I had mentioned JK Rowling’s Pottermore site in a past blog post titled “The Hunger Games from a Social Standpoint” for its failure to launch on time back in October 2011. Well, Potter fans, fear no more: JK Rowling’s free site has officially launched for all fans of the series! It includes additional writing and insight from the author that will add to the magical experience of the books, in addition to digital games, magical missions, etc. Users actually get assigned a Hogwarts house and a wand, making this digital initiative all the more interactive and personal.
I qualify as magical: Score!! via http://www.pottermore.com
I was granted access to Pottermore a few minutes ago, and at first glance I will say the graphics look very nice, and it’s great to see the inside of this magical world through JK Rowling’s eyes, rather than solely the directors and producers of the Potter movies. You will definitely need a good internet connection to load the site. Just a little thing– I would have liked the cursor button to morph into something more on clickable things, as it isn’t exactly obvious which items throughout the story are supposed to be clicked and which aren’t. One of the kinks that I noticed within the Beta version a few months ago is that I often found myself “trapped” within the site, unable to get out of certain screens without utilizing my browser’s “Back” button– in other words, a web-designer’s nightmare. Pottermore seems to have figured that kink out now. Also, this is definitely more of an educational tool than it is a game, which I guess makes sense as the Harry Potter sensation has included countless video games and even tablet apps (Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4, anyone?).
One user's interpretative drawing of Dumbledore and his Put-Outer. via http://www.pottermore.com
Rowling has sprinkled little tips and thoughts throughout each chapter. After every “Tip,” users may leave comments and even drawings, allowing a great opportunity for both conversation and personal interpretation. The theme of “Magic” is, in its essence, a very subjective experience, and I think it’s great that readers will have a more moderated place to share these perspectives. You can also use the comment boards for questions you may have about elements in the chapter. When I was younger, I remember searching blog forums on MuggleNet for any posts that addressed my questions. Now kids can pose hypotheticals right there on the Pottermore, and bounce their ideas off one another. You can even “Like” the comments people make, though it does not link up to your Facebook page: it is a strictly ‘Pottermore-only-Like’. From what I can gather, Sony has definitely done a good job in keeping Pottermore separate from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter– I can’t even seem to find the respective social site icons once you enter the chapters. I think this is important as the target audience for this site is younger kids. As such, you may also “Report” any inappropriate comments, assuring that the site remains PG. All these social elements make Pottermore essentially a social media community for a very niche group of people.
It will be interesting to see what kind of advertising dollars will go into the site, as I noticed there are no banner ads as of now. Although, I’m not sure that Pottermore will need ad dollars to keep up, as it is making money in a different way: About two weeks ago, Pottermore officially launched its E-Book store where fans could purchase digital versions of the entire Harry Potter Series, available only for Kindle and Nook e-readers. The bookstore, which topped sales of £1 million in just three days, is the only place readers can buy the digital versions of the series, although Amazon and Barnes and Noble have been able to market it on their respective tablet bookstore apps. (I guess Apple’s iBook store missed the boat on this one as it did “The Hunger Games” trilogy, which is still not available on the iBook app.) Regardless, I’d be willing to bet that the Harry Potter books are among the fastest-selling E-Books in history by the end of this year.
As an adamant reader of the books and fan of the movies, I’m very excited to see the Potter magic continue even after all seven books and eight movies have been released. Just imagine what it means for the younger part of the digital revolution who will get to grow up alongside the books, movies, and now this interactive web experience.
By now, you’ve probably all heard about Facebook’s $1 billion purchase of the popular photo sharing app Instagram. The mobile app, at only 18 months old, has over 30 million registered users and has, since the Facebook purchase, been ranked the Top Free App in the iTunes App Store. The app also garnered 5 million downloads on Android devices when it debuted less than one month ago. Recently, investors valued the company’s worth at $500 million… so, the question going through everyone’s mind naturally was what made Zuckerberg so inclined to throw in an extra $500 million?
Source: WSJ
Last semester in my New Media Technologies class, my professor predicted that Facebook’s newest venture would be to take over the photo sharing market. He showed us a prototype of the then-only-speculated Timeline and cover photos, and some snapshots of what photo viewing would look like with full screen options. One can only assume, therefore, that Zuckerberg’s acquisition of the company was done in hopes of creating a monopoly on the mobile-app/photo-upload market. Facebook wants Facebook to be the first app you click on when you pull out that infinitely-valuable smartphone in your pocket. Instagram was impeding on that space and thus was going to become a very dangerous competition to the social network. From a Mashable article:
The photo-sharing app is essentially everything Facebook wants to be on your mobile phone. Facebook wants people using its mobile app to share photos of what they’re doing with friends and to share their location -– something Instagram users have no problem doing.
With Facebook’s pending IPO, there was too much risk in not purchasing an app that was not only formed under the premise of creating content, but then sharing it. An article written on Mashable earlier this week noted that content creation has been on the horizon for some time now (case in point: Pinterest), and prior to the Instagram acquisition, Facebook had been pretty much all about sharing content, not creating it (unless you count status updates).
There’s been a lot of speculation that Facebook will end up ruining the Instagram experience for users who have grown so attached to the app’s independent, hipster-esque feel: Twitter overflowed with the complaints of users crying that they’d be deleting the app. But several sources claim that this could be the best thing for Instagram and and its 13 employees (who are now worth $77 million each). Look what Google did for YouTube back in 2006, right before the convergence of TV and internet. Facebook has acquired not only the mobile platform, but a team of brilliant individuals capable of building this kind of app. I think it will be interesting to see what this merger means for both companies, and how it will change the user experience.
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard about this little thing called “The Hunger Games”– you know, the book-turned-movie that has literally gripped the nation for the last month or so. I am a HUGE fan of the books (I read all three in less than a week) and was so obsessed with the movie that I have seen it three times since it came out. (I justify that last part by telling people I take pride in personally participating in the record-breaking box office sales. Makes me feel like I’m achieving some sort of world record or something.)
Anyway, besides it being an amazingly addicting book series with a first-class female protagonist and an adventure filled/slightly morbid plot line, The Hunger Games has also done a great job promoting and branding itself leading up to the movie release date, especially from a digital and social standpoint. The Hunger Games Facebook Fan page, with close to 3.6 million “Likes,” has an average engagement rate of .90%, the highest engagement rate at 2.10%. Compare that with the Twilight fan page, which has .20% and .36% average and highest engagement rates, respectively. What makes The Hunger Games a more successful social expenditure is the fact that it has invited its fans into the world of Panem– when you register on the website, you become a citizen are even assigned a career and a specific in which you live! There are even separate Facebook pages for each respective district, which you are urged to visit after you are assigned your home. From an article I found on Ignite Social Media:
“Once you have completed this process, you are prompted to join your district on Facebook. Each District has its own Facebook page complete with a district mayor, recruiter and journalist. These individuals are fans and genuine enthusiasts of The Hunger Games who participated in elections, held earlier this year on the Facebook Wall and were chosen by ‘The Capitol’ to be administrators. The mayors act as leaders for the Districts, and are responsible for celebrating its citizens and relaying communication from the Capitol on Facebook. The recruiters help spread the word through the Districts primarily on Twitter and the journalists (who are established bloggers) receive ‘tips’ from citizens and periodically write about Hunger Games news.”
Talk about hitting all your bases– you’re capturing audiences through Facebook, Twitter and blogs, and spreading the message through far more channels and to exponentially more people.
Through all these positives, however, comes one negative. Gaming company Funtactix was set to release a game called The Hunger Games Adventure on March 23, as one further promotion for the movie release. (Writers over at Mashable thought it kind of weird that they would choose to release it on the day of the movie release, rather than say a week or two before hand to create even more hype. I kind of agree with that too… makes me wonder…)However, March 23 came and went, and no sign of the game, and to this day, the game has yet to go up. Developers claim that select users can be invited in to experience a Beta version, but Mashable reports that those users also haven’t gotten any word of it. To me, this sounds a lot like the failed attempt at JK Rowling’s website, Pottermore, which was set to launch in October but is still, to my knowledge, in Beta mode. In any case, I hope they can resolve the issue soon, because I’m gonna be all over that.
So kudos to the marketing team at The Hunger Games for launching such a great digital campaign, and involving its fans in such an original and highly-interactive way. I hope this can be a lesson to future “big-name” movie releases.
I’ve always been the person people go to for tech advice. For everything, from Apple to HDMI cables, I’m your girl. In the last two days I’ve received texts from three separate people, one asking when I wager the new iPhone will come out, the other asking when the best time to purchase a new MacBookPro would be, and the last asking me which content management system would be best to start her personal website.
The internet is also my best friend– I seriously cannot go more than 20 minutes without googling something. My mom makes fun of me because she still can’t quite get the name of her laptop correct, let alone know how to navigate the internet! (“Is it a MacAirBook? Or an AirMacBook? Or just an AirBook!??”)
And lastly, as any other Gen-Yer graduating with a major in PR or advertising will tell you right now, I love social media. Maybe it’s because I grew up alongside it, or maybe just because I am, by nature, an extremely social person. But something about the connectedness got me hooked on Twitter and Facebook long before they were cool. (Or at least I like to tell myself that, haha!)
So I started this blog to merge all of my passions– technology, the internet, social media– and to share examples in which they have all lent themselves to the futures of advertising and PR. I’ll comment on stories, industry news, or just share things I happened to learn about that day– whatever’s relevant and stands out!
Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy!
SocialBitsandBytes 