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
Viral Marketing What Would The Overlook Hotel In “The Shining” Actually Cost? September 26, 2013Have you ever wondered what the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s The Shining might actually cost, if it were ever on the market? With the recent release of King’s sequel novel to The Shining called Doctor Sleep, the Movoto Real Estate Blog thought it might be interesting to do a… Read More
Halo Reach Uses New Interface, 4 More Live-Action Commercials To Come August 21, 2010August 22, 2010Bungie is not new viral marketing for the Halo series. Both Halo 3 and ODST had interactive games, but this new viral campaign takes us to a whole new level. Find out how you, your facebook, and a robot arm will make a “Light Sculpture” after the jump. Read More
Fox Home Entertainment uses PSAs to Sell DVDs September 23, 2009September 22, 2009Fox Home Entertainment has a funny internet video campaign going on to promote their line up of DVDs. They seem to be using a “One Movie At A Time” moniker in the creation of fake PSAs that use clips from their DVD collection. A YouTube account was created with the… 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.