Engaging Your Audience: Gotham's Finest

As discussed in Anthony Young's Brand Media Strategy, one of the most important things your brand can do is properly engage your target audience.  One campaign that successfully engaged their fans on its way to becoming highest grossing films of all time was The Dark Knight. 

 

The main tactics used by TDK in order to increase buzz regarding the film was the use of viral marketing.   Warner Bros. used many interactive elements that went viral immediately in order to really engage their hardcore fans.  One example of this was when they created WhySoSerious.com which lead readers to an online scavenger hunt that ended up leading them to real-world bakeries in 25 different cities.  Once at the bakery, participants would ask for an order left for "Robin Banks" and the cashier would hand them a special cake with a number on it.  Inside the cake was an evidence bag containing a cell phone and a joker playing card along with clues to the next location.  This is a great way of getting fans involved with your brand while also using teasers as to what the film is about.  In this case, engaging participants to get involved in the scavenger hunt shows how much hype existed for the release of this movie.  

Warner Bros. also created an online newspaper for The Gotham Times where the movie takes place that was only promoted via social media rather than traditional methods.  This further engages their audience because the film's target audience relies more on social media rather than traditional means like TV and radio.  The results of these viral campaigns were staggering with millions of Google searches and YouTube hits.

The main point of this is that engaging your audience can be vital to your brand's success.  By utilizing the proper channels and creating a campaign that is interesting and entertaining, The Dark Knight was able to captivate millions before the film was even released which lead to its outstanding box office success.