Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder is one of those films where I think they just sat down and asked themselves how silly can they make it. Not having seen the film yet, I’m not sure how it works on screen but they definitely hit the jackpot in the marketing. They’ve pulled all the stops out when it comes to transmedia and viral marketing and never at any point taking themselves seriously. I knew it would be interesting when I saw this back at the MTV Movie Awards.

Now surrounding he film, there’s a LOT of stuff.

The Rain of Madness documentary was ‘made’ during the filming, documenting how the movie was put together – and the website documents the making of the documentary. Of course, it’s a complete spoof. Associated with this a a whole load of fake profiles, of the fictional actors Jeff Portnoy, Kirk Lazarus and Tugg Speedman. I love how tied up everything is, with contact pages going to fictional management agencies, links to production staff etc.

There’s also the profiles and sites associated with the stars associated with the film, such as Alpa-Chino, then the product that he’s pushing and that you can buy (at least in the US0) Booty Sweat

Content is being distributed all over the usual video sites, such as College Humor, IGN and Spike. Each place has exclusives, with their own set of content and assets, so the media team have been busy.

The best overview is over at Team Rubber, one of the agencies behind the campaign. They have not gone the same route as Dark Knight, which uses the game mechanics of ARGS to garner engagement, but for a more straightforward extended reality. You don’t have to solving puzzles and collaborating online to get the extra layers associated with this film, removing one of the barriers that ARG promotions bring with them. This is similar to the recent extension to Spooks:Code 9, where Liberty News gave you extra information to go along with the TV programme.

Although I love the gaming aspect and playing ARGs, the biggest issue is that it is a game with key milestones and activities; to keep up with it is hard work and you need to keep up to understand what is happening. Using extended reality content, providing additional layers, with the added complexity of puzzles and challenges, is a far more mainstream application. You can catch up at your leisure – it’s ‘replayable’ at any point. As brands adopt these methods, they need to consider that for mass take-up. ARGs are a great way to promote a brand, but you have to understand the limitations.