Viral marketing campaigns and a strong early review from Rolling Stone magazine for The Dark Knight have helped to generate increased enthusiasm for the highly anticipated next installment of the Batman film series. As the US premiere approaches, both the searches for The Dark Knight (based on a portfolio of 37 related terms) and the weekly market share of visits to the official website have doubled for the week ending June 28, 2008 as compared to the previous week. The movie gathered significant mainstream interest when the first trailer was shown in December with I Am Legend and following the tragic death of Heath Ledger in January, which drove the first two large spikes in traffic and searches.


MySpace has been playing an important role for traffic referrals for the new movie, showcasing its strength to help drive buzz for movie releases (and ultimately as a successful advertising medium). Beginning on June 18th, MySpace featured the movie on the homepage with new content and a sweepstakes to win a trip to Six Flags to ride the new The Dark Knight Coaster. The results drove significant traffic to the official website – 30% of the traffic was referred from MySpace on June 18th and 64% of the traffic on June 22nd.
Are you planning to see The Dark Knight in the opening weeks? The opening night midnight screenings are already selling out with some theaters adding on screenings at 3am! I would imagine some die hard fans may not make it into the office the next day…