Summer—a typically slow period in retail. But as AT&T had completed the $85 billion acquisition of the Time Warner portfolio almost a year earlier, pressure to prove the value of this merger was at an all-time high.

AT&T needed to define their future as an entertainment superpower and show the value it brought to its entertainment-obsessed customers.

At the center of that conversation sat one of AT&T’s most important products: Fiber internet—the speed, the reliability, and the power behind the way you stream, game, and connect to all your favorite entertainment.

As AT&T now had access to the full breadth of Warner Media assets, a one-of-a-kind opportunity revealed itself. The Summer of 2019 coincided with the 80th Anniversary of one of the greatest crime fighting superheroes of all-time: Batman.

Like a beacon of light in the dark skies of Gotham, the inspiration for The Batman Experience was born.

Batman is a superhero powered by technology. AT&T Fiber is the technology that delivers the speed, reliability, and power you need. To connect those dots in a way that excited the senses and captured the imagination of customers, we needed to deliver an experience that had never been seen before.

Disrupting one of the most highly-trafficked, hard-to-break-through cultural events of the year—Comic-Con International in San Diego, CA—we took the physical retail experience to the next level.

In partnership with Warner Media-owned?DC Comics, we created the most?talked about interactive and immersive?multi-sensory Comic-Con activation to?date: The Batman Experience Powered?by AT&T, featuring a first-of-its-kind mixed-reality experience that transformed customers into their favorite superhero.

With the help of AT&T technology and Hollywood magic, we gave customers a way to instantaneously feel the benefits of two global brands coming together to form an entertainment superpower.

In the battle for fiber optic internet, most competitors were merely talking about "speed". We needed to find a way to get people to “feel” the difference that the speed and power of fiber would give them.

Knowing that 62% of all smartphone owners install a game within the first week purchase, we identified gamers as the target audience. If we could increase organic conversation among gamers we would win.

The strategic proposition was The Best Network could be the source of the ultimate "superpowers."

This came to life in four unique experience zones designed for empathy, meaning and connection with the power of fiber. The BatDive powered the experience of flight. The BatCave Gaming Lounge powered fans through time with historic Batman video and arcade games. The Rogues Gallery Rumble stimulated sight, sound and touch. All surrounded by costumes, Batmobiles and memorabilia for the first time in one place.

The scale of the Batman Experience was unprecedented. Across the ComicCon Museum’s 68,000 square foot venue, we curated the largest display of Batman Memorabilia in history.

The Dark Knight Dive, combined VR with actual wind-tunnel skydiving and a custom Batman CGI storyline. Once flyers suited up in custom Batman flight suits, with helmets featuring Batman’s iconic cowl, they were prepped to take down Scarecrow. Post-flight, participants were given a personalized video showcasing their heroism.

In the Batcave Gaming Lounge we put fans on tilt with every generation of Batman game from pinball machines to Oculus Rift.

The Rogues Gallery Rumble presented the opportunity to knock-out supervillains in a projection-mapped punching bag room that transported participants to the style of the 1960s comics.

And in retail, we activated 30 regional AT&T stores with spectacular window-vinyls, retail shippers and endcaps, all driving foot traffic to the experience.

The Batman Experience outperformed all expectations, driving over half a billion impressions in owned and earned media, with over 1.2 million real-time social conversations measured during the event.

It was named the #1 TV-Themed Activation at ComicCon by AdWeek. Wired Magazine declared, “ComicCon’s Batman Experience soared, while others fell flat.” And the New York Times labeled AT&T and Batman ‘a New Dynamic Duo”.

More than 22,000 visitors visited the museum and 158,000 “KaPow” punches were thrown in the Rogues Gallery Rumble.

From the 500 people who flew through Gotham in the Dark Knight Dive, nearly 50,000 YouTube videos were viewed. The larger Batman Experience drove over 200,000 YouTube views.

Social sentiment for AT&T and AT&T Fiber increased by 9%, proving that immersive retail truly has the power to bring the brand experience to new heights.