THE DARK KNIGHT RISES 2
This case study attempts to explain how the monumental social media campaign for the film had built such a huge following and what interactive methods Warner Bros. had incorporated to make the campaign unique. There was a definite progression of complexity in the design of the media campaigns for the three films in Nolan ‟ s Batman trilogy. We were also interested in examining the evolution of social media marketing strategies were used by Warner Bros. to make this film bigger than the first two films in the trilogy, Batman Begins in 2005 and The Dark Knight in 2008. In studying this film, we would have been remiss to not mention the shooting during the midnight release of the film in Aurora, Colorado that made headlines worldwide. This tragic event could be used as evidence to support the claim that success of the film is due to the strength of the social media campaign, as will be examined through uses and gratifications theory. Despite the shooting, the film was still more financially successful than its predecessors, so what about this campaign made this film virtually immune to an opening night massacre? We focused on hashtags associated with aspects of the campaign ‟ s timeline and marketing releases, including the midnight release shooting, and we extracted themes to try and understand the feelings of the social media community and what led them to continue to support this franchise.
Literature Review
Dan Laughey ‟ s( 2007) Key Themes in Media Theory is used in this case study to provide detailed information about Elihu Katz ‟ s uses and gratifications theory. Katz writes that uses and gratifications theory“ considers how media fulfil the needs and gratifications of their users. The assumption is that audiences use media – not vice versa”( Laughey, 2007, p. 26). Uses and gratifications theory does not just focus on effects of media on the public, but also how the public uses media. According to Katz,“ media use is goal-oriented and the audience is always active in seeking out needs gratifications”( Laughey, 2007, p. 27). The scavenger hunt rolled out by Warner Bros. for The Dark Knight Rises teased fans to engage in the campaign through ongoing conversations on social media. Constant discussion between fans and the brand helped foster a deep emotional connection for new fans by wordof-mouth on social media and for previous fans, which seems apparent by the film ‟ s overwhelming financial success. This campaign allowed fans to actively engage not only with each other but with the movie itself, and they were able to use this campaign and all of its events to join a community of fans and to build unbridled anticipation for the release of the final chapter in this trilogy as more information about the film was slowly released.
The drip-drip-drip technique used in public relations was crucial to the strategy of The Dark Knight Rises campaign. This type of marketing refers to a“ deliberate, planned, and sequenced system of deploying marketing messages over a period of time”( Shenker, 2006). Many public relations and marketing experts believe that the slow build of brand information can be as powerful as a“ highly concentrated rush” of messages( Shenker, 2006). Statistics show that it takes anywhere from three to thirty repetitions of any message for the human consciousness to absorb it, which means that over time the messages of your brand sink in, and a variation of messages can make your marketing push even stronger( Shenker, 2006). Warner Bros. adopted this technique to utilize the growing popularity of social media for The Dark Knight in 2008. When it came time to develop a marketing strategy for The Dark Knight Rises, the popularity of social networking websites had grown exponentially in only four years and Warner Bros. was smart enough to push this campaign to global heights.
The Dark Knight Rises is an action / crime / thriller film directed by Christopher Nolan( IMDb, 2013) and is based on DC Comics ‟ Batman( Keyes, 2012). In December 2012, just over 6 months after its release, the film ‟ s gross domestic US profit was measured at $ 448.1 million with a $ 250 million