The Success of Twilight

The Success of Twilight

The marketing of films has come a long way from the day when the primary form of marketing was posters. Through the years, movies trailers, print and TV ads, licensed products and websites have all become standard marketing tools. The arrival of wireless technology changed the face of film marketing. The flexibility and ubiquity of wireless technology allow the advertisers to reach their audience at any time and anywhere. Wireless connections are direct and personal, literally allowing the consumers of media to access products anywhere from their cell phones, laptops, computers, and iPods. This emergence of old media and new media is known as convergence culture. Even though the popularity of a film depends on how it is promoted, the real driving force or the success behind any movie is its ability through creativeness and inventiveness to tell a good story and keep viewers interested. This paper will examine Twilight, a book turned into a movie. This paper will focus on the marketing of Twilight though the web and the elements or components that attracted the attention of millions of fans around the world. Finally, it will look at how the film leaves its audience wanting more, and how this leads them into using the web to create things that promote the movie and keep them busy until the next book and film in the Twilight series comes out.

Twilight, the first book of the Twilight series, is a vampire romance novel written by Stephanie Meyer. It was published in 2005, and was released as a movie in 2008. For the movie, the book was rewritten as a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, and was directed by Catherine Hardwicke. The Twilight movie is " an action-packed, modern day love story between a teenage girl and vampire" (Eclipsethemovie.com, movie website). Bella, the female protagonist of the movie, and Edward Cullen, a handsome vampire and the main male character of the movie, fall in love. Due to the fact that Bella is a human, Edward has to fight other vampires to protect Bella from being killed.

According to Nancy Kirkpatrick, the women responsible for the marketing of Twilight, despite the success of the Twilight novel, entertainment presses weren't interested in covering the movie for promotion. As a result, Kirkpatrick encouraged the author of the book, Stephanie Meyer, to use her MySpace page and her webpage as a blog site. Here, she answers questions about her book and also posts pictures and updates from the movie set. By using her MySpace page and her webpage, Meyer was able to increase the popularity of Twilight while increasing book sales. ("Making release of 'Breaking Dawn' one for the books." Page 2).

Kirkpatrick turned to moms to expand the mom base "by offering it up as a portal to talk to their daughter." ("'Twilight' bloodsuckers seduce tweens, moms." Page 1). She accomplished this by launching the TwilightMoms blog. Kirkpatrick used this blog to note that the movie is free from sex scenes, which gained the attention of mothers. Additionally she used the blog as a site to offer rewards to the most popular bloggers. Just like MySpace, this blog increased the number of fans for the movie and increased international book sales. This led to the translation of Twilight into 20 different languages. ("Making release of 'Breaking Dawn' one for the books." Page 1).

After gaining the attention of millions of fans on social networking sites and blogs, Kirkpatrick used this opportunity to sell tickets for the movie. Fist, she posted a teaser trailer of the movie on the web to pique curiosity and build buzz for the movie on the Internet. With many fans eager to see the movie, she used blogs and social networks to announce the locations for early ticket sales, books, T-shirts and other Twilight related materials. By November 21, as the movie hit screens, millions of fans around the globe were well ready to watch the film. Additionally, the franchise with Summit, the company in charge of Twilight, and other companies expanded commercial activities, providing a broadcasting service and acting as agent for Twilight product. ("'Twilight' bloodsuckers seduce tweens, moms." Page 1)

The filmmaker frames Bella as an ordinary girl next door, involved in a forbidden and dangerous romance with Edward. While she knows her father disapproves and she is in danger of becoming a vampire, she continues the relationship. This rebellious spirit appeals to teenagers and tweens, who often find themselves in similar situations. Most teens, especially young women, dream of a love as intense as Bella and Edward's. This desire draws them to not only the film, but to web sites and merchandise