I may have missed the excitement behind Harry Potter, but I guess you could say I’m making up for it with the all too popular supernatural saga Twilight. To be honest, my initial thought of the movie was going to be a disaster, but I gave it a shot. In less than two weeks from seeing the film, I’ve crawled up each night staying up way past my bed time to read Stephenie Meyer’s “forbidden” love story. Hooked probably doesn’t accurately describe it, but hey we’ve all got a guilty pleasure, right?
Naturally, I began researching the author and her motivation behind the series, curious to know more about the characters and anything I may have overlooked during my late night literature sessions. I should probably state that the last time I became this enthralled with a novel was with Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves – I highly recommend it by the way.
Through my hunt, I realized that although Ms. Meyer may not be directly in charge of the marketing efforts behind the movie and novels, whoever is, is certainly taking advantage of every young girl (whether they’re physically a teenager or just one at heart). Countless Twilight memorabilia continues to fly off the shelves; including apparel items at Hot Topic and yes, even Twilight bandages, should one just so happen to accidentally get a paper cut while opening presents – a la Bella. It’s still too early to say if the fandom behind Twilight will be as grand as Harry Potter; however, I think over time the dedicated “Twilighters” may just give the Harry Potter fans a run for their money.
Being a marketer, it always fascinates me to see such a huge following, whether it’s in regards to a product or brand. So, I started to think of reasons as to why I think the story and movie have done so well and will probably continue to do so.
Transparency of Meyer and Her Work
Since college I haven’t really read too many fiction based novels because I was too busy learning about topics like branding and making the most out of social media. With that being said, I may be incorrect about the following, but to me Stephenie Meyer is one of the most transparent authors I have come across (fiction authors at least). I was actually surprised to find a plethora of background information about the story directly off her own web site. Everything from FAQs, playlists that inspired the novels, to photos that correspond with objects in the books (cars, dresses, etc) was all there – waiting to satisfy her readers’ curiosity. She even posted her own personal pictures from the filming of the movie to the film’s premiere night.
Now, I could be old school but I remember when fan sites were pretty much the only place to get more information on the topic of interest. Yet, Stephenie has taken advantage of the ability to communicate directly with her fans as if they were her closest friends, which I think has greatly impacted the interest from her readers.
Cross Promotion
Music is a huge topic for most individuals, but Meyer has specifically thanked bands like Muse and Linkin Park for helping inspire her writing. It’s almost a form of cross promotion and most definitely free PR for her favorite bands, which (not) surprisingly appear on the movie’s soundtrack and even in her novels acknowledgements sections.
Universal Message
There are few topics marketers are able to convey to multiple markets successfully, but the most common would probably be love, or maybe being forever seventeen. Considering Meyer’s supernatural saga is about both, it was almost as if her dream (which triggered the Twilight craze) was more like a dream of success. Couple that with the studios throwing in a cast with looks that could possibly kill, and the registers have been cha-ching-ing ever since.
Hate it, love it or don’t care either way, Twilight is probably going to be one of those stories you still hear about decades from now. Too soon to call it a classic? Maybe. What will be interesting to see, is if Meyer’s “grown-up” novel The Host can follow with comparable success to the Twilight series.
Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got Breaking Dawn on my nightstand ready to cause another sleep deprived night.