Today HarperCollins Children’s Books announces the launch of its “Read It Before You See It” global digital campaign for C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. The massive web presence focuses attention on the seven books in the series as a lead in to the Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media release of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ film on May 16, 2008.
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HarperCollins and online agency Special Ops Media (http://www.specialopsmedia.com) are taking Narnia to where the readers live-online, working together to create a viral campaign that takes a 50-year-old classic brand to Web 2.0.
Extensive promotions on Facebook and MySpace, a custom Prince Caspian widget and “Enter to Win” consumer contests are among the Web 2.0 initiatives that will reach new and existing fans of Narnia in surprising interactive ways, presenting an enhanced look at the beloved world that is Narnia.
“Our comprehensive, highly-targeted “Read It Before You See It” online campaign allows us to leverage all our Narnia assets to create interactive, viral platforms. These will expand our audience by further engaging it and increasing its user-experience with the franchise, to grow readership in advance of the film,” said Diane Naughton, Vice President of Marketing, HarperCollins Children’s Books.
The Narnia “Read It Before You See It” campaign includes:
— Extensive promotion on social community sites Facebook and MySpace; including profiles for Prince Caspian and Narnia.
— A custom widget for MySpace with streaming daily content: movie info, trivia quiz and a countdown clock.
— A special application for Facebook-the Narnia Trivia Challenge- utilizing new technology. Fans can “join the battle” with Prince Caspian as one of their favorite Narnians, answer up to 100 questions, unlock unique content, and challenge a friend to beat their score.
— “Read It Before You See It” dedicated microsite, http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/narnia features a sweepstakes, games, information about the books, author, illustrator and much more.
— “Read It Before You See It” “Enter to Win” consumer contest (March 11th-April 11th)
— Grand Prize: 2 tickets to the NYC premier of Prince Caspian the movie.
— 1st Prize: A Narnia treasure chest filled with Narnia books, games, toys, plush, costumes.
— 2nd Prize: A complete library of Prince Caspian movie tie-in books.
— 3rd Prize: A Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Wii video game.
— Online advertising on nick.com and nickjr.com (1,080,000 impressions).
— NeoPets.com interactive game: “Which character are you?” for kids on NeoPets.com with advertising and links to the microsite, trailer and special features.
— Multiple partnerships with major online portals beginning with Yahoo! Kids (4 million unique visitors each month) to feature e-cards from the Pevensie children, and KOL, the kids division of America Online, (1.2 unique visitors each month) which will offer a read-a-long of a chapter a week with prizing.
In 2005, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ film was a huge success, earning more than $750 million worldwide, second only to ‘Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith’ as the top box office that year. Disney’s own research showed that the Narnia books were clearly a major driver of ticket sales-with the release of the movie HarperCollins sold more than 17 million units in the U.S. alone.
Clive Staples Lewis, known as Jack to his friends, was born in 1898. Lewis and his good friend J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, were part of the Inklings, an informal writers’ club that met at a local pub to discuss story ideas. Lewis’s fascination with fairy tales, myths, and ancient legends, coupled with inspiration drawn from his childhood, led him to write The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of the best-loved books of all time. Six further books followed to become the immensely popular The Chronicles of Narnia. The final title in the series, The Last Battle, was awarded the Carnegie Medal, one of the highest marks of excellence in children’s literature.
HarperCollins Children’s Books is one of the leading publishers of children’s books. Respected worldwide for its tradition of publishing quality, award-winning books for young readers, HarperCollins is home to many timeless treasures-Charlotte’s Web, The Chronicles of Narnia, Goodnight Moon, Where the Sidewalk Ends and Where the Wild Things Are; and popular new classics-A Series of Unfortunate Events, Warriors and Fancy Nancy. HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers, one of the leading English language publishers in the world and a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NCP, NCPDP). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australasia. You can visit HarperCollins Children’s Books at http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com and HarperCollins Publishers at http://www.harpercollins.com.
