Marketing Harry Potter

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1 Marketing Harry Potter Susan Gunelius President & CEO KeySplash Creative, Inc. June 14, 2012 Universal Studios Orlando, FL

2 How Many of You Have heard of Harry Potter? 2

3 How Many of You Heard of Harry Potter from A friend, A colleague, A family member, A stranger, Or by any other source other than an ad or marketing effort? 3

4 ThaT Tells Us Harry Potter grew to be a global phenomenon through word-of-mouth marketing by consumers. 4

5 Harry Potter Brand Evolution

6 The Boy Who Lived It all started with a train ride 6

7 Add a few Dashes of Serendipity 7

8 Dash #1: The Idea 1990: 24-year old Joanne Rowling imagines Harry Potter out of thin air. The purest stroke of inspiration I ve ever had in my life. - J.K. Rowling 1995: Destitute single-mother completes the final draft of the first Harry Potter book. 1996: Rowling visits the library to get publisher addresses. She submits Harry Potter to one and is rejected. The second accepts. 8

9 Dash #2: The Literary Agent Early 1996: Byrony Evans of the Christopher Little Agency notices Rowling s submission. Late 1996: After 12 publisher rejections, Barry Cunningham of Bloomsbury accepts Harry Potter and the Philosopher s Stone. 1997:Joanne becomes J.K. Rowling. 500 copies published for $6,500 advance. 9

10 Dash #3: The U.S. Publisher 1997: Arthur Levine of Scholastic stumbles on the first Harry Potter book. Pays $105,000 advance for U.S. publishing rights. Late 1997: 70,000 copies of the book sold in Great Britain ($7,500 to Rowling). July 1998: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets debuts in Great Britain at #1. August 1998: Book 1 released in U.S. as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer s Stone. Late 1998: 190,000 copies sold in U.S. 10

11 Sales keep going up July 1999: Scholastic release second book in U.S. and third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, released in Great Britain (sold more than 60,000 copies in first three days). September 1999: Third book released in U.S. Late 1999: Harry Potter books are worldwide bestsellers with nearly 30 million copies in print in 27 languages. Rowling receives first royalty check over $1 million. 11

12 Movie Studies Come Calling : Movie studios pitch Rowling who refuses offers from several studios. Warner Brothers agrees to meet her requirements and movie and merchandising contract signed for $1 million. July 8, 2000: Fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, released around the world at midnight. November 2001: First movie opens. 12

13 There s No stopping harry Potter November 2002: Second movie debuts. June 2003: At midnight around the world, book five, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, launches. Early 2004: Rowling launches website at jkrowling.com. June 2004: Third movie debuts. 13

14 Demand Continues to Rise July 2005: At midnight around the world, book six, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, launches. November 2005: Fourth movie debuts. May 2007: Wizarding World of Harry Potter announced. July 2007: Fifth movie debuts. 14

15 Keeping the Brand Alive November 2008: Sixth movie debuts. 2009: Wizarding World of Harry Potter opens. 2010: Seventh movie debuts. 2011: Eighth movie debuts. 2012: Pottermore launches. 15

16 Harry Potter Books by the Numbers U.S. only Book Date First Print Run Amazon / B&N Pre-orders First 24-hour Sales ,000 n/a Unknown ,000 n/a Unknown ,000 n/a Unknown million 760, million million 1.4 million 5.0 million million 1.5 million 6.9 million million 2.2 million 8.3 million 16

17 The Brand that lived I could not possibly have had the expectation that we d be printing 12 million copies for one book. That s beyond anyone s experience. I would have had to be literally insane. - Arthur Levine There is no financial reward in children s books. - Barry Cunningham 17

18 Selected Harry Potter Advertising Spending Source: Nielsen, July 2000 news release Book advertising = $3.5 million Movie advertising = $142.7 million DVD/video advertising = $68.5 million Merchandise/cross-promotion advertising = $54 million 18

19 Harry Potter Brand Lifecycle Management

20 1. Consumers Build Brands Emotional involvement Relationship brands Branded Experiences Consumer control, not company control Lead to Brand Loyalty, Brand Advocacy, and Word-of-Mouth Marketing 20

21 2. Word-of-mouth Marketing Start with a good product and a brand story to tell. Don t give it all away. Add a viral component. Allow a sense of community. Join the conversation. 21

22 Fans Take Control & Make Harry Potter Their Own 22

23 3. Social Media Fans sites, fan fiction, fan art, fan blogs, etc. Scholastic and Rowling originally sent cease and desist letters. Recognize and embrace influencers and advocates. 23

Embrace Influencers With a multi-million dollar budget to spend as she pleased, Cindy Gordon of Universal Orlando Resort instead told just 7 people about the

24 Embrace Influencers With a multi-million dollar budget to spend as she pleased, Cindy Gordon of Universal Orlando Resort instead told just 7 people about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. And within just 24 hours 350 million people around the world heard the news. All by telling just 7 people. 24

25 4. Perpetual & Tease Marketing Heighten the online buzz and word-of-mouth Watch this space hooks online Countdown clocks online and in stores Midnight release parties and embargoed book deliveries Movie details released in bits and pieces Casting information Set stills Storyboards Limited appearances by J.K. Rowling 25

26 5. Integrated Marketing Unify efforts through consistent communications and messaging. Surround consumers with branded experiences so they can self-select how they want to interact with or experience the brand. Times Square Jumbotron ads Knight Bus in London The Apprentice Contests Artificial supply limitations led to massive pre-orders Price discounting, product tie-ins, and promotional discounts at store level for differentiation 26

27 People look for new ways to experience and share the brand. 27

28 Pull marketing as the Customer demand drives sales, not marketing tactics. Harry Potter fans demanded more and more and more! Social media offers a place to listen to consumer demands. catalyst. 28

29 6. Brand Consistency and Restraint All brand touch points must communicate consistent brand message, image and promise. J.K. Rowling as brand guardian and brand champion Brand restraint means not overextending the brand -- No Harry Potter on Happy Meals Less merchandised than many other brands at time such as Shrek and Cars Limiting brand extensions left fans wanting more and fed into pull marketing/tease and perpetual marketing strategies 29

30 Potter, Potter everywhere! 30

31 Consumers made Harry Potter a global phenomenon. 31

32 Maintaining the Harry Potter Brand

33 Extending the brand in the future Pottermore Content creation and curation Crowdsourcing Community development 33

34 Content Creation & Curation Little new content required for Pottermore to create virtual world. Doors open to create new content online and offline by J.K. Rowling, experts, celebrities, and so on. Examples: Financial sites, Web MD, Baby Center, AARP Content feeds integrated marketing. Curate and syndicate content from multiple sources like media sites do. The Daily Beast built its business from curation. Bloomberg uses Acquire Media for syndication. 34

35 crowdsourcing Not all content needs to be created by the brand or company. Benchmark American Express OPEN Forum, The Huffington Post. Crowdsource for Pinterest, Facebook, and more content 35

36 Community Development Communities used to exist on fan sites and at fan events. Pottermore puts some control back in the hands of the brand by bringing community to branded destination. Focus on growing relationships and emotional involvement through the Pottermore online community and beyond. 36

37 pottermore s first 14 days Pottermore launched with content for the first book only and limited interactivity with a tease of more to come. First two weeks after Pottermore launched: 22 million visits 7 million unique visitors 1 billion page impressions Average visitor viewed 47 pages Average visitor spent 25 minutes on the site 5 million people registered 250,000 registered members had been sorted into Hogwarts houses. 37

38 WhaT s NexT for harry potter? Only J.K. Rowling knows what she s willing to allow for the Harry Potter brand. Consumers still want more from the brand. Confirmed brand extensions for the future include: Wizarding World of Harry Potter expansion in Florida coming soon! Wizarding World of Harry Potter brought 68% increase in attendance to Universal Orlando during first two years. Wizarding World of Harry Potter going to other Universal locations like Japan and Los Angeles. 38

39 The Brand that Lived As long as brand extensions continue to meet consumer expectations based on the brand promise (and J.K. Rowling will make sure they do) Harry Potter will be the brand that lived for many years to come. 39

40 Now Go Get A Frozen Butter Beer or Pumpkin Juice 40

Find Me Online Twitter: www.twitter.com/susangunelius Facebook: www.facebook.

com/in/susangunelius Email: susan@keysplashcreative.

41 Find Me Online Twitter: Facebook: LinkedIn: Books by Susan Gunelius A Also Available Now: The Complete Idiot s Guide to LinkedIn Coming in 2012: Blogging All-in-One for Dummies, Second Edition 41

A2 MEDIA STUDIES CASE STUDY HARRY POTTER 8 - OFFICIAL TRAILER

A2 MEDIA STUDIES CASE STUDY HARRY POTTER 8 - OFFICIAL TRAILER INDUSTRY - BACKGROUND The Harry Potter film franchise is based on the popular series of 7 novels written by British author, JK Rowling. A potted