Hasta La Creative!

A while back I started to notice quite a bit of cool viral marketing going on for the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight. We’re talking microsites galore and massive user participation. On one microsite, users were asked to answer location-specific questions from across america to reveal a phrase. Then, after that, there was a chance to send in a photo of yourself dressed up as the Joker.

Today, over on FirstShowing.net, all of the previous viral marketing attempts have been chumped, big time. It appears that now the people behind this marketing campaign has taken their execution to a new level — physical items.

On December 3rd a new page appeared at whysoserious.com/steprightup with a hammer game and some teddy bear toys. Each toy had an address on it located in a number of cities around the US. The note on the game told people to go to that address and say their name was “Robin Banks” (get it, “Robbing Banks”) and they’d get something there. It was first come, first serve, and each location was a bakery. What they were given was a cake with a phone number written on it. Now here’s the best part: inside the cake was an evidence bag (complete with Gotham City Police printing) that contained a cell phone, a charger, a Joker playing card and a note with instructions.

If you’re not following along, the lucky few to receive the cakes now have a cell phone that someone will call at a later time. In essence, Warner Bros. is creating their own Joker army.

Damn geniuses.