The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey had a massive marketing campaign beginning in 2011 that engaged fans throughout production. It utilized traditional techniques like posters, trailers and magazine coverage as well as new methods like online videos and social media. The film was also promoted through tie-ins with video games, apps and merchandise. It had a huge opening weekend worldwide and went on to become one of the highest grossing films ever.

1. The Hobbit:
An Unexpected Journey
Marketing a Blockbuster

2. The Hobbit – Facts & Figures
• Distributor – Warner Brothers
• Producer – New Line Cinema
• Director – Peter Jackson Writer: Guillermo Del Torro)
• Stars – Ian McKellan, Martin Freeman
• Genre – Fantasy / Action
• USP – Adaptation, Franchise Prequel, New Tech (48
FPS, Dolby Atmos, Imax 3D)
• Budget – $180 Million ($540 for all 3 films)
• Box Office - $825 Million (after 3 weeks)
• Opening Weekend - worldwide total of $223M
• US Opening figure $84 Million
• (US Highest opener $204 Million – The Avengers)

3. Hobbit – Star Cast
• Sir Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey,
Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Ian Holm as Old
Bilbo, Christopher Lee as Saruman, Hugo
Weaving as Elrond, Elijah Wood as Frodo, and
Andy Serkis as Gollum.
• Martin Freeman plays the central role of Bilbo
Baggins, with Richard Armitage as Thorin
Oakenshield.

4. Promoting The Hobbit
• Official Website
• http://www.thehob
bit.com/
• Main Trailer: (2.30
theatrical trailer)
• http://www.thehob
bit.com/#content=vi
deo&section=mome
nt&media=trailer_1
• A Range of Posters

5. Hobbit – Campaign Overview
• The marketing campaign began back in 2011 on Facebook with a
series of video journals from Jackson’s POV, engaging fans
throughout the year by taking them into the production activity
leading up to the announcement trailer at the beginning of 2012.
• Jackson also marked milestones like Hobbit Day and the novel’s
75th anniversary. Publicity included the first ever film-themed
Rolling Stone magazine standalone issue and a week of late night
US television programming on The Colbert Report.
• The Hobbit also received major treatment from Autumn and
Holiday previews. An online media blitz kicked off in early
November with an advanced ticketing campaign across YouTube,
Facebook and Twitter to drive early ticket sales.
• Warner Bros live-streamed the world premiere from Wellington,
New Zealand, to a record-setting audience of a million views.

6. The Hobbit & Hyper-real
• A big buzz has been created around The Hobbit due to the
fact it is the first film to push the hyper-real look & feel.
• Three features combined to create the hyper-real effect:
• the gradual maturing of 3D into a technology that is less
intrusive than it once was;
• Peter Jackson’s controversial decision to use the hyper-
realistic 48 frames per second rate (or high frame rate
• and the unique chance to watch the film with a sound
system called Dolby Atmos, (which the sound business
claims is the future of cinema, because it offers more
realistic presentation of effects and music than ever
before).

7. IMDB MovieMeter
(Measures Film Popularity over time)
In the chart you can clearly see how from 2011 The Hobbit is in the Top 100
and at the end of 2012 (film release date) it is at number 1.

8. The Hobbit – online marketing
• The official Facebook page of the movie
started on the 15th of February of 2011
and the official blog was revamped
around that time.
• Only later a YouTube channel, a Twitter
profile and the official website of the
movie would have been created.
• The Hobbit Production Diaries and
Video series, started first on the blog
then.

9. Hobbit Production Diaries
• The Diaries manage the expectations of the fans,
following the basic rule of suspense: inform without
really showing anything about the story itself.
• Yes, we see the actors during the shootings, the FX
specialists preparing the CGIs effects and so on, but no
real sequences of the motion picture or, better, bits of
them that we will remember when watching the
movie.
• The videos first published by Warner Bros have been
viewed more than 10 million times thanks to their
sharing and syndication in other YouTube profiles.

10. The Hobbit – online marketing
• The Director’s personal Peter Jackson YouTube
account the one that most success had in
promoting the two series: with over 4 million
direct views.

11. Hobbit Fans
• Comic-Con (even Danny Sullivan tweeted about it), an
already classic on-off marketing event;
• On Site engagement asking the fans to vote the best
possible ending for the new trailer;
• Launch of the second trailer (2.6 million views and
gazillions shares and republishing);
• Reinforcing a collaboration with the biggest Tolkien’s fan
based site: www.theonering.net, with initiatives like this
one;
• Creation of the Twitter profile and start of the real
interaction of Social Media;
• Fans engagement on Facebook (i.e.: the celebration of
the 75th Anniversary of The Hobbit publication);

12. Hobbit Fans
• Merchandising (i.e.: maps; figures; the Lego “The
Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” sets or video
games as “The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age”);
• Wallpaper generator, plus many other fans
goodies, such as Bombur Recipe Book; Dwarf
Combat training game; Facebook’s ‘The Hobbit:
Kingdoms of Middle Earth’ game app.
• Fans events as the “Hobbit Day Fan Photos”;
• Viral videos, as the “An Unexpected Briefing”
with Air New Zealand;
• Apps for iPhone and iPad, etc. etc.
• And a massive word of mouth fan endorsement!

14. Frozen
Summary:
Fearless optimist Anna teams up with
Kristoff in an epic journey, encountering
Everest-like conditions, and a hilarious
snowman named Olaf in a race to find
Anna's sister Elsa, whose icy powers
have trapped the kingdom in eternal
winter.
Director- Chris Buck, Jenifer Lee
Writers- Jenifer Lee, Hans Christian
Anderson, Chris Buck, Shane Morris,
Dean Wellins
Stars- Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Idina
Menzel

15. The directors
Chris Buck is an American film director known for co- directing Tarzan,
Surfs Up, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas and Frozen. He also worked as
supervising animator on Home on the Range.
He has awards for:
Academy Award for best animated feature film
BAFTA award for best animated film
Jenifer Lee is an American motion picture writer and director. She co-
wrote the screen play for Wreck it Ralph and writing and co- directing
Frozen with Chris Buck.
She is the first female director of a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature
film, and the first writer at any major animation studio to become a
director

16. Exhibition
On January 31st, 2014, a sing along version of the movie was in
select theatres for a limited time.
The film premiered at the El Captian Theatre on November
19th, 21 and went into general release on November 27th.
Frozen was released theatrically in the United States on
November 27th, 2013 and it was accompanied by the new
Mickey Mouse animated short film, Get a horse!
Frozen was promoted heavily at several Disney theme parks
including Disneyland’s Fantasyland, Disney California
Adventures World of Colour, Epcots Norway pavilion, and
Disney's Dreams show.
Several film critics considered it to be the best Disney
animated musical since the studios renaissance era.

17. Synergy
Frozen was released for digital download on February 25th 2014 on ITunes and
Amazon. It will also be released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on March 18th 2014. The bonus features for the Blu-
ray will include the making of the film, an inside look at how Disney tried to
adapt the original fairy tale into an animated feature, four deleted scenes, the
films teaser trailer, and music videos from songs in the film.
A video game was released on November 19th 201 for Nintendo DS and
Nintendo 3ds.
There is a frozen toy box pack for the toy-based video game Disney Infinity on
November 26th 2013 and both figures were released separately on March
11th 2014.
Disney mobile released a match-three game titled Frozen for IOS, Android and
Windows phone platforms. Also six mini games of frozen can be played on
Disney's website.
There is a lot of Frozen merchandise available in the Disney store and on
online websites such as Amazon.

18. Success
• Is the most successful animation film of all
time!
• Was only put into second place at its opening
weekend by The Hunger Games.

19. How was it marketed
• A “buzz” was created beforehand:
• Advertising using the Disney brand- hits a
specific target audience
• Press releases
• Trailers shown
• You Tube clips of the films were released

20. What people are saying
• “Part of the credit goes to Disney’s strategy. In their initial
marketing campaign, they made an effort to point out the
story’s uniqueness. “Disney worked very hard to make it
appeal to everybody,” Bizer says, from the trailers to the
posters to the title of the film itself. They released the movie
in November—the time that fits into Litman’s optimal release
timing. And their lawyers allowed the music to spread
naturally through social media. “The fact that Disney didn’t
crack down on the millions of YouTube tributes, the fact that
it’s been played everywhere, feeds back into the
• phenomenon,” Kaufman says.”
• http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-
konnikova/how-frozen-took-over-the-world

21. No all were happy!
• http://variety.com/2013/film/columns/why-
disneys-marketing-campaign-doesnt-do-
frozen-justice-1200908996/

22. Princess Culture – The
Merchandise
• The article in Nytimes credits the success of
Frozen to Disney’s continued interest in the
“princess culture”. This started in 2000 after
an executive went to see Disney on ice they
realised they could push the princess culture
further. Creating a brand and a secure target
audience.
This created the source for all the merchandise
which in turn raised the profile of the film

23. • http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/magazi
ne/how-disney-turned-frozen-into-a-cash-
cow.html?_r=0

24. Research Task – Word Document
• You now need to explore how Shifty and The
Fifth Estate were marketed. You need to make
notes based on the following:
– Facts and Figures/ Star Cast
– Traditional Marketing techniques (posters, trailers,
magazine articles, reviews)
– New Marketing techniques (YouTube, twitter,
audience participation, pull marketing, apps, ties
in etc)
– Use of stars
– How effective do you think the campaign was.