This is part one of a two-part article (read part two here) taking a closer look at themes that emerged from the convergence of various digital, social and integrated consumer engagements core to the campaign for the launch of the Man of Steel. Jump to part two here.
In July 2013, Warner Brothers celebrated the 75th anniversary of the return of an iconic hero to the big screen. The studio managed to forge a distinct bond with a massive core audience of fans eager to see the man in the red cape fly again.
An alien from the planet Krypton and in 2013 a stranger in a stranger land, Man of Steel’s Superman is a personal story of what it means to be the one chosen to protect Earth and the hard choices that must be made. With over 100 global promotional partners and $160 million in collective promotional support, the Man of Steel campaign virtually touched all walks of life with tie-ins from everything from eyewear and cell phones to the National Guard and Carl’s Jr. Super Bacon Cheeseburger.
In each execution, Warner Brothers utilized best-in-class viral, influencer and direct marketing tactics to empower fans to celebrate a new telling of the familiar tale and how this Kryptonian keeps us feeling grounded here on Planet Earth.
To create a sense of otherworldly suspense, the Man of Steel campaign began with a teaser trailer featuring the voice of Michael Shannon as General Zod informing the people of Earth about his hunt for Kal-El, a lost son of Krypton. The words “You Are Not Alone” flashed in different languages during the trailer and helped to established a global tone for this creepy video.
On a companion site called the DSRW Project (Deep Space Radio Wave Project), fans were given the tools to decipher intercepted Kryptonian audio transmissions and share with their friends.
As each new cipher was released, fans could analyze the signal of incoming audio by selecting boxes in a row that corresponded to the waveform audio as it was played. Each match would reveal an ‘on’ frequency state on a grid and reveal part of the glyph.
Both individual and community progress was tracked as fans worked to break the code. Users could sync to community progress to get up to speed quickly and try and decode the transmissions.
Residents of Los Angeles started posting pictures to social networks featuring a billboard with a distorted image of the Superman emblem and a series of Kryptonian symbols.
Once decoded, the symbols revealed an IP address of “168.161.242.137” which led to a destination URL at IWillFindHim.com. On the site, a Kryptonian countdown clock counted down to the release of the next trailer.
By featuring the voice of the primary villain in the trailer, Man of Steel created an aura of otherworldly exclusivity that drove fans to feel a sense of urgency around the campaign. Utilizing a tone familiar to sci-fi audiences that know we are not alone in the universe, core fans were thrilled to know that the film would depict more of Superman’s alien origins as they got reacquainted with Zod. This set the tempo in the drive toward launch as new footage became available with each new exclusive partnership and trailer release.
No other hero can spark a debate about the superiority of their strength and power quicker than Superman. To get fans excited and give them a taste of his power, the campaign put some of the raw power of Krypton in the hands of consumers and gave them a chance to fly around Metropolis and see what kind of punch the son of Jor-El would be packing in Man of Steel.
The browser based game Hero’s Flight, launched in a partnership with Norton, let players control Superman and choose whether to save or destroy Metropolis.
In this simple flying game, players can use Superman to blast through buildings and rocks, discover power-ups and use his x-ray or heat vision to try and survive. By logging into Facebook, players can challenge their friends to see who can complete each level the fastest.
A different browser game, Metropolis Mayhem let players dive into some 2-D side scrolling action and try and tear up the skies above Metropolis. Using their keyboard to maneuver the Man of Steel around obstacles and destroy objects with heat-vision, players must collect Superman logos to increase their score while dodging floating laser beams, plasma weapons from dropships and guided rockets shot from helicopters.
On the official Norton Facebook page, a dedicated app asked fans to enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win $10,000 or movie tickets, and check out exclusive clips from Man of Steel.
A series of exclusive featurettes from the film (Strength, Flight and Speed) were embedded from the official Norton YouTube channel and unlocked within the app.
Earlier this summer, WB Games had released the hit console game Injustice: Gods Among Us for consoles. The game featured DC Comics superheroes including Superman, but wasn’t connected to Man of Steel so as part of the final DLC pack, a connection was made for fans. General Zod became an official playable DLC character.
Zod’s in-game powers were similar to Superman’s, but additionally he wielded an energy blaster that could hit enemies from a distance. He could also summon a minion to chomp on his opponent.
Additionally, the official suit from Man of Steel was included as featured DLC content in Injustice: Gods: Among Us.
On iOS and Android, the official Man of Steel app let players replay events from the film and try and stop General Zod’s invasion of Earth. By attacking, dodging, blocking and utilizing various superpowers including flight, super speed, and heat vision, players could use gesture based combat and try to defeat Zod.
Microtransactions allowed fans to unlock and purchase up to six different suits from the film to become a truly unstoppable force. Customizable abilities let players embrace the true strength of Superman with bone-crunching combos, all with the swipe of a finger.
Lastly, proving that anything can be recreated in Minecraft, in a partnership with Machinima, the “Ideal of Hope” trailer was brought to life.
Some men want to watch the world burn, others want to use their heat vision and blast and soar high above the streets of Metropolis. Nothing can satisfy an audience more completely than putting them in the shoes of a hero and letting them throw a punch. Man of Steel created multiple games across multiple platforms that let fans choose when and where they wanted to be Superman. Fans that wanted to know how hard hitting this new Superman would be got a chance to find out and learn more about the story in the process. On desktop, mobile and tablet fans got to be Superman just by clicking or installing an app knowing they would be rewarded with exclusive content or high cash prizes. Man of Steel also embraced the most populous video game platform today and partnered with the right influencers to bring Superman to completely uncharted land: Minecraft.
Note: Campaign results and performance are not included as they have not been made publicly available. Each tactic highlighted in this series of articles is chosen for being strategically innovative in creating value through social and earned media.
About the Author
Steven J. Knezevich is a Senior Digital Strategist at the Ayzenberg Group working with the creative, social and digital departments to drive innovation in user engagement and new media storytelling across connected campaigns. He is a brand strategist with 12+ years of experience in the video game and entertainment sector driving business growth, launching brands and products and maximizing accountability through creative, technology-forward marketing.
