Homework: Film Marketing Research

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

I decided to research the marketing campaign of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 because it's a widely successful film all around the world and I wanted to see what marketing strategies would be incorporated for such a huge film.

Teaser Posters

This film used a number of teaser posters to generate interest and attract attention towards it. The first teaser poster showed the site of Hogwarts in flames against a dusk sky, as well as text saying “It all ends here”. This makes the audience think that something bad is going to happen, but they don’t know exactly what, so it creates suspense. It also featured the dual release dates for the two parts of the movie, part 1 in 2010 and part 2 in 2011, not giving a specific date, which keeps the audience attentive to find out when the exact release date is.

After this, three teaser posters, one each with Harry, Hermoine and Ron, included the copy, “Nowhere is safe” and another three teaser posters, with three of the villains, had a copy featuring, “The hunt begins.” These copies are enigmatic and mysterious to the audience. Then a set of eight more teaser posters were released. These were more character based as they were extreme close-ups of the characters to convey their emotions and make it more dramatic. Finally, four more posters were presented of different characters in pairs and featured the copy, “The hunt begins”, which emphasizes that it’s only the first of two parts.

Official Poster

The official poster was of the three main characters, Harry, Hermoine and Ron, running through the woods. It utilizes the same darkness as the teasers posters, creating branding and synergy between them.

Teaser Trailer

The first teaser trailer aired during the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. This laid out the setup of the film, without giving away the plot. It portrays the dark sense of the film and displays lots of peaks and passion which engage the audience and generate further excitement.

Official Trailer

The official trailer straight away shows the epic battle between evil forces and the good side which gets the audience hooked onto the film. It also includes the well-known characters who the audience can familiarize themselves with. The trailer also uses text like, “The finale of the worldwide phenomenon”, which highlights just how iconic the franchise has become and it also makes the film seem very successful and a must-see to the audience. It also features the release date of both parts 1 and 2, which acts as promotion.

TV Spot

The TV spot emphasizes Harry being in danger and grabs the audience’s attention with the dramatic clips shown. The first TV spot was aired during The Vampire Diaries season premiere, which was a quite a wise decision as it targeted the fantasy fans.

Website

The film’s website opens with its trailer, thus engaging the audience. As you get into the website, it offers the conventional links to the synopsis, cast and filmmakers, gallery, videos, downloads and soundtrack. The website also allows you to buy merchandise from the film by clicking on the link ‘Shop’ which takes you to the WBShop.com site and it also offers the Harry Potter video game. There is also a link that says ‘Join the Final Battle’ which is a Facebook App and an iPhone App. The website is important to the marketing campaign as it allows the audience to interact with the film. You can upload a photo and put yourself or your friend into one of the movie’s Wanted posters and you can also play games online. The website also links to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter which improves the film’s publicity and marketing.

Promotion

The film was promoted in many ways. One effective way it was promoted was through the opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a new attraction at Universal Studios that recreated famous locations in Harry Potter and also sold Harry Potter merchandise. This helped bring more awareness of the film to the public.
They also made a brief appearance at Comic-Con 2010 where some new footage was shown to attract the minds geek webmasters and fans.


Overall, I think that this film’s marketing campaign is really good and it effectively sells the film to its audience. The different marketing strategies were synergetic as they all portrayed the same dark and dangerous tone throughout the posters, trailers and website. This also helped to create branding to the audience and built up the audience’s expectations for the film. I think that the marketing campaign was excellent at convincing the audience to watch the film and it convinced me too!