1. The Dark Knight
Marketing Campaign

2. 42 Entertainment
• 42 Entertainment began a viral
marketing campaign utilizing
the films “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.”
• Aim to interest fans by having
them try to earn what they
wanted to see
• 42 Entertainment also
established a vandalized
version of I Believe In Harvey
Dent
• Replaced with many “Haha”s
and a hidden message that said
“see you in December”

3. • The Dark Knight centred around
teasing the film
• Warner has a well-known
franchise, an established fan
base and a built in trailer in
‘Batman Begins’
• Advertising The Dark Knight
gave little of the actual story
away, focusing instead on other
aspects of the movie.
• Warner devoted a much bugger
chunk of it efforts to developing
supplementary online material
that could be spread virally,
building on the storylines, the
Gotham City setting and
characters such as the Joker and
Harvey Dent

4. Posters

5. Viral Marketing
• In 2007 Warner Bro set up a
viral marketing campaign by
setting up a fake newspaper
called ‘The Gotham Times’.
• An online document made to
look real but also had hard
copies of this newspaper to
help promote the film.
• The site aimed to interest fans
by having them earn what they
want to see (emails sent by fans
slowly removed pixels, revealing
the first official image of the
joker).
• http://www.thegothamtimes.co
m/

6. Viral Marketing
• San-Diego 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.
• 31 October 2007, the films
website did another scavenger
hunt with hidden messages,
instructing fans to uncover
clues at certain locations in
major cities throughout the
USA and to take photographs
of their discoveries.
• The clues combined to reveal a
new photo of the Joker and an
audio clip of him from the film
saying “And tonight, you’re
gonna break your one rule.”

7. Viral Marketing
• Completing the scavenger
hunt led to another website
called Rory’s Death 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.

8. Merchandise – Burger King
• Fast food franchise, ‘Burger
King’ lined up with ‘The Dark
Knight’ to produce a burger
called the ‘Dark Whooper’
• Followed with a series of
adverts of Berger King
customers doing bad things
branding the words ‘bring out
your dark side’ to go with the
films name.
• Burger King franchise also
designed a kids menu which
came wit ha free toy of
different characters from The
Dark Knight.

9. Merchandise
• The film in line with
Warner Bros released
a range of official
merchandise so fans
could purchase from
their online website
• This ranged from
mugs to
costumes/clothing.

10. Heath Ledger
• After the death of Heath Ledger
(22 January 2008) Warner Bros
adjusted its promotional focus
to the joker
• Dedicated to promoting the film
and posting memorial tribute to
Ledger on the film’s official
website and overlaying a black
memorial ribbon on the photo
collage in WhySoSerious.com

11. Heath Ledger
• Warner Bros. delivered a stronger PR
effort for The Dark Knight. This was
illustrated most visibly in the final 3
weeks build up to the weekend release
• Successive waves of stories about the
film helped to build buzz and create
demand for the important weekend
• Started off with news of record
advance tickets sales, followed by
speculations about Heath Ledger being
nominated for an Oscar.
• The Dark Knight managed the
unexpected death of Heath Ledger
with a high degree of tact and skill.
• Insiders at the studio comment that his
tragic passing became a big boost for
the film’s awareness levels
• The awareness of the film reached
extraordinary levels and interest in
seeing the film increased roughly 20%

12. Film Premiere
• The world premier of The Dark Knight
was not a traditional red carpet, it was
black in honour of the late Heath
Ledger
• The cast also dressed in dark colours
• Inside the premier an orchestra
preformed extracts from the films
score, complete with a light show of
Batman signal.
• Outside the premier, the iconic
‘Batmobile’ was shown

13. Teaser Trailer
• A theatrical teaser was also released
with non-IMAX showings of I Am
Legend
• The sequence was released on the
Blu-Ray Disc edition of Batman Begins
on 8 July 2008
• The teaser trailer was no longer than a
minute and consisted of the batman
logo in front of a bright light
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U
Ww0ov-cAUg

14. The Dark Knight - Official
Trailer