Disney Makes Theater Stop Unofficial Viral Marketing For Tron Legacy Dan Koelsch, August 30, 2010 Well, you have to give them credit for trying. Yesterday we reported that a movie theater in Ohio (and possibly others) seemed to be part of Disney’s viral marketing campaign for Tron Legacy. However, it turns out that Marcus Crosswoods Cinema had taken it upon themselves to set up their Encom-branded website and the QR Code display that lead people to it. Since it is unofficial, Disney has asked them to take it down. Read the statement on the now defunct site after the break. At the request of Disney, we have had to halt our online marketing for the Tron Legacy motion picture. We will continue to promote the feature in-house in exciting and unique ways. For more information about the Marcus Crosswoods Cinema, please visit www.marcustheatres.com. Although misguided and not even accurate to the ARG, I’m impressed that the theater did this themselves. Management is obviously excited about the film and looking for new ways to draw customers. At a time in which ticket prices are sky high and theaters are getting hit hard by the recovering economy, these drastic measures are almost necessary. What do you think? Thanks to CalebH2010 at Unfiction for the heads up. Viral Marketing DisneyTheaterTron Legacy
SNL Gives Us Michael Bolton As Jack Sparrow And A Special Surprise For The Little Mermaid May 8, 2011Last night NBC’s Saturday Night Live aired a new episode with Tina Fey hosting. We got our first Lonely Island Digital Short in a while, and it was a music video with guest Michael Bolton having trouble focusing on the topic of the song because he had been watching a… Read More
Did A ‘Contagion’ Viral Quit Before It Started? August 31, 2011August 31, 2011Over at Bloody-Disgusting, they have posted a large group of hi-def photos for the upcoming “viral” flick, Contagion. Of particular note, one of said pictures has what very well could have been a viral campaign in the making, but with the film coming out next week, why did we see… Read More
DreamWorks to Have a “Fright Night Feeding Freenzy” Event At Comic-Con June 24, 2011June 25, 2011With Marvel announcing that they would not be making an appearance at Comic-Con this year, it seems that other studios will be taking advantage of their absence by filling it with their own panels. Fright Night will be making a special appearance at the San Diego Comic-Con this year, a… Read More
kudos to the theater for being that excited by the movie to start their own mini ARG. I thought/wished it was the start of the next phase of the ARG that would lead to sneak previews around the country.
I agree, they deserve a little credit for being innovative. It’s too bad it is not part of the ARG to be honest.
They should have, however, realized that they were using someone else’s property… did they they’d completely get away with that? … *shrug*
They just didn’t think it through. I don’t think they realized it’d hit the web and people like us would pick up on it.
They were excited to market something with the trendy idea of a transmedia/viral/ARG type promotion. Too excited, and thus made some huge mistakes – used someone else’s IP, failed to understand and follow the canon of a franchise, and stepped all over another promotion’s territory.
Couldn’t Disney have been a little forward-thinking & maybe picked up the promo & run with it? Stupid Big Media, always afraid to jump onto something new until it’s too late.