By Jill Xiaojun Ni
The popularity of Avatar has been a major topic of discussion, both online and off, for the past six weeks. With long lines at the box office and endless tweets and comments on social networking sites, James Cameron’s epic story about justice, war and love has taken over worldwide media.
This past weekend, Avatar held on to the top U.S. box office spot for the sixth week in a row. This week, it surpassed Titanic in worldwide ticket sales.
What’s amazing is how much Fox invested in marketing the film. Avatar has become more than a movie blockbuster, it has become an achievement in entertainment marketing efforts.
Avatar cost Fox $350 million. Global marketing accounted for 30% of the budget, and the studio promoted the movie through synergistic approaches in new and traditional media.
Consumers got the first glimpse of Avatar in August through a16-minute IMAX trailer, which was later broadcast on television networks. The film generated global buzz through an official multi-lingual Web site that allowed participants to navigate through features and clips of the movie.
Avatar partnered with Coke Zero and McDonald’s to interact with consumers. Coke Zero launched the special “AVTR” package, which allowed consumers to simulate flying the helicopter that appeared in the movie by placing coke cans in front of their webcams with new technology called augmented reality.
McDonald’s similarly offered an Avatar themed “thrill card” with Big Mac purchases. With the card, consumers could log onto the McDonald’s vision website as an Avatar and explore Pandora with games. These innovative marketing strategies enhanced the consumer experience by seamlessly integrating into the movie’s online promotion campaign.
Did you participate with Avatar online? Did you like the film?
Jill Xiaojun Ni is a blogger at Vitamin IMC and a student in the Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University’s Medill School. She loves watching actors do accents in movies. She can be reached at
