Warner Bros.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN



Click to view - Lex/OS Beta | Viral

Click to view - Choose Your Hero | Social Activation

The Mission

Warner Bros.’ Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice pitted two of DC Comics’ most recognizable superheroes against each other, while notorious villain Lex Luthor launched his own crusade. The film was pivotal to the studio as it would set the foundation for the upcoming series of Justice League movies. Savvy fans over the globe had high expectations for the film as well as the marketing campaign.

The Campaign

We started a year out, launching the first teaser trailer site in April 2015 followed by a special IMAX teaser trailer destination. This was followed up with a viral piece, a social activation and an online media campaign.

Lex/OS Beta | Viral

We designed the Lex/OS viral piece to appeal to gamers and die-hard fans familiar with the DC universe who were eager to debate and dissect every creative element on social media.

Warner Bros. teased the opportunity to participate in Lex Luthor’s new LexCorp Operating System (Lex/OS) well before it launched, and fans that signed up had time to speculate on what it might be. The mobile-friendly “beta” went live several weeks before the premiere and invited “beta testers” to help LexCorp train the operating system to think like a human and improve upon its artificial intelligence by using the collective intelligence of these volunteers. Beta testers donated their cognitive ability by solving increasingly difficult puzzles, ranging from color matching to decimal and binary based math problems. They earned personalized ID badges after successfully completing each set of puzzles while increasing their level of security clearance.

Addicted fans shared their results, and some debated if the OS was actually an origin story for the DC villain Brainiac. Post-premiere, an Easter egg rewarded fans who stayed through the end credits of the film. Those who spotted the username ‘mgraves’ and password ‘lexicon’ in the credits and logged in to Lex/OS discovered they had access to an exclusive blueprint of the mysterious alien spaceship seen in the films, which delighted fans shared across social media. The landing page was updated with yet another post-premiere Easter egg: an extended scene from Lex’s arrest that revealed a new villain – Darkseid, which sparked further fan conversation… would he be the baddie in the next Justice League movie?

Choose Your Hero | Social Activation

Team Batman or Team Superman? This question dominated popular culture the week of release, and we challenged fans to put a stake in the ground. Our Choose Your Hero social activation invited fans to upload a photo, pick a background, add a Batman or Superman glyph, and share their choice on social media along with the trending hashtag #WhoWillWin. Fans were going wild for Wonder Woman, so we added her, as well as other film-related content such as Wayne Tech, Daily Planet and LexCorp.

Online Media Campaign

A broadly targeted banner campaign included an IMDB.com video takeover, which showcased the epic battle between the world’s biggest superheroes within an elegant motion piece. We rotoscoped green screen footage of the opponents flying across the page before facing off with raised fists, braced for battle. Frozen mid-fight, the POV flipped 180° from Batman to Superman, conveying that the opponents were well matched and that it would indeed be a battle worth watching.

Results

Batman v Superman had a spectacular first weekend, the largest domestic opening for Warner Bros., grossing $166 million in North America. Its worldwide opening grossed $422 million, making it the seventh-biggest worldwide opening for a comic book adaptation, and the fourth film to have a global opening over $400 million.