Marketing for films has changed drastically in the past few years with the extensive use of websites and viral campaigns online. It’s now very easy to find out details about your favourite upcoming film simply by typing it into the internet and look at all the small teases that are posted on either official or fan websites. The film that I think uses the best form of marketing is upcoming action thriller 'The Dark Knight Rises' (due to be released July 20th). It has used all sorts of different build up marketing to promote the film and keep the excitement alive with fans. In May 2011, the film's official website was launched, introducing a viral marketing campaign similar to the one used to promote ‘The Dark Knight’ back in 2007-8. When the website was opened, an encrypted audio file played the noise of what has been described as chanting. When the audio file was decrypted, it gave a link to the film's official Twitter account. For every person who commented on the Twitter account, a pixel was removed from the webpage, eventually revealing the first official image of new villain of the film Bane. There was a teaser trailer released in July 2011 almost exactly a year before its release date. Since the first trailer was released there have been various images and set pictures released in tie with the film. However the first trailer annoyed a lot of the fans because it contained minimal footage from the actual film and in the trailer one of the characters ‘Commissioner Gordon’ (Gary Oldman) is very hard to understand which confused a lot of fans. This problem also occurred in the second released trailer where new nemesis ‘Bane’ is even harder to understand which caused a massive online debate. There was a wave of fan sites talking about concerns over banes voice and whether or not director Christopher Nolan was aware that this could ruin the film for a lot of people. There was a lot of speculation on fan sites as to what the plot of the third and final Christopher Nolan batman film would be, as in the comics Bane is known for breaking Batman’s back. This hype was increased when an official poster was released featuring Bane walking away from a broken Batman mask with the caption ‘The Legend Ends’ which made people even more certain that the film would follow the comic story line of Bane ‘breaking the bat'.
The film has marketed itself very cleverly because in modern days you only need to release a small amount of information or a small rumour will start and the fan sites will do the rest especially on massively anticipated films such like ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. If a rumour starts the many fan sites will post stories and articles related to this rumour which will pass from one website to another and practically building more excitement by its self. All you need to do today to find out who is the latest actor to be cast in your favourite upcoming film is to go onto one of the fan sites and read the latest post. It’s that easy. Although this can most possibly lead to giving away too much of the film already which has become a likeliness in recent film releases. Some people like to be kept in the dark about films until they finally see them. The dark knight rises have kept pretty tight lipped about there film and most of the main actor’s and actress’s are sworn to a contract of secrecy meaning they will have to consult the director on what they can and cannot say about the film prior to its release. Seven months Before the second instalment of the Christopher Nolan directed batman films ‘The Dark Knight’ was released a 6 minute prologue was released and available to watch before screenings of ‘I am Legend’ in 2008. A six-minute prologue of The Dark Knight Rises was attached to the release of IMAX prints of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in 2011, again approximately seven months before release. Critical reaction to the prologue was positive, one critic commenting that "no one gets to make a film on this kind of scale anymore. Except for Christopher Nolan," though a round-up of reviews highlighted the way many critics found Tom Hardy's dialogue very difficult to hear. The film then released a third trailer and several character posters in the last two months before the release in order to wet fans appetites before the film is finally released. The third trailer showed a lot more footage from the film and even featured key characters speaking, for example Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) talking a lot in detail about new villain Bane (Tom Hardy) who also has a couple of lines in the trailer.
The Dark Knight Rises is not the only upcoming film to use effective marketing campaigns to promote their film. Upcoming sci/fi thriller Prometheus has also used the internet to their advantage to reach their audience. Prometheus is the first film to actually have a trailer FOR a trailer. Before the release of their first official teaser trailer the producers brought out 3 20 second long build up trailers counting down the days before the release of the main trailer. This is a very outrageous and inventive way of promoting a film. I feel that giving away too much of a film before its release is too not a good way of promoting and is in a way spoiling fans too much. It seems with the growing ‘army’ of fans on the internet wanting to know about new releases ASAP it is taking away a lot of the anticipation altogether, who wants to walk into a cinema knowing already half of what is going to happen? Viral online marketing is a very effective way of winning over fans but is possibly not good for when the film is released due to fear of giving away too much.
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