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I'm a huge fan of practical examples and
I would encourage you whatever you're

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studying, whatever you're interested in
to try to actually go out and find real

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world examples of people who have done
this and follow their case studies.

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So I think a very interesting case study
to talk about today would be a project

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that we did in between Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight called Why So Serious.

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As you might imagine, when you work
with an IP as valuable as Batman,

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that there's a lot of care
taken with the world.

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The voice of the characters,
where you're asking people to do.

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And so, we knew we had to do something
that would be not only establishing

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trust with the audience, saying Yes,
we know what your expectations are.

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We know what you really want to do and
we're going to deliver on that.

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But also showing to the stakeholders,

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we know what you need to achieve,
we know what your goals are.

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So the first thing we did was super
important, it sets the right tone with

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the audience and there are also reinforces
your commitment to the stakeholders

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that you're going to deliver on
what it is that you're going to do.

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So the way that we started,
we obviously, we came in,

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we read the script, amazing script.

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And the two questions that
we asked ourselves, and

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one of them I talked about earlier,
is well, what do people expect?

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If I told you we're gonnas
create a multiple platform,

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multiple touch point experience that
took you from the last frame of

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Batman Begins to the first frame of
the Dark Knight, what would someone say?

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Well, I would expect to do this,
or I would expect to do that.

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So what were people's' expectations?

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And then the second was what
role could the audience have?

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And we talked about that being
a citizen of Gotham City.

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And I get to actually live in the world,
and I can affect the world, and

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I can do things that happen in the world.

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So interestingly enough, and
this may sound particularly crazy

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in retrospect, But
we started looking at what is the buzz,

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what is the conversation,
what are people talking about,

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about this film this coming up, The Dark
Knight and this was a couple years up.

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And people were one of the most polarizing
things that people are talking about

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was the casting of
Heath Ledger as the joker.

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Seems incredulous to him now because
he was such an amazing performer.

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But people were very vocal on the boards.

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There are lots of superhero forums and
we went on all of them to say,

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what is the current conversation?

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Where we starting from?

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What's the mood of the audience?

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And people are very conflicted.

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Everything from Jack Nicholson was
the best joker of all time to how could

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Heath Ledger, coming off the critical
success of Brokeback Mountain,

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play one of the most iconic villains
of all time in the Batman Universe.

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So we knew that we had to do something
that not only hit the tone right with

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those very vocal superhero fans and

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reinforced to them that this
is going to be okay guys,

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this going to be something that you're
going to want to be involved in.

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But also change that conversation point
because that was seen as a hurdle for

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the studios like how do we get over this,
but we knew that the power

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of the audience could change that
conversation, just how do we let them in?

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So the way that we attempted to do that,
and

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this was the first of thousands
of touch points, but there

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was a very simple website
with a bat icon on it.

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That was all that was really
advertised in the film.

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So we put a little blip on that website.

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And if you clicked on it, it took you to a
site that said, I believe in Harvey Dent.

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And there was a campaign poster for

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Harvey Dent that was being announced
as being played by Aaron Eckhart,

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good looking guy, great poster,
the site that look made sense.

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It seemed like it was
announcing his casting.

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At the same time, in a dozen comic
book stores all around the country,

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we dropped cards,
Joker cards that were stamped

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ha ha ha and
I believe in Harvey Dent too, to YOLO.

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And of course the beauty of doing
something that is digitally connected

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is that only one person has to find it.

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So of course,

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someone immediately finds one of these
cards they upload it to the Internet.

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They actually found four.

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They said what do you think this is about.

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The community immediately
starts that investigative work.

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They find, they go to a website
I believe in Harvey Dent too,

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they see the same campaign poster,
but this time the joker has tagged it.

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So he's tagged the eyes,
he's tagged the mouth, and

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it says if you want your vote to
really count, give me your email.

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And people were immediately responsive,
people were like, what is this?

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What could this possibly be?

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It's obviously for Batman,
this is the same poster.

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So they start putting their email in,
and they put their email in and

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they got back an email that gave
them an X and Y coordinate.

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They went back to the site,
they put their X and Y coordinate in and

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it removed one pixel.

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So over the course of 20 hours
they were able to convince all

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their friends and
their entire social networks to go on and

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put their email and remove a pixel but
that wasn't enough.

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So then they had to go on boards and
social networks and try to reach out

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to people in the press and the story just
kept building and building and building

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because they realized that underneath
this campaign poster was an image.

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And it was actually the very first
image of Heath Ledger in Joker makeup.

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And they wanted this particular picture to
get out because this was the picture That

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would establish that character
in just the right tone.

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So over this weekend,
everyone works together,

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they reveal this image, and they are
astounded because it is an amazing image.

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You can see it.

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It still has impact even now.

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Even after we've seen his performance
it's just an amazing photograph.

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And the conversation changed from

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why do we cast him to wow,
look at this character.

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So that started a whole year and
a half of people having this relationship

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with this character, the Joker that really
created the spine of that experience.

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You didn't know what to expect.

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You were learning about him as
he related to you the audience.

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And it was incredibly powerful and

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it changed completely it
changed the conversation.

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And again it also proved to
the stakeholders that the audience

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could have a role in not only
changing the conversation but

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in building up the world.

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That was going to be meaningful to
them and ultimately meaningful for

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a broader audience.