“Tron: Legacy” Facebook Promo Puts Fans in the Movie

As if any were needed, Disney is building buzz for the Dec. 17 release of its new 3-D sci-fi adventure “Tron: Legacy” with a social app that lets users put themselves at the handlebars of a lightcycle from the picture—and apparently into an actual clip from the movie. The studio has also released a Web site that lets registered users race a cycle through a 3-D map of the movie’s environment and earns entries in a sweepstakes by doing so.

The Facebook app, developed by Digital Outlook and located at apps.facebook.com/
tron-facemap-us, allows visitors to upload a photo of themselves. The application then maps that photo to a video clip of a race from the movie, a sci-fi fantasy about life inside a video game in which contestants speed along on lightcycles wearing illuminated helmets. The app is sophisticated enough to move the photo so that it looks realistic in side view and can actually make the mouth move to speak the limited lines on dialogue in the clip.

Once the mapping process is completed, users can add the clip to their own Facebook wall or share it with their Facebook friends. They can also use the app to send an invitation to friends to make their own “Get on the Grid” clips or to add a note to their calendar for the movie’s release date.

Elsewhere on Facebook, Disney has launched a “Tron: Legacy” fan page that lets viewers see the movie’s trailer, locate a 3-D midnight screening by ZIP code, or order tickets for some of those shows via a Disney ticketing Web site.

The Facebook page also links to a Disney Web site for the movie that has offered a “Tron” 3-D racing game since its launch in mid-October. Once users have registered for a free Disney.com account and downloaded a special plug-in, they can construct their own racing avatar and send it exploring the map of the movie’s silicon-chip world. Each time they enter the site to play the game, they receive an entry into the “Tron Get on the Grid” sweepstakes, to a limit of 10 entries per day. (Parents of players 13 or under are notified by email of their child’s intent to enter the sweepstakes.)

Users can also enter the sweepstakes via text message, by texting one of nine keywords to 347639, or using “enter sweepstakes” button on a free Tron iPhone app launched in mid-November. Phone entries are also limited to 10 a day for the game period.

Prizing for the “Get on the Grid” sweepstakes is built on a tiered system pegged to the number of entries: increasing the number of entries adds additional, richer prizes to the contest, ranging from action figures and autographed posters to a trip for four to the ElecTRONica celebration at Disney’s California Adventure Park, which unlocks at 1,750,000 entries. Currently the sweepstakes stands at 1,500,000 entries. An interactive chart shows players which prize levels have been unlocked so far.

The sweepstakes ends at midnight Dec. 31. Winners will be chosen by random drawing around Jan. 6, 2011.

The Disney studio isn’t the only one building on the expected popularity of “Tron: Legacy”. Philips Norelco is partnering to link the movie, an update of a 1982 film that became a cult classic, to its newly launched SensoTouch 3D shaver. Visitors to the Norelco site can play interactive games built around the movie or register to win free passes to advance screenings of the movie in 16 cities in the days before its official premiere. They can also enter a “The Game Has Changed” drawing to win a 3-D home theater setup worth $10,000.

And users who have bought both a SensoTouch 3D razor and full-price regular tickets to “Tron: Legacy” can come back to the Norelco site and download a form for a $30 mail-in rebate.

“With the introduction of the Norelco SensoTouch 3D, we’ve created our most technologically advanced shaver, and through our promotion, we are inviting people to see how “The Game Has Changed’ as the ultimate 3-D shaving experience meets the ultimate 3-D movie experience,” Jacopo D’Alessandris, vice president of marketing for Philips Norelco North America, said in a release. “It’s the perfect collaboration.”