Transmedia Marketing leads to Viral Marketing

I am extremely interested in the entertainment aspect of advertising, specifically films. Like any advertisement, it has to be creative, eye catching, and rememberable, it just has to be executed in a different way. Their main difficulties are to satisfy consumer expectations and maintain it. What makes them different is that their selling point has a short shelf life. For example, The film is only shown in theaters for a set amount of time and gains it most costumer purchases within a timeframe of the DVD release date. So how does a creative team entrap the consumer to make the purchase when the time to purchase is limited? That's where transmedia marketing comes in.

Transmedia marketing develops an interaction with the consumer to make them feel a part of a community, or film, and satisfy the need for belonging. Transmedia marketing is engaging audiences to become more involved with the film through multiple platforms of storytelling. Hopefully, the consumers will feel so connected with the trasnmedia marketing that they spread the word about the campaign and create viral marketing. 

Some of my favorite examples of transmedia marketing campaigns turned viral are 'Cloverfield,' and 'The Dark Knight.'

J.J. Abram’s movie, “Cloverfield,” captured the attention of online consumers by allowing interaction through storytelling marketing. The film released trailers with unclear footage and no title to intrigue audiences to get involved with thinking about what they saw. The transmedia marketing campaign launched fake company websites and blogs that provided clues to the uncertain trailer.  People worked together through social networks, message boards, and blogs to uncover clues and attempt to link them together. The success came from creating a way for consumers to get interplay with the campaign. 

The “Why so serious?” campaign for “The Dark Knight,” involved fans all over the world to absorb themselves in a fictional Gotham City community. By forcing fans to network with each other to reveal clues about the movie, this marketing campaign went viral. The marketers researched and understood the importance of place and time to launch the first coded message. Their strategy was to release it at Comicon, an annual comic fan convention, because anticipated fans communicated their awareness of the campaign and developed interest. The message was from The Joker asking fans to prove their loyalty to him. This allowed the consumers to physically play-along by searching for clues in cities as well as work together online to find the next message. The campaign proceeded to grow when the Joker asked consumers to take photos of themselves in front of landmarks in full Joker make-up and share their photos online. By using the Internet, consumers could communicate internationally about “The Dark Knight,” thus making a loyal online social network for interested consumers. Furthermore, the campaign made a virtual community that allowed members to become characters within the story.  The week of the movie’s release, fans discovered The Joker had left his mark on New York buildings, websites, and trailers online. This campaign was extremely successful in creating a loyal consumer base and had international recognition because of its strategic planning. 

IT'S TIME TO GET CREATIVE!