A Heavy-Duty Marketing Plan!

So I'm glancing at The Philadelphia Inquirer the other day and come across a story about the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight." It catches my eye not because I'm a Batfan, but because I really dig Heath Ledger (guilty pleasure!), whose starring role as The Joker promises to be a huge (posthumous) hit.

Anyway, the article is about the advertising push for the movie, set to release this July. But the ads started nearly a year ago. Billboards that didn't even mention the movie went up in several cities, and within days all were defaced with identical graffiti (a man's face was colored over with clown-ish makeup). You see, it was all part of the plan. The billboards were clues to lead Batfans into one of alternate realilty gaming's (ARG) events, which has them looking for clues all over.

From the article by Chris Lee:

"The Dark Knight is mashing up advertising, scavenger-hunting and role-playing in a manner that variously recalls The X-Files ... all to galvanize fans to bond (with the new Batman and one another) over the course of a wild goose chase." It also says that this "multifaceted promo-push transcends marketing to exist as a stand-alone cultural event."

and someone involved said, "This is looked upon as viral marketing, but you have to look at it as an engrossing experience -- you have people getting very attached to the game. You're not a passive onlooker, you're taking an active role. And any time you take an active role, you're emotionally connection. That's why people keep coming back."

WOW. Now that's a full-scale, heavy-duty, ingeniously planned marketing campaign. These movie folks know exactly who their audience is, what they like to do, and how they do it. And they're already succeeding in pulling kids in. The whole article is well worth reading to see how they created fake websites, clown-cake giveaways, and fake abductions. (And for my fav line, "Holy meta-narrative, Batman!")

ARGs, it says, are poised to really affect future movie marketing. How can they inspire you?

Get over it

Great, great post by Michael Stephens on the ALA Tech Source blog. Here's just a blurb:

"Then Maney noted the importance of adopting and using the tools that WORK for the institution. This is the evaluation piece that Casey and Savistinuk made part of their original definition of Library 2.0:

It is a model for library service that encourages constant and purposeful change, inviting user participation in the creation of both the physical and the virtual services they want, supported by consistently evaluating services.

Maney's take was "lonely is bad." If that blog, discussion forum, IM service, etc is unused -- thus lonely -- take it down and focus on something else that might better suit the institution. Monitoring usage, hits, comments all come into play here. "We can't do it all," she said -- to applause from john and I, and several folks in the audience. "Pick and choose the ones you want to try." I was happy to hear this coming from someone in the trenches of practice -- I've been addressing the same issues in my recent talks. So are some incredible library thinkers in Australia."

I only had a few minutes to read and link before work but will follow up later. I was just on the phone with a friend yesterday talking about this very thing. I'm pulling together my presentation for CIL and it's the same discussion over and over. Marketing is always about experimenting. We get information, try ideas, evaluate, then ask for input again... the area I'm writing about for CIL takes it a bit further in the fact that 2.0 isn't only about what we create but about interactivity and socializing and that can mean visiting blogs, joining networks sometimes even more so than creating our own. What worked in traditional venues often does apply with the web in may ways. Of course, with a twist. Got to go- but was so excited to see this post that I had to write.

Free personal outsourcing?

This video advertises a bestselling book that your customers would love to read. You're already posting book covers on your websites why not bring it up a notch? These type of videos are all over the place and are great eye candy for you customers. Saves you time and since they are already made and ready to embed. Add a link to reserve the book online so it saves your customer time too. You both get closer to a four hour work week. :-)

Whenever a book like this makes it to the NY Times best selling list there’s a great opportunity to use the buzzwords for your services. This particular books talks about solutions for busy people that include “personal outsourcing”, “ROI- 400-500%” and “cultivating selective ignorance”. These phrases can automatically become keywords in media releases, Google ads, and spoken by staff.

Sample key messages:
Libraries provide free personal outsourcing for busy people.
Your libraries can help you get a 400 % ROI on your research. Everything can be done online and it saves gas money too.

I love Tim's suggestion to manage email and may even try it out!