Marketing of Avatar

Avatar is the highest-grossing movie of all time without the aid of a franchise, an A-list star or a historical event. It was produced by Lightstorm Entertainment, Dune Entertainment and Ingenious Film Partners and Distributed by 20^th Century Fox.  Avatars marketing campaign was mainly above-the-line, partnering with a global business to appeal to the mass audience. Avatar was largely promoted through free publicity and advertising due to there being a word-of-mouth hype and generous reviews. Although there was a large amount of free publicity the marketing budget for the film was expected to be over $200million. Technology such as the Simulcam and Fusion 3D were very important in the marketing of Avatar and making it the highest grossing film however social media was also an important factor as to why the film was so popular.

There was an official Facebook page for Avatar and this had over 770,000 fans, MTV also put together a Facebook-hosted webcast called ‘Avatar live’. MTV News’ interviewed James Cameron, producer Jon Landau, and stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, the questions were submitted by internet fans in the days leading up to the event and the 30-minute interview was one of the most effective Hollywood webcast’s to date. There was over 25k followers on twitter and according to a social media analytics firm Sysomos, Avatar was the most talked about film on twitter in January 2010, some of the tweets included ‘tweet to listen’ which meant that fans had to forward the tweet in order to hear the soundtrack and this was effective in spreading word about the film because it meant that followers of someone who had retweeted to hear the soundtrack would then learn about the film with it coming up on their timeline.

There was also an official website for the film, the website offered 14 side-scrolling square boxes that showcase many of the digital initiatives that make the film stand out, the story was published, there were character biographies which meant that viewers could become familiar with the characters, music and wallpaper downloads and even a ‘create your own Avatar’ feature. These were all effective in marketing the film because they meant that they were appealing to a wide range of ages with the variety of things on offer and it spread knowledge and popularity of the film.

August 21^st 2009 was a very big day for the marketing company, this day was known as Avatar day from fans due to 100 IMAX 3D theatres worldwide showing 16 minutes of footage, Ubisoft debuted a trailer for a videogame based on the film and Mattel unveiled action figures inspired by the film characters, these were all important in the marketing of avatar because again the appealed to a wider range of age groups meaning this film would appeal to a variety of age groups. PBS said that “August 21^st was celebrated as ‘Avatar day’. Today it should be remembered as the dawn to the most comprehensive digital marketing campaign ever developed to support a film”

Overall, marketing for Avatar was very important, because of the different ways 20^th Century Fox marketed the film it meant that it appealed to many different age groups and this could be why it was the highest grossing film for all ages, the film was a 12A film meaning that it was available for almost all ages and the use of action figures and videogames meant that it appealed to younger viewers and the marketing via social media meant that other age groups saw the marketing and the nature of the film made it very popular.