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
Ridley Scott and Kevin MacDonald Teaming Up With YouTube To Make User-Generated ‘Life in a Day’ July 7, 2010Back in April, we reviewed the documentary 140 as part of our Newport Beach Film Festival coverage. The concept was to have 140 people film 140 seconds at the exact same time, in order to get a snapshot of the world at one moment. While the doc was made by… Read More
“X-Men: Days Of Future Past” Clip Sees Mutants Clash With Sentinels April 14, 2014With the viral marketing campaign revived, and the MTV Movie Awards having aired, Fox released a brand new clip to help promote X-Men: Days Of Future Past. The film has seen some strange marketing in the past, most notably the introduction of QuickSilver’s powers via a Carl’s Jr. commercial. Now… Read More
A Shortened ‘Avengers’ Teaser Assembles On Yahoo! July 29, 2011In a surprising move, Paramount has released a condensed version of the final scene from Captain America: The First Avenger, along with a shortened cut of The Avengers teaser trailer that was shown following Captain America’s credits. While bootleg versions of the teaser have been circulating the net for 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.