Viral Casestudy: Tron Legacy

Tron: Legacy was an American film of science fiction genre. The film was released in the year 2010 around December. It was directed by Joseph Kosinski, produced by Steven Lisberger and it was the sequel to 1982’s film TRON with Actor Jeff Bridges returning to his roles as Kevin Flynn and CLU, whilst Actor Bruce Boxleitner is again Alan Bradley and Tron.
Tron: Legacy was already a highly anticipated release as it was the sequel of a successful film (1982’s TRON) therefore people already knew it was arriving, and they wanted to see it. However, to maximise anticipation and excitement for the film, a viral campaign began one year and six months before its official release date. On 21^st July 2009, a range of websites (related to films) updated that they had received via mail, "Flynn's Arcade" vouchers and also a flash drive. The content was an animated GIF and it proudly displayed its CSS code lines. However, audiences noticed that a few of them were put together but just a part of the code was cracked and it cleverly revealed the URL link to www.flynnlives.com. This was a invented site sustained by activists who believed Kevin Flynn was still living. However, he has been reported as ‘missing’ since 1989... This led to a sense of enigma forming around the film and it attracted more audiences as people told each other about what was going on, on these TRON sites.
Later on, audiences discovered that by clicking on a tiny spider in the lower section of the main page, they found themselves at a countdown clock. This clock would hit zero on 23^rd July, 2009. Fans analysed the pages to find an address in the ‘Terms Of Use’. The address was for San Diego, California. This was near the Comic-Con 2009 and audiences began putting the pieces together, soon after that, footage and data on the films sequel was released. Flynn's Arcade was opened once again at that location, with a variety of ‘Space Paranoids’ arcade machines and an array of '80s video games- as people growing up in the 70s and 80s were this films focal target audience because they would have seen the first film therefore would appreciate the sequel.
A ninth viral web portal, www.homeoftron.com, was discovered. In it, there was some of Flynn's Arcade history and even a fan memoir section. It was 19^th December 2009 when a new poster surfaced. Banners that promoted the film proudly paved the way to the 2010 Comic-Con. This made a record third appearance for the film at Comic-Cons annual event.