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Come on Now Canon, Can Batman Really Help Boost China Sales?
Canon Phones Batman to Help Boost China Sales
Posted by Abe Sauer
The Dark Knight Rises was a blockbuster, but as the final installent of a trilogy, the future of the Batman series was unclear—until now. The next installment for the genre-redefining Dark Knight is as a spokesperson for Canon cameras in China.
In a series of new ads, the Dark Knight promotes Canon’s line of point and shoot digital cameras, with the superhero personally using—from his utility belt no less—the IXUS model. "Out of the darkness comes color" reads the tagline, meant to draw attention to the brand’s superior image capture in low light. Canon has even built a special Dark Knight microsite to promote the partnership.
The Batman campaign includes additional Canon Bat-junk like Batman dongles, USB connectors and t-shirts.
The deal was announced two weeks ago at a special event that saw an appearance by the Dark Knight as well as Canon executives, one of who also dressed as Batman (kind of).
The choice, while odd, is not altogether nonsensical. The Dark Knight Rises screened last summer in China and was moderately popular. And Batman—or as he’s known in China ??? (bianfuxia)—is associated with high-tech gadgetry. Unfortunately for Canon, China’s market for point and shoot cameras is a bit of a no-man’s land. Most Chinese have cameras on their handsets and those with ambitions toward higher quality photos look to DSLRs. In fact, China’s youth appear to be rather obsessed with DSLRs.
Despite fairly good reviews for the phone, the Dark Knight failed to do much for Nokia when the brand partnered with the franchise with a special edition Dark Knight Rises Nokia Lumia smartphone last summer.
Ironically enough, a Canon logo made an appearence in the Hong Kong scene in the trilogy’s second film, The Dark Knight.
It’s noteworthy that Batman wasn’t the only superhero on the promotion trail in China recently.
The People’s Daily reported on the opening of the 1,000-meter-long Spider Walk in Guangzhou’s Canton Tower. Guests climb on the outside of the tower, between the 33rd and 65th floor, making it the longest such walk in the world. But as pictures from the opening ceremony also prove, the Spider Walk is likely the most IP-violating such walk in the world too, unless Marvel has been diluting its partnerships since being aquired by Disney.
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