extra reading 1

Extra Reading 1

Case study on the Dark Knight transmedia platform and why is it successful.

1. Case study

Transmedia storytelling is the practice of designing, sharing, and participating in a connected story experience across multiple traditional and digital delivery platforms. It is for entertainment, advertising and marketing, or social change. (UNSW Sydney, 2020). Before they released the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, they came out with a campaign called “Why So Serious?”. (gary rosen, 2020). This is not a normal campaign to market their movie, but it is a very strategic marketing campaign. They used few ways to bring the people into this campaign:

a) Crossmedia strategy

The campaign used cross media strategy, which is using more than one media to reach an audience. It was a game started online and spilled into the real world. More than 30  websites are created and some websites are “created” by the “joker”. The users will be contacted by the character through email, phone or websites. The campaign even used the newspaper to help decode the game.

Here are a list of media components used in the campaign to bring the audience into it :

- Websites

- cake

- mobile phones

- print

- media

- collectables

- mail, email

- sms messages

- phone calls

- flash games

- location based games

- GPS coordinates

- live events

- videos

- audio 

- sky writing

(George Dunkley, 2020)

b) ARG (Alternate Reality Game)

Starting from online, users will be encouraged to side either “The Joker” or “Harvey Dent”, and there are voicemails left to the users once they have signed up. Slowly, users will get clues from the internet, emails, websites, phone calls, even from the newspaper or book store. The campaign did actually create a real fiction newspaper, The Gotham Times, that contains what was happening and the facts, and hidden some joker cards in bookstores that contain clues. All of these lead them to different locations and clues. By these methods, users will really get involved in feeling as though the city of Gotham needed each individual participating.

c) Planning

The campaign did not release all the games and clues all at once, however they planned it strategically. It started of by creating the “Gotham City”, where the Joker build his followers. Then websites started being released, called “WhySoSerious.com” , showing the fake newspaper, facts and daily updates. After That, it leads the fans to participate in this campaign and go through activities that give them clues. The clues are usually located in a main city. After the clues have been found and the fans shared it throughout the internet, they released an audio clip and leads them to the another website, where the fans will dress up like the Joker. 

d) Execution

It is very successful that it went viral. This campaign ran for an extensive 15 months and reached over 11 million unique participants. (George Dunkley, 2020). And because of this campaign, the movie earned at least $1,003,045,358 worldwide when the movie was released. (Justin Jagoe, 2012).  It is being awarded “thirteenth highest-grossing film of all time”. It makes people enjoy being part of the “citizen” of “Gotham City” and it hits their target audience, which is the teens because they tend to make a stand.

2. what makes it successful. What did the creators do in the process?

It is very successful that it went viral because they used a few strategies, which is cross media strategy and ARG (Alternate reality game) strategy, and they hit their target audience. Because of this campaign, the movie earned at least $1,003,045,358 worldwide (Justin Jagoe, 2012) when the movie was released. It is being awarded “thirteenth highest-grossing film of all time”. It makes people enjoy being part of the “citizen” of “Gotham City” and it hits their target audience, which is the teens because they tend to make a stand.

The campaign did not release all the games and clues all at once, however they planned it strategically. It started off by creating the “Gotham City”, where the Joker builds his followers. Then websites started being released, called “WhySoSerious.com” , showing the fake newspaper, facts and daily updates. After That, it leads the fans to participate in this campaign and go through activities that give them clues. The clues are usually located in a main city. After the clues have been found and the fans shared it throughout the internet, they released an audio clip and leads them to the another website, where the fans will dress up like the Joker. 



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References 

UNSW Sydney, 2020. Susan Bonds - Why So Serious? Transmedia Promotion For The Dark Knight - What Is Transmedia Storytelling? | Coursera. [online] Coursera. Available at: <https://www.coursera.org/lecture/transmedia-storytelling/susan-bonds-why-so-serious-transmedia-promotion-for-the-dark-knight-QLVpw> [Accessed 15 May 2020].

gary rosen, 2020. The Dark Knight Known As The Best Viral Movie Marketing Campaign In... - Gary Rosen. [online] Cargocollective.com. Available at: <https://cargocollective.com/GaryRosen/The-Dark-Knight-Known-as-the-best-viral-movie-marketing-campaign-in> [Accessed 16 May 2020].

George Dunkley, 2020. Case Study 2 - Why So Serious?/42 Entertainment. [online] Alternating Reality. Available at: <https://designing-interactions.tumblr.com/post/57406460044/case-study-2-why-so-serious42-entertainment> [Accessed 16 May 2020].

gxr5062, 2014. The Dark Knight Viral Campaign Case Study. [online] Sites.psu.edu. Available at: <https://sites.psu.edu/goldieleap/2014/07/23/the-dark-knight-viral-campaign-case-study/> [Accessed 16 May 2020].

Justin Jagoe, 2012. MOVIE LISTS: Ranking The $1 Billion Top-Grossers. [online] Filmmisery.com. Available at: <http://www.filmmisery.com/movie-lists-ranking-the-1-billion-top-grossers/> [Accessed 16 May 2020].