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It has been almost three years since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two came out and almost seven years since the last Harry Potter book was published, yet Warner Brother’s is still winning at marketing. They have yet to give up on Harry Potter as quickly as most companies give up on their mega-films, which is proving to be an excellent strategy for them. Scholastic’s marketing team is also not giving up on Harry Potter bringing in customers and money. Both of these companies know just how to engage everyone while also providing people with wonderful items to buy. People say Harry Potter is a cash cow for these two companies and they’re right! Let’s take a quick look at how these companies are still making millions by using excellent content.
Pottermore: Which House Are You?
This is an excellent example of utilizing fun content while convincing people to buy your brand. J. K. Rowling and Scholastic teamed up to offer fans an experience with the world of Harry Potter by immersing them in Hogwarts and the wizarding world. They started with beta users to test out the site and, in fact, made a big hoopla about becoming a beta user. You were able to take a trip into the virtual world of Diagon Alley to purchase your books, your wand, your animal (cat, frog, or owl), your robes, and anything else Hogwarts required of you. While doing so, you were able to find random little things along the way such as chocolate frog cards or Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.
The wand purchasing required you to take a test written up by the master herself, J. K. Rowling, ensuring you got the correct wand. “The wand chooses the wizard, Harry.” You can then go through Harry Potter’s first chapters in the Sorcerer’s (or Philosopher’s) Stone and then proceed to be sorted into your house. This was the moment every Harry Potter fan was waiting for and the moment new fans are excited about. This quiz was, yet again, written by Rowling, ensuring you couldn’t guess your way into your favorite house and made sure you were sorted correctly. This caused much rejoicing and much sorrow, depending on house loyalties.
The lesson you can learn from this is that you should be creating content that is fun and engaging for your customers. The more engaging you make your content, the more likely your client base will grow, bringing in more revenue and readers. In addition, you should be involved with your content just like Rowling. This will make sure adequate knowledge is shared about your product and people will enjoy that you took the time to be involved.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
To keep audiences craving Harry Potter goods, Warner Brother’s studio created an excellent Harry Potter theme park for all the old and new fans. At first, the park was limited in what it offered, yet it was still, dare we say, a magical experience for everyone. People got to go through Hogwarts, purchase wands, and drink Butterbeer, and, of course, purchase many other Harry Potter items. The park is a huge success and because of this, the park will be expanding to allow people a ride on the Hogwarts Express, head to Gringotts, and many other fanciful locations we all want to experience.
How can copywriters take inspiration from this? Copywriters can use this as inspiration to keep their product out there in different ways. You don’t have to go to the extreme of the Wizarding World, but come up with some neat ideas to let people use your product in various ways. This could also be a great time to do some storytelling with your product. Basically, anything that engages your audience will keep your product out there longer and will bring in more buyers and customers. You can also use this as a chance to recycle and repurpose old content. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.
Accio New and Gorgeous Covers!
Older Harry Potter fans all enjoy the older covers and remember seeing them revealed upon release. It was an exciting time seeing the latest artwork but now there is a new audience growing up and that audience needs new covers. Or so says Scholastic. The new covers are just as gorgeous and still capture the magic of Harry Potter but connects with a newer audience. These new covers aren’t only for the newbies though, because many old-time Harry Potter fans are finding themselves purchasing the new books just for the covers. In fact, the spines of the new books make the castle of Hogwarts and who wouldn’t want that on their bookshelf? What a great marketing ploy, Scholastic!
Gain Marketing Inspiration from the Boy Who Lived
Sure, your product will probably never reach the Harry Potter level but Scholastic and Warner Brother’s Studio can give you great inspiration. Follow a few of their steps by engaging with your clients, using your product in different ways, and spice things up with new content. Try implementing these three elements and watch your content and product soar! You’ll graduate from the realm of Muggles to the wonderfully magical Wizarding world in no time.
