Gotham City Pavilion
Case Study
Gotham City Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai
The pavilion for a city that does not exist.
Delivered in collaboration with Warner Bros. Pictures and its appointed partners, we turned the regional launch of The Batman into something no conventional movie campaign could offer at Expo 2020 Dubai: the chance to visit a city that does not exist.
Client
Warner Bros.
Year
2022
Category
Entertainment
Services
At a Glance
- Programme PartnerVox Cinemas
- CategoryEntertainment
- DeliveredExperiential Strategy, Immersive Activation, Experience Architecture, Set & Environment Design, Interactive Storytelling, Game Mechanics, Fan Engagement, Art Direction, Prop & Display Curation, Production Supervision, On-ground Experience Design, Brand Partnership Activation, Entertainment Marketing
In Their Words
Testimonial
Joseph and the team were instrumental in launching The Batman at Expo 2020. They successfully translated the gritty world of Gotham City into an immersive pavilion installation, handling both the creative design and technical execution flawlessly. The project was high-stakes with no room for error, yet the team delivered a standout attraction that drew thousands of visitors. If you need an agency that can execute complex, large-scale ideas with great results, I highly recommend them.
The case film follows how a movie launch became a real-world Gotham City pavilion.
At a glance
Turning a movie launch into a fictional city people could visit
For one month, Gotham City became part of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Opportunity District.
Created to promote The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, the pavilion let visitors step into a dark, gritty world inspired by the film: explore the Batcave, inspect clues, solve four riddles, discover props and memorabilia, and earn a Gotham City stamp in their Expo passport.
Almost Impossible developed the creative and experiential architecture for the pavilion, officially listed by Expo 2020 Dubai with Almost Impossible Agency as architect.
The result was not another movie display.
Objective: Launch The Batman
Delivered: Immersive Brand Experience
Location: Opportunity District, Expo 2020 Dubai
Duration: One Month
It was a real-world fan pilgrimage for a city that does not exist.
01
The Brief
Promote The Batman by doing something that could not be ignored.
Expo 2020 Dubai was already one of the most visited and talked-about destinations in the region. The challenge was to make a film launch feel worthy of that stage.
The activation had to compete with real country pavilions, global architecture, national storytelling, live entertainment and a daily flow of visitors moving from one destination to the next.
It also had to protect the film.
The world of The Batman needed to feel real without revealing spoilers. It had to excite diehard fans, intrigue casual visitors and use the language of the film without exposing the secrets of the story.
The opportunity was clear. If Expo visitors were travelling the world, we could invite them to visit Gotham.
02 / The tension we challenged
Movie campaigns often ask people to watch. This one asked them to enter.
That changed the problem.
To make Gotham feel real, we could not simply decorate a room with Batman assets. We had to build a believable world: atmospheric, tactile, interactive and faithful enough for fans, while careful enough to avoid spoilers.
The team worked under strict confidentiality around the film’s production material. Details such as the Batcave, gadgets, cowl, gauntlet, Batarang, files, monitors and environmental cues had to feel connected to the film without giving too much away.
The experience also had to survive real visitors.
People needed to touch, open, inspect, solve and move through the space. It had to feel immersive, but it also had to be safe, durable, controlled and operational for Expo crowds.
This was the Define moment:
Understanding that the job was not to promote a film, but to make a fictional city behave like a real pavilion.
03 / The strategic reframe
We understood every Expo visitor’s behaviour
A whole new way to experience a movie, before watching the movie.
- Arrive at The Batman pavilion
- Queue
- Enter Gotham City
- Step into the world of the film
- Collect a stamp
- Go to a cinema and watch the movie
We used that behaviour as the campaign platform.
Instead of treating Gotham as a film set, we treated it like a participating destination. A pavilion for a city that does not exist.
The idea did not fight Expo behaviour.
It hijacked it.
- The passport stamp became proof of visit
- The riddles became the reason to explore
- The Batcave became the reward for curiosity
- The props became evidence that the world was real
- The Batmobile became the beacon outside
- The giveaways became collector value
- The pavilion became a story fans could retell
04 / The idea
Let people visit Gotham City in real life
A real pavilion experience inside Expo 2020 Dubai, where visitors could walk through Gotham, enter the Batcave, inspect clues, solve riddles, encounter Batman’s world and earn the right to say they had been there.
The experience was built around the film’s central antagonist, The Riddler.
Visitors were given a game card and challenged to find four riddles hidden across the pavilion. Some were easy to spot. Others demanded closer attention.
Fans had to behave like detectives.
They searched files, studied monitors, opened drawers, inspected props, discussed clues and worked together to solve the mystery.
The more they investigated
the deeper they entered the world
05 / What we made
A Gotham City Pavilion
inside Expo 2020 Dubai
Gotham City IRL
The pavilion opened with a recreated Gotham atmosphere: dark, gritty, textured and alive with tension.
The environment used weathered details, urban clutter, atmospheric lighting, thunder, rain and sound to make visitors feel they had crossed into the shadowy world of The Batman.
It was intentionally not polished.
Gotham had to feel worn, dangerous and cinematic.
Visitors did not just look at the space.
They moved through it, searched it and became part of it.
A Batcave built for investigation
The Batcave was designed as a working environment, not a museum display.
Monitors played trailers, teasers and Riddler-related clips. Files and papers referenced Gotham’s wider world. Tools, gadgets and evidence were arranged across tables so visitors could inspect the details.
Every surface had the potential to hide a clue.
Visitors could watch, listen, open, touch, read and investigate.
The goal was to make fans feel as if they had stepped inside Batman’s process.
Four riddles hidden in plain sight
The Riddler shaped the core game mechanic.
Visitors received a card with four sections and entered the pavilion to find four hidden riddles. The zones were marked, but the answers were not given.
They had to explore.
Once visitors believed they had solved all four, they returned to the entrance where staff validated their answers.
Correct answers unlocked the reward.
This turned the pavilion from a walk-through into a mission.
Visitors received a game card and searched the pavilion for four hidden riddles.
Props, memorabilia and collector rewards
The pavilion brought fans close to the physical world of The Batman.
Original production pieces and film-related props, including the cowl, gauntlet and Batarang, were displayed within the experience, while official merchandise, posters and comics extended the world beyond the visit.
Rewards were not treated as throwaway giveaways.
They were part of the fan economy.
Within the first week, some limited-edition comics from the activation began appearing on resale platforms with listings reaching AED 10,000.
That was the Deliver work:
Building an experience fans did not just attend, but valued, collected and talked about.
The Batmobile became the beacon outside the pavilion, drawing fans into the experience before they entered Gotham.
The Batmobile as the beacon
Outside the pavilion, the Batmobile became the signal.
It drew attention before visitors entered, creating an instant landmark inside the Opportunity District. Fans stopped, photographed, shared and queued before they even understood the full experience inside.
For a fictional city, the Batmobile was proof of place.
Gotham was here.
The Batmobile became the beacon outside the pavilion, drawing fans into the experience before they entered Gotham.
A Gotham City passport stamp
One of the most powerful moments came from one of Expo’s simplest rituals.
The passport stamp.
Visitors were already collecting stamps from real countries. When fans entered Gotham City, they could receive a stamp from a fictional city.
That small gesture made the visit feel official.
For fans, the Gotham City stamp became proof that they had crossed into Batman’s world.
The Gotham City passport stamp made the fictional visit feel official.
06 / How it showed up in the world
The Gotham City Pavilion became a fan destination inside Expo 2020 Dubai
Press covered the opening. Entertainment titles highlighted the Batmobile. Local media invited visitors to enter Batman’s world. Expo visitors queued to solve the riddles. Families, teenagers, collectors, film fans and VIP guests moved through the pavilion.
- The experience drew more than 3,000 visitors a day, including members of UAE Royal families
- Giveaways were exhausted halfway through the activation
- Limited-edition comics from the pavilion appeared on resale platforms with listings reaching AED 10,000
- Online, the activation earned 22 million impressions
This is where the work began to Delight:
A campaign stopped behaving like advertising and became a place people wanted to visit, collect, photograph and remember.
07 / Impact
Box Office Success
visitors a day
earned impressions online
visits
limited-edition comics listed for resale
fans could only get by visiting
one displayed piece became so desirable that it had to be replaced during the activation
One month later, The Batman became one of the year’s major theatrical releases. The Gotham City Pavilion gave the regional campaign something more memorable than media visibility alone.
It gave fans a place to enter the story.
08 / Why this matters
Experiential marketing is often treated as a temporary build
This proved it can be much more.
When the idea is strong enough, a small space can become a destination.
- A giveaway can become a collector item
- A passport stamp can become a memory
- A fictional city can behave like a real place
- A movie campaign can become part of culture
For Warner Bros., Gotham City Pavilion gave The Batman a physical presence at the one place the whole world was already visiting.
For fans, it created the feeling that they had stepped inside the world they were waiting to see on screen.
For Almost Impossible, it showed what the best brand experiences can do:
- Define the behaviour people already understand
- Deliver a world they can physically enter
- Delight them with a story they can take home
Press
Press coverage
“Find the clues, solve the mystery, unmask the truth.”
Work Delivered
Capabilities
Design & Branding
- Spatial & Environmental Brand Design
Brand Experience & Activation
- Experiential Activations & Events
- Interactive & Phygital
- Entertainment-led Experiences
- Immersive Exhibitions & Events
Cross-cutting Capabilities
- Creative Strategy & Concepts
- Creative Direction
- Effectiveness & Results
