
Drama)
• Section B: Institutions and
Audiences
• US film aimed at an international audience
• Traditional Hollywood Blockbuster genre
• Large Hollywood studio production WITH
BUDGET TO MATCH!
• Innovative internet marketing similar to
Cloverfield (2008)

3. • Famous Director -
Christopher Nolan
• Previous: Memento
(2000) Insomnia
(2002) Batman
Begins (2005)
Batman Begins opened a new chapter in the Batman film franchise by
taking the legendary character back to his origins, reimagining why and
how the billionaire industrialist Bruce Wayne became the enigmatic crime
fighter known to the world as Batman. In The Dark Knight Nolan returns
to the saga with the character now “fully formed.”
Batman Begins budget - $150 million
Worldwide Gross - $372.7 million

4. • The Dark Knight was filmed primarily in Chicago,
as well as in several other locations in the United
States, the United Kingdom, and Hong Kong.
• Nolan used an IMAX camera to film some
sequences, including the Joker's first
appearance in the film.
• It has had enormous box office success, setting
the record for the highest-grossing weekend
opening in the U.S. with over $158 million and
becoming the 4th highest grossing film of all
time.
The Dark Knight budget - $185 million
Worldwide Gross - $1.1 billion

5. IMPORTANT FACTORS IN THE
SUCCESS OF THE FILM?
• MARKETING campaign
• VIRAL marketing
• BATMAN – history and contract with
audience
• CASTING
• DIRECTOR’S PORTFOLIO
• DISTRIBUTION – most cinemas to date
• Online ticket sales

6. • Sample exam question:
• How do studios reach their audience
nationally and internationally?
• Answer - through Marketing and
Distribution.

7. MARKETING
1. Traditional forms of Marketing
2. Viral marketing and ARG
3. Issues for debate

8. Traditional forms of Marketing

9. • The Dark Knight's opening sequence, (showing
a bank raid by the Joker) and closing montage
of other scenes from the film, was screened with
selected IMAX screenings of I Am Legend,
which was released on December 14, 2007.
• A theatrical teaser was also released with non-
IMAX showings of I Am Legend, and also on the
official website. The sequence was released on
the Blu-ray Disc edition of Batman Begins on
July 8, 2008.
• Also on July 8, 2008, the studio released
Batman: Gotham Knight, a direct-to-DVD
animated film, set between Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight and featuring six original
stories.

10. • On May 15, 2008, Six Flags Great
America and Six Flags Great Adventure
theme parks opened The Dark Knight
roller coaster, which cost $7.5 million to
develop and which simulates being
stalked by the Joker.
• Mattel produced toys and games for The
Dark Knight, action figures, role play
costumes, board games, puzzles, and a
special-edition UNO card game, which
began commercial distribution in June
2008

11. Viral marketing and ARG

12. Viral marketing
• Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing
techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce
increases in brand awareness or to achieve other
marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-
replicating viral processes, similar to the spread of
computer viruses.
• It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the
network effects of the Internet.
• Viral promotions may take the form of video clips,
interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable
software, images, or even text messages.
• The goal of marketers interested in creating successful
viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high
Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral
Messages that appeal to this segment of the population
and have a high probability of being passed along.

13. Viral marketing
• The assumption is that if such an advertisement reaches
a "susceptible" user, that user will become ‘infected’ (i.e.,
sign up for an account) and can then go on to ‘infect’
other susceptible users. As long as each ‘infected’ user
sends mail to more than one susceptible user on
average the number of infected users will grow.
• It is the job of creatives in the marketing company to
produce engaging material which will entice users to
spread the viral.
• Viral marketing is used to create the impression of
spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.
• This is called Astroturfing to create the impression of
being spontaneous grassroots behavior, hence the
reference to the artificial grass, Astro-Turf.

14. ASTROTURFING
• While Astro-turfing enables marketing
companies to rapidly reach a potential enormous
audience, the goal of such a campaign is to
disguise their efforts. This is arguably designed
to combat the turn against organised institutional
commercialisation by young audiences .
Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual
pushing a personal or political agenda or activist
organizations.

15. WELL KNOWN VIRAL
CAMPAIGNS
• Cadbury's Dairy Milk 2007 Gorilla advertising
campaign was heavily popularised on YouTube
and Facebook

16. WELL KNOWN VIRAL
CAMPAIGNS
• The 2008 film Cloverfield was first publicized with a teaser trailer
that did not advertise the film's title, only its release date:
"01·18·08." Elements of the viral marketing campaign included
MySpace pages created for fictional characters and websites
created for fictional companies alluded to in the film.
• http://www.slusho.jp/
• http://www.cloverfieldmovie.com/
• http://www.tagruato.jp/index2.php
• http://www.avirginsplea.com/ claimed that a 25-year old
virgin living in Toronto named Geoff needed five million hits on his
website in 30 days in order for Jenn, one of his very hot platonic
female friends, to help him lose his virginity.

17. Viral marketing for The Dark Knight
and the use of an alternate reality
game (ARG)
• ARG = an interactive narrative that uses the real world
as a platform, often involving multiple media and game
elements, to tell a story that may be affected by
participants' ideas or actions.
• The form is defined by intense player involvement that
takes place in real-time and evolves according to
participants' responses, and characters that are actively
controlled by the game's designers. Players interact
directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based
challenges and puzzles, and often work together within
internet social networks to analyze the story and
coordinate real-life and online activities.

18. • Marketing based ARGs can rapidly spread
publicity for a film by targeting fans social
network sites as fans collaborate on
solving puzzles or arranging to meet to
role-play certain options suggested by the
game’s designers.

19. • The marketing campaign for the 2008 film The
Dark Knight combined both online and real-life
elements to make it resemble an alternate reality
game. Techniques included mass gatherings of
Joker fans, scavenger hunts around world,
detailed and intricate websites that let fans
actually participate in "voting" for political offices
in Gotham City.
• The movie also marketed heavily off of word of
mouth from the thousands of Batman fans
perhaps supported by Astroturfing.

20. • In May 2007, 42 Entertainment began a viral
marketing campaign utilizing the film's "Why So
Serious?" tagline with the launch of a website
featuring the fictional political campaign of
Harvey Dent, with the caption, "I Believe in
Harvey Dent." The site aimed to interest fans by
having them try to earn what they wanted to see
and, on behalf of Warner Bros., 42
Entertainment also established a "vandalized"
version of I Believe in Harvey Dent, called "I
believe in Harvey Dent too," where e-mails sent
by fans slowly removed pixels, revealing the first
official image of the Joker; it was ultimately
replaced with many "Haha"s and a hidden
message that said "see you in December."

21. • During the 2007 Comic-Con International, 42 Entertainment
launched WhySoSerious.com, sending fans on a scavenger hunt
to unlock a teaser trailer and a new photo of the Joker.
• On October 31, 2007, the film's website morphed into another
scavenger hunt with hidden messages, instructing fans to
uncover clues at certain locations in major cities throughout the
United States, and to take photographs of their discoveries. The
clues combined to reveal a new photograph of the Joker and an
audio clip of him from the film saying "And tonight, you're gonna
break your one rule."
• Completing the scavenger hunt also led to another website
called Rory's Death Kiss (referencing the false working title of
Rory's First Kiss), where fans could submit photographs of
themselves costumed as the Joker. Those who sent photos were
mailed a copy of a fictional newspaper called The Gotham
Times, whose electronic version led to the discovery of
numerous other websites.
• http://www.whysoserious.com/itsallpartoftheplan/

22. • After the death of Heath Ledger, on January 22,
2008, Warner Bros adjusted its promotional
focus on the Joker, revising some of its websites
dedicated to promoting the film and posting a
memorial tribute to Ledger on the film's official
website and overlaying a black memorial ribbon
on the photo collage in WhySoSerious.com.
• http://batman.wikibruce.com/Whysoserious.com/
Itsallpartoftheplan
• On February 29, 2008, I Believe in Harvey Dent
was updated to enable fans to send their e-mail
addresses and phone numbers. In March 2008,
Harvey Dent's fictional campaign informed fans
that actual campaign buses nicknamed
"Dentmobiles" would tour various cities to
promote Dent's candidacy for district attorney

23. Key aspects of viral marketing
which make it a success.
• Astro-turfing
• ‘ARG tasks which are co-ordinated
through social networks and played out in
the public domain.
• ‘Play’ or ‘Vandalisation’

24. • Astro-turfing was evidently an important factor in
the success of spreading various viral projects
for TDK.
• The solving of the puzzle on:
WhySoSerious.com and
whysoserios.com/Itsallpartoftheplan
• Organising real-life joker rallies against Harvey
Dent on: ibelieveinharveydent.com
and http://www.rorysdeathkiss.com/
• Registering online for the fictitious Gotham
Times through rory’sdeathkiss.com and GCN –
Gotham cable News online.
• http://batman.wikibruce.com/Takebackourcity@ibelieveinharveydent
.com

25. • Warner Bros devoted six months to an anti-
piracy strategy that involved tracking the people
who had a pre-release copy of the film at any
one time.
• Shipping and delivery schedules were also
staggered and spot checks were carried out both
domestically and overseas to ensure illegal
copying of the film was not taking place in
cinemas.
• A pirated copy was released on the Web
approximately 38 hours after the film's release.
BitTorrent search engine The Pirate Bay taunted
the movie industry over its ability to provide the
movie free, replacing its logo with a taunting
message

26. Why Virals?
• Virals tie into recent developments in Web 2.0
technology.
• They are the institutions fight back against the
netocracy created by online sites like YouTube
and the loss of direct control over their material
and the semiotic messages contained in them.
• Virals are institutions answer to re-establishing
an interfacing relationship with a younger
technological audience.

27. VIRALS and MASH UPS
• YouTube mash-ups.
• YouTube has provided audiences with producerly powers and their own unique and
niche audiences. Much of the user generated content on YouTube, its themes or
messages cannot be produced by large media institutions because of content
regulations governing their output.
• Institutional material and the messages created by them can be/are perverted with
audiences taking advantage of basic filmic skills of download recording, editing and
domestic cameras and phonecams.
• A netocracy has been provided by Web 2.0 technology
• MASH-UPS allow the public to ‘vandalise’ institutional material.
• So why are Mash-Ups allowed?:
• ‘play’ with intentionally placed advertising materials by an institution.
• Further familiarise a wider audience with the original material.
• Foster a ‘sense’ of control and ownership.
• Combat a total loss of influence and product placement in and audience controlled
medium.

28. DISTRIBUTION
• In the United States and Canada, The Dark Knight was
distributed to 4,366 theaters, breaking the previous
record for the highest number of theaters held by Pirates
of the Caribbean: At World's End in 2007. The number of
theaters also included 94 IMAX theaters, with the film
estimated to be played on 9,200 screens in the United
States and Canada.
• Online, ticketing services sold enormous numbers of
tickets for approximately 3,000 midnight showtimes as
well as unusually early showtimes for the film's opening
day. All IMAX theaters showing The Dark Knight were
sold out for the opening weekend.

29. • The Dark Knight ultimately grossed $67,165,092
on its opening day beating the previous record
of $59.8 million held by Spider-Man 3 in 2007
• Warner Bros. is re-releasing the film in
traditional theaters and IMAX theaters in the
United States on January 23, 2009, the height of
the voting for the Academy Awards, in order to
further the chances of the film winning Oscars.

30. Home Release
• In the United Kingdom, the film had
combined sales of 513,000 units on its
first day of release, of which 107,730
(21%) were Blu-ray discs, the highest
number of first-day Blu-ray discs sold. In
the United States, The Dark Knight set a
sales record for most DVDs sold in one
day, selling 3 million copies on DVD on its
first day of release - 600,000 of which
were Blu-ray discs

31. Audiences and Institutions
• You will need to be able to compare the
process of Hollywood major - Warner
Bros. with British film studio e.g. Working
Title.