The Hobbit:An Unexpected Journey

Marketing a Blockbuster

The Hobbit – Facts & Figures• Distributor – Warner Brothers• Producer – New Line Cinema• Director – Peter Jackson Writer: Guillermo Del Torro)

• Stars – Ian McKellan, Martin Freeman• Genre – Fantasy / Action• USP – Adaptation, Franchise Prequel, New Tech (48

FPS, Dolby Atmos, Imax 3D)• Budget – $180 Million ($540 for all 3 films)

• Box Office - $825 Million (after 3 weeks)

• Opening Weekend - worldwide total of $223M• US Opening figure $84 Million• (US Highest opener $204 Million – The Avengers)

Hobbit – Star Cast• Sir Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey,

Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Ian Holm as Old Bilbo, Christopher Lee as Saruman, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, Elijah Wood as Frodo, and Andy Serkis as Gollum.

• Martin Freeman plays the central role of Bilbo Baggins, with Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield.

Promoting The Hobbit

• Official Website• http://www.theho

bbit.com/

• Main Trailer: (2.30 theatrical trailer)

• http://www.thehobbit.com/#content=video&section=moment&media=trailer_1

• A Range of Posters

Hobbit – Campaign Overview• The marketing campaign began back in 2011 on Facebook with a

series of video journals from Jackson’s POV, engaging fans throughout the year by taking them into the production activity leading up to the announcement trailer at the beginning of 2012.

• Jackson also marked milestones like Hobbit Day and the novel’s 75th anniversary. Publicity included the first ever film-themed Rolling Stone magazine standalone issue and a week of late night US television programming on The Colbert Report.

• The Hobbit also received major treatment from Autumn and Holiday previews. An online media blitz kicked off in early November with an advanced ticketing campaign across YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to drive early ticket sales.

• Warner Bros live-streamed the world premiere from Wellington, New Zealand, to a record-setting audience of a million views.

The Hobbit & Hyper-real• A big buzz has been created around The Hobbit due to the

fact it is the first film to push the hyper-real look & feel.• Three features combined to create the hyper-real effect: • the gradual maturing of 3D into a technology that is less

intrusive than it once was; • Peter Jackson’s controversial decision to use the hyper-

realistic 48 frames per second rate (or high frame rate• and the unique chance to watch the film with a sound

system called Dolby Atmos, (which the sound business claims is the future of cinema, because it offers more realistic presentation of effects and music than ever before).

IMDB MovieMeter (Measures Film Popularity over time)

In the chart you can clearly see how from 2011 The Hobbit is in the Top 100and at the end of 2012 (film release date) it is at number 1.

The Hobbit – online marketing

• The official Facebook page of the movie started on the 15th of February of 2011 and the official blog was revamped around that time.

• Only later a YouTube channel, a Twitter profile and the official website of the movie would have been created.

• The Hobbit Production Diaries and Video series, started first on the blog then.

Hobbit Production Diaries• The Diaries manage the expectations of the fans, following

the basic rule of suspense: inform without really showing anything about the story itself.

• Yes, we see the actors during the shootings, the FX specialists preparing the CGIs effects and so on, but no real sequences of the motion picture or, better, bits of them that we will remember when watching the movie.

• The videos first published by Warner Bros have been viewed more than 10 million times thanks to their sharing and syndication in other YouTube profiles.

The Hobbit – online marketing

• The Director’s personal Peter Jackson YouTube account the one that most success had in promoting the two series: with over 4 million direct views.

Hobbit Fans• Comic-Con (even Danny Sullivan tweeted about it), an

already classic on-off marketing event;• On Site engagement asking the fans to vote the best

possible ending for the new trailer;• Launch of the second trailer (2.6 million views and

gazillions shares and republishing);• Reinforcing a collaboration with the biggest Tolkien’s fan

based site: www.theonering.net, with initiatives like this one;

• Creation of the Twitter profile and start of the real interaction of Social Media;

• Fans engagement on Facebook (i.e.: the celebration of the 75th Anniversary of The Hobbit publication);

Hobbit Fans• Merchandising (i.e.: maps; figures; the Lego “The

Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” sets or video games as “The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age”);

• Wallpaper generator, plus many other fans goodies, such as Bombur Recipe Book; Dwarf Combat training game; Facebook’s ‘The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth’ game app.

• Fans events as the “Hobbit Day Fan Photos”;• Viral videos, as the “An Unexpected Briefing” with Air New Zealand;• Apps for iPhone and iPad, etc. etc.• And a massive word of mouth fan endorsement!

Frozen

Summary:Fearless optimist Anna teams up with Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious snowman named Olaf in a race to find Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom in eternal winter.

Director- Chris Buck, Jenifer LeeWriters- Jenifer Lee, Hans Christian Anderson, Chris Buck, Shane Morris, Dean Wellins

Stars- Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Idina Menzel

The directors Chris Buck is an American film director known for co- directing Tarzan, Surfs Up, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas and Frozen. He also worked as supervising animator on Home on the Range. He has awards for:Academy Award for best animated feature filmBAFTA award for best animated film

Jenifer Lee is an American motion picture writer and director. She co- wrote the screen play for Wreck it Ralph and writing and co- directing Frozen with Chris Buck. She is the first female director of a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film, and the first writer at any major animation studio to become a director

Exhibition

On January 31st, 2014, a sing along version of the movie was in select theatres for a limited time. The film premiered at the El Captian Theatre on November 19th, 21 and went into general release on November 27th. Frozen was released theatrically in the United States on November 27th, 2013 and it was accompanied by the new Mickey Mouse animated short film, Get a horse!Frozen was promoted heavily at several Disney theme parks including Disneyland’s Fantasyland, Disney California Adventures World of Colour, Epcots Norway pavilion, and Disney's Dreams show. Several film critics considered it to be the best Disney animated musical since the studios renaissance era.

Synergy Frozen was released for digital download on February 25th 2014 on ITunes and Amazon. It will also be released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on March 18th 2014. The bonus features for the Blu-ray will include the making of the film, an inside look at how Disney tried to adapt the original fairy tale into an animated feature, four deleted scenes, the films teaser trailer, and music videos from songs in the film. A video game was released on November 19th 201 for Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3ds. There is a frozen toy box pack for the toy-based video game Disney Infinity on November 26th 2013 and both figures were released separately on March 11th 2014. Disney mobile released a match-three game titled Frozen for IOS, Android and Windows phone platforms. Also six mini games of frozen can be played on Disney's website. There is a lot of Frozen merchandise available in the Disney store and on online websites such as Amazon.

Success

• Is the most successful animation film of all time!

• Was only put into second place at its opening weekend by The Hunger Games.

How was it marketed

• A “buzz” was created beforehand: • Advertising using the Disney brand- hits a

specific target audience• Press releases• Trailers shown• You Tube clips of the films were released

What people are saying

• “Part of the credit goes to Disney’s strategy. In their initial marketing campaign, they made an effort to point out the story’s uniqueness. “Disney worked very hard to make it appeal to everybody,” Bizer says, from the trailers to the posters to the title of the film itself. They released the movie in November—the time that fits into Litman’s optimal release timing. And their lawyers allowed the music to spread naturally through social media. “The fact that Disney didn’t crack down on the millions of YouTube tributes, the fact that it’s been played everywhere, feeds back into the

• phenomenon,” Kaufman says.”

• http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/how-frozen-took-over-the-world

No all were happy!

• http://variety.com/2013/film/columns/why-disneys-marketing-campaign-doesnt-do-frozen-justice-1200908996/

Princess Culture – The Merchandise

• The article in Nytimes credits the success of Frozen to Disney’s continued interest in the “princess culture”. This started in 2000 after an executive went to see Disney on ice they realised they could push the princess culture further. Creating a brand and a secure target audience.

This created the source for all the merchandise which in turn raised the profile of the film

• http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/magazine/how-disney-turned-frozen-into-a-cash-cow.html?_r=0

Research Task – Word Document• You now need to explore how Shifty and The

Fifth Estate were marketed. You need to make notes based on the following:– Facts and Figures/ Star Cast– Traditional Marketing techniques (posters, trailers,

magazine articles, reviews)– New Marketing techniques (YouTube, twitter,

audience participation, pull marketing, apps, ties in etc)

– Use of stars– How effective do you think the campaign was.