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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | MovieMarketing MadnessPost Published: 13 July 2011Author: ChrisFound in section: Advertising, Facebook, Games, Movie Marketing, Movie MarketingMadness, Online, Out of Home, Posters, Television, Tie-Ins, Trailers, Twitter, Warner Bros.Previous Topic: Movie MarketingMadness: Winnie the PoohNext Topic: Movie Marketing Madness: Salvation Boulevard

Movie Marketing Madness: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2There’s always risk when you launch something new. There’s the oft-cited statistic that X number of all new restaurants that open are closedwithin a year and similar figures can likely be found for any category ofbusiness or other venture. While you can say the same about movies –that this or that percentage are going to bomb each month/year – thereare even bigger risks involved when you’re discussing the launch of apotential franchise. Especially one that’s already proved to be popular inanother medium.

Such was the case 10 years ago when Warner Bros. launched the firstHarry Potter movie based on the first entry in the popular book series. Ifit had bombed – and we can look to adaptations of books like TheGolden Compass and others – then it would have been more than justthe failure of one movie; It would have meant the studio didn’t have theweight to make movies based on any of the subsequent books and amajor franchise would have been, for all intents and purposes, stillborn.It would have been years before it could have tried again with a differentapproach.

But it didn’t bomb and in fact went on over the next decade to be one ofthe studio’s most successful franchises.

Now, though, we’ve come to the end of the line. While each of the first six books from author J.K. Rowlinghas been the subject of a single movie the last novel was split into two films, a decision likely made for equalparts artistic (it’s a big story and too much would be cut in a single two-hour feature) and monetary (twotickets is twice as much as just one), and now we’ve come to the release of the second part of Harry Potterand the Deathly Hallows. The quests and missions begun in the first part of the story are now nearingtheir completion as Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and all their friends and family come ever closer to thefinal confrontation with the evil Lord Voldemort and his armies of darkness. That will culminate in final battlesboth grand as masses of wizards battle for each side and personal as Harry confronts once and for all themonster who killed his parents and wants him dead now as well.

The Posters

The first poster for this half of the larger movie showed the main point of the movie, which is the final duelbetween Harry and Voldemort. So the two of them are shown in the extreme close-up staring each otherdown, both clutching a single wand between them and both of their faces marred and dirty from the fightingthat’s already taken place. The copy at the bottom promises that “It all ends 7.15.”

The next teaser used a similar approach as that of the first movie, showing a close-up of Harry looking justslightly off-camera, his face dirty and bloody as sparks and such flew around in back of him. Similar posterswere created for Hermione, Ron, Neville, Snape, Draco Malfoy, Bellatrix and Voldemort.

An even bigger batch followed that of action shots of the above characters with theaddition of McGongagall, Griphook and Fred and George Weasley.

A huge banner was released that showed the Gringotts-guarding dragon that thecharacters encounter and which plays a rather large role in the story. While this isinteresting it’s also slightly odd that such a specific plot element would be portrayed inthe marketing like this when everything else is more focused on the characters and thefinal, bloody confrontation.

Another banner would get more on-point, with the good guys on one side and the bad guys on the otherand streams of magic meeting in the middle and creating a huge flare.

The assembling of armies on both sides would be a theme that continued in the next set of two posters thatwere released, with one showing Harry at the front of his group of classmates, teachers and friends andanother with Voldemort running point on his band of miscreants and minions. Both of these continued the “Itall ends” copy theme and be similarly grimy and blood-soaked, as if we’re seeing but a pause in the middleof a larger battle.

Yet another series of one-sheets showed Harry, Ron, Hermione and Voldemort standingmore or less still but still with the fire and dirt swirling around them.

The Trailers

The first trailer for this installment starts out mysteriously, with all sorts of odd imagesbeing shown before Voldemort starts taking the scene and things get serious. Explosionsat Hogwarts, people being thrown around by magic and more. There are shots of armiesmarching and snakes crawling and people looking very, very emotional over what’sgoing on. The last 45 seconds or so kicks it into overdrive, with one battle sequence afteranother being shown as people run and scream. With all this going on the focus doesoccasionally come back to the final showdown between Harry and Voldemort beforeprompting the audience to go finish the sage in 3D.

The second and final trailer, which came just a few weeks before release and followed aton of TV advertising, is the most violent and epic of them all for either half of this finalinstallment. It starts out by retracing Harry’s life and pointing out that everything he’sdone has been in preparation for this final moment, which he must now face with hisfriends and teachers. There’s not much story laid out here but there doesn’t need to be.This campaign, and this trailer in particular, is all about selling the massive scale of thefinal battle between the light and the dark and the relationships that go into each side,even if it all does ultimately come down to Harry and Voldemort facing off against eachother with wands at the ready.

Online

The official website opens with the final theatrical trailer, which you can skip if the playermakes your entire computer freeze up and crash.

In “About the Movie,” the first content section in the main navigation menu, you’ll find theusual assortment of information like the Synopsis, Cast and Filmmaker biographies anddownloadable Production Notes.

“Video” has just the Teaser and Theatrical trailers, a small selection that’s surprisingconsidering the number of TV spots, featurettes and retrospectives that were producedfor this final film installment. There are 14 stills in the “Photos” sections and “Downloads”has Wallpapers, Buddy Icons, Posters and a Screensaver.

You can listen to portions of the score in the “Soundtracks” section and find a list of sitesdoing giveaways in “Sweepstakes.”

Things start to get a little more interactive with the “Parseltongue Translator,” where youcan enter a message to hear spoken in snake-speak. The “Muggle Hub” is just a sub-site that has many of the same features and media as the main site. “The Quest” is agame where you can answer questions and win points to redeem for prizes andrecognition among your peers.

“Shop” and “The Videogame” are just interested in selling you things while “Spells App”

takes you to information on the iPhone app you can use to trade spells with other usersand “Part One” takes you to information on the first part of the final movie.

Lots of stuff from the official website is ported over to the Facebook page, which alsothen adds more media (including a full collection of TV commercials and other video thatwas missing from the main page) to the mix along with the usual stream of updatesabout the movie, the cast and general fan exclamations about how excited they are.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

TV commercials began running in mid-May that, like the first trailers, made it clear this isthe final confrontation between the two rivals. It’s the same voiceover of Voldemorttaunting Harry over the death of his friends while he has remained safe but it’s prettygood, even in 30 second form. Some started off much more gently than others, with thedrama slowly building and others took viewers right into the action but almost all of themended with the promise of a huge battle involving all the characters we’ve seen to datebut which ends with Harry and Voldemort going toe-to-toe.

A huge in-theater standee was created that mimicked one of the banners mentionedabove, with the forces on each side of the battle shown as the two primary charactersfaced off in the forefront.

Media and Publicity

One of the first shots from the publicity effort for the movie wasthe announcement that a sneak peak from the film would airduring an ABC Family marathon of the earlier entries in thefranchise.

The movie also got some promotion at 2011 WonderCon(Hollywood Reporter, 3/31/11) where several minutes of footagewas screened for the crowd of both exhibition executives andtrade press.

There was also the continued travels of “Harry Potter: TheExhibition,” an exhibit that’s been touring museums across thecountry for a couple years (New York Times, 4/5/11) nowshowing off some props from the movies and other wizardingmemorabilia.

The film was one of many to get some promotional time at the2011 MTV Movie Awards, where Watson appeared and debuteda new clip (Los Angeles Times, 6/6/11) but where it failed to pickup any awards.

There was a lot of retrospective press going around, a trend thatwas epitomized by a story in Entertainment Weekly (6/30/11) thatlooked back at the histories of each of the actors, the productiondesigners and some of the other talent involved in the film asthey reminisced on their involvement with the franchise and howthings have evolved over the 10 years since the first movie hittheaters.

Overall

I’m trying to figure out if there’s any one consistent theme thatthe campaign was hung on…I’m just not sure if there’s onephrase that was used over and over again on all the posters andin all the trailers to let the audience know that this was a bigevent or the end of the film series.

Oh wait…that’s almost all the campaign was; a constantrepetition of the fact that this is where “It all ends.”

Aside from that this is a decent campaign that stands in stark

contrast to the marketing for the previous movies, whichcontained bits of story that moved us toward the conclusion butwhich were also more adventurous and whimsical in nature. Aswith any finale the marketing here has to be bittersweet in partbecause this is the audience – and the studio – saying goodbyeto these characters and this world for the foreseeable future.

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Post Published: 13 July 2011Author: ChrisFound in section: Advertising , Facebook , Games , Movie Marketing , Movie Marketing Madness , Online ,Out of Home , Posters , Television , Tie-Ins , Trailers , Twitter , Warner Bros.