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
Get a Free Early Screening To “Paul” If Your Name is Paul (and you live in the UK) February 2, 2011February 2, 2011Those Brits across the pond already have it good by getting to see Universal’s alien comedy Paul a full month before theaters get it in the States. Now HeyUGuys blog has a contest where Britons can see it even earlier if their name is Paul. Get the details after the… Read More
Trask Industries Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary In “Days of Future Past” Viral Campaign July 30, 2013July 30, 2013During San Diego Comic-Con, 20th Century Fox brought Trask Industries to the Gaslamp District to show off its Mark I Sentinel. Well, it’s head. Trask employees handed out placards inviting people to help the company celebrate its 50th anniversary by visiting their website. Once there, you could see the silhouette… Read More
Oscilloscope Releases Portions Of “It’s A Disaster” On Vine February 20, 2013February 20, 2013Vine is the brand new social media platform that allows its users to create 6-second videos and spread it across the web. Think of it as the video version of Twitter. This new form of social media fun uses it’s 6-second videos to differentiate itself from the other social media… 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.