Reasons you could not stop believing in Harvey Dent
We all know the tremendous success the Batman series got by
concluding the final chapter of its epic stories on a high note. If you just
look at the figures attracting more than 100 million people to the theatre
looks like a gimmick, but Christopher Nolan’s brain Child really able to
perform with a perfect marketing strategy and well before hand planning.
So let’s have a look at Nolan’s farsightedness. This is not
about going directly to launch a series. Like we have in marketing creating a
demand in a market even if it’s not there in the market and later on focusing
on branding it’s product, Nolan started the Plan with Memento followed by The
prestige which got academy awards nominations. By this he branded his image as
the guy you can rely upon that he is going to give you perfect recipes in your
weekends in the multiplexes. Then the project started with Batman Begins, the
million dollar question is why only batman, many movies based on batman were already
there since 15 years ago and it’s like the craze has dried out long ago. So it
was the right time to bend the iron being in red. By his strong brand value
along with big shots like Christian bale and warner bros it was a perfect mix
to start with in the year of 2005.
Way back in May 2007 a viral marketing campaign was launched
for the Dark Knight – the movie sequel to Batman Begins – a reboot of the
Batman franchise starring Christian Bale as the caped crusader. The Strategy
was simple, not rocket science. “Retain the present audience, acquire the new
one”. He really met the standards of the brand, thanks to the superb and
legendary acting of late Heath Ledger, world class cinematography and the well
planned teaser releasing way 1 year before the release, creating the hype and
meeting to that standard is the important part of it. Although one can’t deny
the fact that the posthumous academy award got by joker character created the
hype to a new scale height.
5 years down the line, followed by success of “inception “,
Much of the “Dark knight Rises”’ instant overnight success can be attributed to
a well-planned, integrated social media campaign that included viral
marketing, content marketing and social networking. Official website for The Dark Knight Rises had
well integrated social buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and Get Glue
appearing prominently in the site footer on every page. In addition to the
teasers and trailers, Warner Brothers made the bold decision to release a
thirteen-minute viral video clip on YouTube that contains over ten minutes of
fragmented film footage, free of charge. It did hit the bull’s eye by creating
your thirst to such a level that you simply can’t refrain yourself by missing
the opening show. And yes how they could have avoided not having a free app
with iOS devices of Dark knight rises sound track.
A lot of viral marketing content was released on both viral
websites as well as crossover marketing sites for products like Mountain Dew, a
simple and old tactics to convey about their movie to the soft drink consumers.
Much of the content gave fans additional insight and background about the
film’s characters, answered questions which were left hanging with from the
last film, and increased fans’ interest with mysterious bits and pieces of new
information. Facebook was a huge driver of The Dark Knight Rises
campaign, as the marketing team shared new content several times each day that
included photos, early reviews, previews, cross-promotion of apps and games,
and other engaging content, presently having more than 19 lakh likes.
So basically Nolan’s
work was all about handling a
huge fan base, each time crossing his
own benchmark and the marketing team really responded by ensuring his work to
reach people by “product differentiation”
, what we call in marketing terms.
