Sony Pictures is really counting on viral marketing to garner interest in their new ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ reboot. They’ve got videos appearing regularly on their Oscorp site, a kid tracking the Lizard on Twitter over at @scaleseeker, and now… real life crime scenes at Carl’s Jr (or Hardees, depending on where you live). The restaurant chain is one of the promotional partners for the movie, having released Spider-Man themed commercials very recently also.
The latest event happened at one of those Carl’s Jr. fast food joints in Glendale, CA. When hungry fans arrived at this particular restaurant, they were greeted with a crime scene. The place was covered in Spider-Man’s webbing and signs were that the hero had recently taken down a car thief there.
The basic promotion involved visitors getting free Spider-Man t-shirts, movie tickets, and other smaller prizes. But for a few fans who were following @markofthespiderman on Twitter, it led to even more hidden goodies. The Twitter account told people to walk up to some of the ASM reps and give the password “Web of Crime”. When they did that, they were given a cypher and told to find Spider-Man symbols around the site to decode a secret message.
After the message was decoded to spell out the word “Adhere” and entered into the Mark of the Spider-Man site, fans were treated to the crime reports seen below.
Also yesterday, a new page appeared on the Oscorp website. The gang over at SuperheroHype is speculating that the blurred text is dates and/or locations, but I suppose time will tell.
Keep an eye peeled to those sites and here to ScienceFiction.com for the latest on the Spider-viral campaign as it develops.
‘Amazing Spider-Man’ is directed by Marc Webb, stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, and Dennis Leary. It swings into theaters in 2D, 3D, IMAX, and IMAX 3D on July 3, 2012.