A Look At One Of Best Viral Campaigns Ever – The Dark Knight

We welcome a new blogger today to the team in Ciaran Treacy who is an account exec here at Simply Zesty and is hugely passionate about movies. This is his first post…
Viral campaigns are some of the most fun, most unique and memorable methods of getting your message or product out to the world. When done right, they can be brilliant and remembered for years, the subject of case studies long after the campaign has finished with huge levels of interaction. When done wrong, well we’d never even know about the message.

Social media can play an important role in these online campaigns as seen in the recent Old Spice campaign, for promotion, word-of-mouth and organising the masses to do what you need them to do. From forum boards to networking sites people congregate in their hundreds of millions and are always on the lookout for fun and exciting new prospects to fill their online (and offline) time with.

The Dark Knight

Probably the best viral campaign, in the history of viral campaigns, is that of the Dark Knight. This campaign brought Gotham City into the real world by transforming cityscapes and political gatherings into an alternate reality. A reality where insane master criminals recruited people for their own nefarious purposes and citizens marched for a changed Gotham with a new District Attorney, turning an otherwise peaceful world into the seedy crime ridden metropolis that is Gotham City.

Few other campaigns or products could match this, where over ten million people participated, in 75 cities across the world, months before the film was released.

The campaign began with a series of fake sites for fictional Gotham City services and departments, police, taxi etc. Fictional Newspapers of the Gotham Times circulated, and groups of supporters appeared on the streets for The Joker, Harvey Dent and Batman.

Rallies held for Harvey Dent and actors playing homeless people with Joker masks, holding anti-Dent signs in support of The Joker popped up across the world. Badges and placards for Dent and The Joker introduced with impromptu support rallies held across American cities just like real election drives.

The Joker began recruiting followers underground as the District Attorney hopeful’s rallies grew bigger. People gathered together and were sent instructions online, after which they had to scavenge the internet and city streets to reveal other clues left by The Joker, including a phone number written in the sky which when phoned had a message from The Joker himself for participants instructing them to put on face paint in The Joker style and hit the streets recruiting and clue hunting.

Real World Clues

There were clues dotted throughout cities where people were to go to receive further instructions. Around the world, in approximately 49 cities Joker followers were told to assemble at famous landmarks and pick up Gotham City newspapers. These followers amassed in their thousands to the amazement of onlookers.

One of the most unique clues was a cake which could be picked up from specific bakeries after participants introduced themselves as ‘Robin Banks’ as in Robbing Banks (get it?) when participants got the cake home they found baked inside; a mobile phone and charger.

This phone could be used to keep you as a follower of The Joker, or of Harvey Dent who would contact participants by phone and email to inform them of rallies and get people uploading videos and photos. ‘Dent-mobiles’ went to 33 cities in the US to bring his message of change to thousands of assembled onlookers and game players, even with fake news casts by Gotham News interviewing participants and regular people on the street which appeared online on the fake Gotham News website.

A scavenger hunt staged around the world led to a series of lockers with a gym bag inside, inside the bag was a web address with clues which led to a website featuring an exclusive clip of the Dark Knight which was already defaced by The Joker. The video spread out as more and more people logged on and shared it.

Culmination Of The Campaign

This all culminated on the night of the Dark Knight premiere, where hundreds of participants, who called themselves Citizens of Gotham, descended on downtown Manhattan after another clue was released online, after the crowd arrived, at 10pm sharp, the bat sign was shone onto one of the buildings on the square. A few seconds later, the bat signal was replaced with a series of ‘HA’s’ by The Joker into the same shape. At the same time, all websites related to Gotham were defaced by The Joker, including participant uploads and promotional posters.

Over 10million people took part in 75 countries around the world across hundreds of websites (real and fake), games, emails, mobiles and real world events.

In conclusion, months before the film was set to descend onto the big screen half the world already had some idea of a Harvey Dent, a Joker and the gritty batman which was approaching. The campaign was so successful because of the secretive nature of the film, the adoration of the fans and the underground experience it offered to people. A campaign like this is difficult to forget.