Posters
The first poster release by “The Dark Knight Rises” was a teaser poster that didn’t really show anything about the film, but for people anticipating the film it reminded them that it is coming. It also gave newcomers hints as to the kind of film you would expect, such as the way the buildings are destroyed showing that this is an action film. The bat shape is also iconic and instantly recognisable.
After this teaser poster a collection of teasers posters were released, revealing more information, mostly character based. The most recognisable is one of the character Bane that fans of the comic will recognise with his back to the audience and a destroyed Batman mask. This suggest that Batman will lose, this was done most likely to introduce this film’s chief villain or ‘big bad’ to the audience. Often, in the Batman franchise, there is more interest in the villain than the hero, because Batman is so established that there is little room to play with the character while the villain allows the director to have s distinctive stamp on the films. The casting of this character is big news and eagerly followed by fans.
They then released their final character teaser poster for Catwoman, This shows an image of a bat blade symbol with the high heel of a shoe on it. It also has a red lipstick kiss on the logo. This character would not have been recognisable but this poster was released at the same time as the first trailer. So they expected that people would have seen the trailer and know that Catwoman is in the film. This is an example of how products have to work together and how every element of the campaign hs to be thought out as a whole.
Then the final posters to be released were the full body character posters, no longer just teasing the characters. These showed what the characters costumes would look like as well as showing the release date for the film and other information that wasn’t available before. A key feature I have noticed is the consistent 'look' for these posters in terms of colour choices and graphic style. They are instantly recognisable as part of the same campaign.
Trailers
Arguably one of the most important parts of the promotional campaign is the trailers. They first released a teaser trailer for the film. This showed very little about the film but once again was to remind people that this film is coming soon and to be ready.
This trailer starts with some seemingly unrelated shots of buildings and skylines while text appears between transitions, and follows with some shots of the actor Christian Bale, who plays Batman, walking in a cold far away location and then cuts to some caves and bats etc. These shots are used really as a filler for the title slides in between them and don’t really reveal anything at all. However, they rely on very familiar and well-loved iconography because really, all fnas want to know is that this film will follow in the footsteps of the previous ones. Fans want to be reassured that there will be more of the same but on a bigger and more elaborate scale. After these shots the rest of the trailer is around the character Commissioner Gordon who has been in the last two films. This was done to show a connection to the past story lines so the audience feel that it is still the universe they remember while a lot has changed i.e. the Commissioner being in a hospital bed and lines of dialogue that suggest Batman has been away for a very long time.
The next trailer reveals a lot more about the story as well as introduces the other characters such as Alfred, Bane and Catwoman.
This trailer shows us more about the film than the initial teaser as it is later in the campaign. It also shows us significant moments such as the destruction of the stadium. This trailer was released around the same time as the Catwoman teaser poster so people would have been expected to have seen this then seen the poster when they were out and know who that was. The trailer used more suspense and shows off what the characters will be doing. The introduction of the villain was a big interest for the fans as the last villain, Heath Ledger” was so good and sadly died which also in a way acted as promotion for the film. So the anticipation for this villain is shown off in this trailer. The villain is almost the most important as Batman essentially stays the same whereas the villain changes and drives the new storyline.
Both trailers really show what to expect from the film. They are probably the highest class of trailer; because of the film’s massive budget they spent a lot of time making them incredibly professional and this creates a real excitement for this film. There is also an expectation of the promotional campaign created by the success of the first one and the interest it generated.
Merchandise
A lot of merchandise was created leading up to this film, due the a large part of the audience being fans of the comics. There is a large amount of collectors’ items that other films would not normally create. This involves a lot of models and statues as well as action figures as these are the sort of items the comic book fans would be interested in.
Also people less into the comic book side but are still big fans from the last films alone are very likely to be interested merchandise related straight to this films. This normally consists of posters and t shirts and is for both men and women.
These show ways that the fans can advertise the film, if loads of people are wearing the film shirts lots of people will see it and will be interested in it. A good example of this but unrelated to Batman is the “Guy Fawkes” masks which loads of youth like to buy as it shows off an anarchist style but are straight from the film/ comic book V for Vendetta.
As you can see this is a good example of a company with a huge promotional campaign which spreads across lots of different media platforms.
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