It’s difficult to not know what the Twilight series is because we are inundated with advertisements everywhere…and I mean everywhere.
The goal of this article is not talk talk about the movie or book (although I might inject some of my opinions here and there). The intention is to remind ourselves to step back for a moment from all of the hype and analyze exactly what is going on.
- what marketing mediums were utilized
- how it can be replicated again (perhaps for our own businesses)
- who the key figures are and images they project
- when strategic advertisements were used
- where they are making appearances and why
Twilight
New Moon
I’m going to admit it – I didn’t have a clue what Twilight was until about a month ago. After seeing this ubiquitous image, I decided to read the book after much debate; I was instantly sold.
Upon return from my nationwide SEO tour, I rented the movie and was rather disappointed. Nevertheless, I couldn’t understand the craze everyone had! This was especially for those who loved the movie and never read the book. This really piqued my interest.
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart
Let’s examine these two for a moment. Robert Pattinson (Edward Cullen) and Kristen Stewart (Bella Swan) are the leading actors for the movies.
Robert Pattinson – “self-deprecatingly adorable” and “painfully handsome” guy who constantly calls himself an “idiot” -Perez Hilton
Kristen Stewart – cold and seemingly unappreciative for her fame
The two are always mentioned together – a lot of times with adulation and disdain respectively. Nevertheless, I believe that this duo contribute to the marketing buzz that is going around. Your thoughts?
Nationwide Tour
The entire cast – this includes the werewolves and the Volturi (the organized coven of “royal” vampires) – are making appearances everywhere you can possibly imagine! If you recall from my recent article, “What Makes A Successful Photography Business,” Jeff Jochum (CMO for SmugMug) mentioned that we create friction and connection by meeting people in person…these connections outweigh any online ones.
By meeting people in person, they are creating connections. These connections will equate to ticket and merchandise sales. Personally, I’d gladly buy a ticket or poster to meet Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen) because I like her portrayed spunky personality.
This does not include the various press conferences in Japan, Brazil and Mexico. The cast even attended Comicon a few months ago! They are currently doing their nationwide tour with the joint promotion with Hot Topic and Nordstrom. Now they are engaging in interviews with Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight.
They will be making a presence on day time shows on Ellen and other late night time shows.
Social Media And Other Outlets
This one is a hefty contribution. They exercised every possible route – Twitter, iPhone apps, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, cross promotions, and etc.
Twitter – Three individuals from Twilight really embraced the online world and used it as a tool to connect with their followers. Previously, fans could only read about their idols through print and online mediums. Now, they can ask the actors and actresses directly! Even better, sometimes these people respond!
@Twilight – Twilight by Summit Entertainment
@Peter Facinelli – Dr. Carlisle Cullen
@Billy Burke – Chief Swan
@Ashley Greene – Alice Cullen
iPhone Apps – Peter Facinelli and Billy Burke have made efforts to connect with their fans through their very own iPhone App ($1.99)! It has biographies, exclusive videos, etc. Yay!
This is all about transparency. I’m actually going to be having a talk with Becker about this on November 19th, so stay tuned.
Your Turn
I’m not going to talk about other platforms that they used because it would take me forever. I want everyone to use this as an exercise and to think about it.
What is it that they did to make it such a huge success? Don’t say it was because it was based on a great book. Not all books make great movies. Not all movies demand sequels. In all honesty, Twilight the movie was sub par, yet I am going to be one of those crazy fans lined up at New Moon’s debut.
So, what are your thoughts? Please comment because I’m very interested!
Sincerely,
Lawrence Chan
P.S. Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob? I was Team Edward, but now am Team Jacob after reading Breaking Dawn.
R A W R
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I began reading the books shamefully AFTER the movie came out but I was hooked. I purchased the entire box set from Barnes and Noble and read the series in 2.5 weeks. (Which is hard considering I have two children and my photography business to run).
Team Edward. She belongs with him and it all will fall into place at the very end of the series. Things are meant to happen how they happen. You will see
I find your posts so interesting. Who would think to compare their photography business to a movie series like Twilight? I must say when I first seen the trailer for Twilight I was like “What is this” and for months after that the buzz was very low and all the sudden it burst out of nowhere and became this huge hit. Our businesses can be like this, but how do we keep the fire going? Is it ever too much?
{Stephanie Karen}
Lawrence,
Okay, proof that the Twilight phenom has taken over? WE’RE TALKING ABOUT IT HERE!
The books/films tap into teen angst and for a generation of ‘tweens who started reading voraciously with Harry Potter, entering that realm of “He loves me, he loves me not” I think was just the next logical step in where their interests were/are.
Marketing wise, Summit embraced the viral side of things early on, which has really worked for them (as you point out) in addition to casting a group of sexy teens whose mugs are EVERYWHERE. Interestingly enough, I don’t care for the marketing photos that are out there from either Twilight or New Moon. Everything is too Photoshopped for me.
And I’m definitely Team Edward. Jacob just gets too whiny for me in the end!
HA!
I read the whole series just before the movie debuted and in the last month of pregnancy with my second daughter. I couldn’t put them down and the dreams I had along with them….wow. I found out about the series from my 13 year old niece. Apparently there was a lot of hype about them before the movie was even created in the tween and teen world. I was disappointed when seeing the movie the night before going in for my c-section. I wasn’t in love with the music they chose to create their settings but could see they were appealing to a much younger audience. I just saw it again a couple of weeks ago and well, I must say that I love it now! It grew on me and they did an amazing job capturing the characters. I can’t wait to see New Moon too.
I love how you see the parallel for marketing photography here. I just started up my business this fall. While PBing I decided to start off with a FaceBook fan page months before to generate interest. It is a start and has brought a lot of interest so far. The other methods may be something to consider.
Oh and I am team Edward all the way! I couldn’t agree more, they belong together.
PS I forgot to ad that Stephanie Meyer was a huge inspiration for me. The fact that she wrote those books with 3 young children was a huge motivator to starting up my own business. Her drive to put her dream into written words is so romantic in itself and encouraging to see how far she has come.
I have not read the book nor will I but nonetheless it has been a twilight fever all around, my cousin who visited us from Brazil went crazy at a NY bookstore in seeing all the souvenirs etc,. I was very much impressed when a popular weekly tv program in Brazil requested submissions of common folk to redo a video scene of the two in the woods and they got all sorts of people, pets and creative stuff, but the most impressive is that Kristen and Robert both voted on the top 3 videos and actually thought they were all good and decided to meet all three parties instead of the winner, that is human connection and human connection fast tracks processes and outcomes
Lawrence, You are a TRAITOR! I can’t believe you are now for Team Jacob! Just remember all those things you said about Edward in Miami
Even though I will say that Breaking Dawn made me happy with everything. I was even happy for Jacob!
I love your parallel with Twilight {because you know I am a Twilight Geek too – already have my tickets for the 20th – woohoo}. I think the advertising team was really smart in how they allowed the audience to become hyped by releasing different movie trailers and clips at different times. For example, I had no desire to watch the MTV Movie awards, but I taped the entire show, so I could watch the New Moon Trailer. What a great idea for both MTV and Twilight.
Also, they even went as far as to have an exclusive clip shown before another one of Summit’s movies. They were brilliant and well thought out in every marketing aspect. They executed a plan to build the hype so when the movie comes out it will be a craze.
So when I go to see New Moon on the 20th, my best friend is bringing her newborn baby boy with us. I am going to make him a Team Renesmee shirt!
Hah! What a great analysis of the Twilight Craze! I was not a Twilight groupie because I thought, “Idiotic.” BUT, EVERYONE WAS NUTS ABOUT IT! Got me thinking, “Well… why?” And hearing about Edward and Bella’s romance made me think, “What’s so great about it…” And all these questions pushed me over the edge to read the books after the first movie came out.
Then I was Googling, “ComicCon, Twiglight.” Because I heard somewhere that they were all at ComicCon for the release of Twilight, then again for New Moon.
I caved in because a friend told me, “THE BOOKS ARE SO MUCH BETTER.” Because I was so disapoointed by the movie, I thougth, “It can’t get any worse.” Haha, and not only that ONE friend, but students I work with, Facebook statuses, Access Hollywood–it was/is everywhere!!! Haha–then I became this Twilight Junkie–rshign through each book in a day and a half. LOL and anticipating more!!!
Why?! Because people like to be entertained, and that’s what the story is… entertaining–and pushed in your life–on the TV, on the Newsstands, on Facebook, on the Yahoo spash page–everywhere.
And… Team Edward. Twilight Edward, and Breaking Dawn Edward–not necessarily the Edward in-between, he’s a bit overbearing. But Bella was also an indecisive nutjob. Haha!
What an interesting article! I would have never thought to compare Twilight to my business practices…but now I will! I was the same way thinking….what is this movie that’s so famous?? I finally saw the movie when it came on DVD and read the whole series in four days after that. I think a lot of what makes it such a viral hit is the conflicting love story and the fact that everyone is now “in love” with Robert Pattinson. I’m definitely going to keep this comparison and article in mind! Thanks Lawrence!
P.S. How could you be team jacob AFTER breaking dawn?? Team Edward all the way
Don’t hate! Team Jacob!!!
I love the responses. Seems pretty consistent. I think I’m going to write a follow-up article on Twilight
I am going to give direct correlations to how their marketing techniques can be applied to our photography businesses. That should be fun, right?
Lawrence, you hit it on the head again.
That’s what I would call viral marketing. We all know that teens love Twilight right? Why? Because teens know the best ways of communicating in this new day in age.
We have..
* facebook (myspace, bebo)
* twitter
* sms
* ringtones
It’s amazing how fast information spreads now. What better way to appeal to your audience than blast them with information.
The same way that Disney use to do it right with marketing toys at McDonalds, coloring books, backpacks, etc . when they launched new movies (but they are behind by today’s standard)
thanks for the insight. i was never into twilight, but maybe now i’ll pick up the book haha.
I’m still team Edward, and I loved the twilight movie since I’m a girl and I didn’t read the book . Can’t wait for your follow-up article!
I’m your biggest fan Lawrence.
Spot on, Wilson!
Jenny – you NEED to read the books. So good.
Kenny – you flatter me…
Lawrence if you are interested in coming back up to the NW I can take you on the Twilight movie tour. Most of the movie was shot in Oregon. My friend and I visited most of the sites and you wouldn’t believe the amount of people that were doing the same thing. I met a family that traveled all the way from Australia with their teenage daughter! It was fun to watch her go through the exact areas where Edward stood and relish that Rob Pattison stood in that exact same spot. I thought she was going to faint… on a side note, my Twilight movie tour notes and photos are on my personal blog and it happens to be the most visited part of my blog with NEW visitors. I have young and the old contacting me for tour advice!
On a marketing note – Summit knows their target market, they live and breath it – immerse themselves into that lifestyle. The latest is the Twilight clothing line in Nordstrom Brass Plum department. Life size stand up photos of the main characters that teens are standing next to for photo ops…I watched a gaggle of gals do this and I can only explain their excitement as feverish. How can we create that for our own brand?
Hey Lawrence, long time no see/talk! Just a comment or two… I still refuse to watch the movie because 1. I heard the acting is horrible. and 2. Robert Pattinson IS NOT what I imagined Edward to look like. O_o I did rather enjoy the Twilight series, but I really really liked Stephenie’s other book, The Host. It is difficult to get into at first, but the plot was immensely interesting. Let me know if you read that one.
)
The only thing I know about Twilight is that Joey Lawrence the boy wonder of photography shoots their promo work, and I’m jealous of his lifestyle. I don’t quite see what new concept Twilight reveals about successful marketing… social media and transparency is on every photographers plate.
Paula – WOW that sounds tempting!!!
Dave – very true that many photographers use social media and transparency, but I doubt it’s all photographers. Here’s a simple question to ponder – why are they so successful and we’re not as much.
I’ll reveal that next week…at least one of the many reasons.
Hey Lawrence! You’ve always got some interesting spin to your post. Can’t get enough, I wish I still lived in Cali, I would def. hit you up to go get a Costco Churro and pick your brain LOL!
And about photographers using social media and being transparent, being open to helping other…the east coast needs some of the love. I’m new to the industry, I know takes a lot for a movement like that and its going soooo strong on the west coast, maybe I can help the east. (?)
Can’t wait for that next post bro.
Did Joey Lawrence do the work for New Moon aswell or was it just Twilight? a quick answer would be great as im doing a lecture on him tomorrow lol.
THERE IS A TWILIGHT TOUR IN THE PACNW??? HAHHHAA. Paula I am going to email you when I am ever in the area. HAHAH
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