harry potter and the social media surge

Harry Potter and the Social Media Surge

July 14, 2011 by Christina Warren 17

The Summer Blockbuster Series analyzes the social mediacampaigns behind major summer movie releases and runs eachFriday.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the final film in the uber-successful Harry Potter film franchise,opens in the United States on Friday, July 15, 2011.

The film series has generated billions at the box office, and with the eighth installment, Warner Bros. has kickedup its social media marketing game. In addition to the official site at HarryPotter.com, the following socialnetworks are being used to promote the film.

Facebook

Harry Potter and the Social Media Surge http://mashable.com/2011/07/14/harry-potter-social-media/

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Warner Bros. has long maintained a solid Facebook presence for the Harry Potter film series. With Harry Potterand the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the studio ramped up its efforts in engagement and in Facebook app features.

Nearly 29 million users have “liked” the Harry Potter Facebook Page, with a big chunk of those users “liking” injust the past week.

The Independent reported on the surge in Facebook “like” activity in the days leading up to the film’s Londonpremiere. In the week before the premiere (which occurred on July 7, 2011), the Harry Potter Facebook Pagegained nearly 100,000 new fans per day.

That kind of growth is spurred by a page that frequently posts images, behind-the-scenes tidbits, interviews withstars, links to coverage on other media outlets and movie trailers.

In a particularly nice touch, Warner Bros. Entertainment has created local Facebook fan pages for a variety ofdifferent countries and languages.

The studio also allows fans to rent and watch past Harry Potter films right on Facebook.

Twitter


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The @HarryPotterFilm Twitter account isn’t as active as the Facebook Page (it had 343,000 followers at the timeof this writing), but the crew managing the account does a good job engaging with users, sharing links tointerview and media articles and posting photos.

At the New York premiere of Deathly Hallows, photos from the even were live-tweeted using TwitPic.

Harry Potter as a brand is very popular on Twitter, with character names and various memes involving the seriesfrequently becoming trending topics.

YouTube


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For Deathly Hallows Part 2, the Harry Potter franchise embraced YouTube big time.

In addition to the assortment of trailer uploads and fan-made spoofs, the Harry Potter YouTube channel has beenused as a repository for official clips, TV spots and interviews.

The red carpet from the London premiere of Deathly Hallows Part 2 was livestramed on YouTube, as well as onother video streaming services like Ustream and Livesream.

The YouTube page contains a special highlight reel from the premiere, as well.

The YouTube page was designed in such a way that it shows off not only videos from the channel, but gives fansaccess to real-time updates from Facebook and Twitter from official feeds, members of the cast, fan sites andthe Harry Potter: The Quest web game.

The tool, built by thisMoment is also accessible from the Harry Potter Facebook Page. It’s a great way to keepusers engaged with what people are saying on YouTube, commenting on Twitter and posting to Facebook, whilealso tying in the official feeds.

Ticketing

Online ticketing for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is being heavily promoted via social channels.Not only do ticket sites like Fandango and MovieTickets.com have their own Harry Potter campaigns, but WarnerBros. has integrated a slick Facebook ticketing app into the main Harry Potter Facebook Page.

The Harry Potter ticketing app is similar to other Facebook ticketing apps we’ve seen in the past. It allows usersto not only find showtimes and buy tickets, but also invite friends and share their ticket purchases on Facebook.


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Fan Sites and Pottermore

The success of Harry Potter is due in no small part to its loyal fan base. The fan communities surrounding HarryPotter have been used to help keep the film promoted across the web.

Fan sites like The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet post a frequently updated stream of news and information notjust to the main webpages, but also to Facebook and Twitter.

These sites also run contests and promotions to keep the masses enthused and engaged. The sites also playeda role in hyping another Harry Potter announcement.

Last month, J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, announced Pottermore, a fan-centric onlineexperience for the Harry Potter book series. Rowling has started to tweet out previews of the site, which willopen to a limited audience at the end of July and to the public in October.

Social media, or at least, social gaming, seems to be a central part of Pottermore and though this network isn’tdirectly tied to the film, the announcement was obviously timed to coincide with the final film’s release.

Box Office Impact

We won’t know the full impact of the media campaign until the first box office receipts start to pour in, but if pastperformance is any indicator, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 will be a huge hit.

Let us know your thoughts on the social media campaign surrounding the film in the comments.


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harry potter and the social media surge

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