To make a film successful, the masterminds behind the masterpieces have to develop some successful movie campaigns that focus on marketing and promotional strategies. They most obviously help to make the audiences all the more intrigued by the projects even before their release. While some of these are high-budgeted, others focus more on simple and minimalistic approaches.
Thus, a few Hollywood movies have come up with some of the greatest movie campaigns of all time. These had their fans so immersed that they were left trembling in anticipation. Here are seven of the most successful film marketing campaigns of all time. Dig in!
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Hollywood’s 7 Greatest Movie Campaigns Of All Time
1. The Dark Knight (2008)
One of the most stunning and brutally invested marketing campaigns was from none other than Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight. Developed by ARG game development company 42 Entertainment, it focused on countering the negative reactions to Heath Ledger‘s casting as Joker.
Starting in May 2007 and concluding by July of the same year, the movie campaign included hiding posters for Harvey Dent and Joker playing cards (which read “I believe in Harvey Dent”) inside multiple comic books at numerous bookstores all around the United States of America.
But those posters and cards weren’t just for collecting: these led the finders to a website that required the submission of about 97,000 e-mail addresses from each. Entering each email led to a pixel of an image of the Joker getting revealed, and it required approximately 20 hours to reveal the image completely.
Yet, that wasn’t even close to the main part that took place at the San Diego Comic-Con: the developing company had 11,000 one-dollar bills altered to show Joker’s image as well as his signature phrase, “Why So Serious?” This led the finders to a location at the event.
While the event was expected to be attended by a few thousand people at the least, it went far, far from there as 650,000 fans arrived and took part in multiple activities held at the event. All in all, this was probably one of the most successful marketing campaigns in the history of the DCEU.
You can find out all the details of the movie campaign for The Dark Knight through the video uploaded by 42 Entertainment here.
2. Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1 was a pathbreaking film that brought cutting-edge innovation into many facets of the project. The marketing campaign, spearheaded by Miramax, spared no expense, and boldly invested a huge chunk of their marketing war chest into online promotion.
The firm Deep Focus was contracted for a promotional blitz, and it did a fantastic job of electrifying the buzz around the movie. Included in its campaign were versions of the trailer run as advertisements on popular websites at a time that preceded streamed video content.
Additionally, bold new ideas were explored, like a gory billboard in New Zealand that seemed to spill blood on passersby. It proved to be super effective in grabbing attention.
The end result? The film did spectacular business at the box office, making more than $180M on the box office, on a budget of only $30M.
3. Batman (1989)
Directed by Tim Burton, the 1989 version of Batman was something that revolutionized movie marketing campaigns. This attempted to change the Caped Crusader’s campy image drawn in the eyes of the public through the previous Batman projects, including the 1960s TV show.
For this, they started by plastering the iconic yellow-black symbol of Batman in as many places as possible, ranging from his posters on billboards to even on bus stops and in breakfast cereals. This vividly-successful merchandising craze led to the phenomenon known as ‘Batmania’ all the while maintaining the air of mystery around the film.
Moreover, for the first movie trailer, they decided to rush it in the sense that it looked like multiple scenes assembled without sound or music. This further maintained the mystery of the movie all the while succeeding in capturing fans’ attention.
All in all, Batmania led to $750 million worth of merchandise getting sold and eventually led to the massive success the movie faced with its release.
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4. Donnie Darko (2001)
As exceptionally interactive as the movie Donnie Darko was, its marketing campaign was even better. To promote the movie, a website called donniedarko.com was created which held multiple puzzles and secrets, creating a blissfully interactive experience for the fans.
Adding to this was some never-before-seen-or-known information about the entire universe, also including further information with details about what the future held for the characters after the end of the movie.
All in all, the marketing movie campaign for Donnie Darko was done incredibly well and in one of the most unique ways which created an experience rather than simply advertising the movie as compared to other promotional websites.
Fans can still access the website donniedarko.com here.
5. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
A supernatural horror from 1999, The Blair Witch Project could easily be called the first ever widely released movie to have been marketed primarily by the internet. In a manner similar to Donnie Darko, the series also had its official website launched.
The website featured faux police reports along with “newsreel-style” interviews and interestingly fielding questions about the “missing” students. This campaign had debates sparked all across the web if the film was a work of fiction or actually a real-life documentary.
This was pretty much the idea of the entire movie campaign: tell viewers, through distributing missing persons posters during film screenings and at festivals, that the characters had gone missing while searching for the mythical Blair Witch in the woods.
Not only did all of this create an immense sense of realism among fans but it also succeeded massively in its goal, receiving a stunning 160 million hits on the website, and becoming the first-ever movie to go viral even when produced at a time when many of the technologies that facilitated these phenomena didn’t even exist!
6. Cloverfield (2008)
The marketing approach for Cloverfield was perhaps one of the major reasons for the huge success of the film. Releasing the untitled teaser of the movie without any details about the project created an unprecedented amount of fan intrigue.
Coupled with the novel way the teaser was prepared by stitching together footage that was specially captured during the preparation, this made it stand out in a sea of mediocre trailers.
It further prompted intense interest by media organizations, that feverishly speculated about the details of the mysterious project. All this hype and all this intrigue brought in a huge amount of fan interest in the movie.
Alternate reality game enthusiasts were another group that set about uncovering the secrets of the hidden project. Numerous posts were made on online forums discussing and investigating various aspects of it.
Several tie-ins were arranged, including dedicated Myspace pages, The drink Slusho was cleverly employed for promoting Cloverfield. Moreover, a prequel manga series by Yoshiki Togawa titled Cloverfield/Kishin was published, that was loosely connected to the monster.
All these efforts ensured a phenomenal performance at the box office. The movie made more than $172M on a far smaller budget.
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7. The Matrix (1999)
The last but not the least is The Matrix. The film that actually marked Keanu Reeves‘ success in the action world, The Matrix‘s marketing campaign followed was rather simple, but that was exactly what made it all the more interesting.
Back in 1999 during the Super Bowl, the audiences saw a random film ad with a teaser trailer as simple as it could get, holding both organic and mechanical images and the world-famous Bullet Time scene snippet.
While this was done through teaser trailers, it was also done without so much as spoiling the film’s true storyline and potential, leading to a mysterious air that had fans asking the question: “What is The Matrix?”
It all eventually led to fans rushing to their systems to log on to the website WhatIsTheMatrix.com and wounding up with teaser trailers that further piqued their interest in the film. All in all, the minimalist campaign for The Matrix more than just worked among the audiences!
