Sponsors and Merchandise

Avatar's two U.K. sponsors have helped market the film to its audience and the merchandise will continue the Avatar franchise beyond the film

The U.K. Sponsor's

• LG Chocolate BL40 and BL20 - As 3G phones, this sponsor will help target the young, modern, tech-savy audience
• Cokezero - This product is from a massive worldwide company, showing the glossy, high budget appeal of Avatar as well as drawing in wide audiences. Cokezero is especially targeted at men and will therefore reach Avatar's majority male audience

In the USA Avatar toys are being given away in McDonald's Happy Meals. McDonald's is the largest chain of hamburger fast-food restaurants in the world. This also targets the film's family audience.

LG Chocolate

LG Electronics launched a multi-platform marketing campaign with Avatar. This included:

• A television spot featuring the trailer projected from the LG eXpo
• An interactive joint-sponsored Facebook page in association with Fox and MTV
• A movie-themed microsite with exclusive content and video demonstrations of LG eXpo features.

The two websites create interactivity including features such as:

• Create your own Avatar
• Upload the trailer to your phone
• Get Avatar wallpapers, screensavers and ringtones for your phone

LG also have a joint advert with Avatar



Cokezero

Cokezero and Avatar have worked together placing adverts for each other on their websites.
This is particularly prominant on the avtr site, which includes many Cokezero links.

Also, on Cokezero's facebook page their is an Avatar application

"Coca-Cola Zero takes you behind the scenes with exclusive footage, images and an inside look at life on Pandora and the AVTR program"

Cokezero also has a joint advert with Avatar



Merchandise

Mattel Toys announced that they will be making Avatar action figures. Each one will have an individual 3D web tag (or i-TAG) which can be scanned by a webcam to reveal unique on screen content. Mattel Toys is the largest toy company in the world based on revenue, having produced toys such as Barbie and Hot Wheels

Also, three books have been published:

• "Avatar, A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora" - A fictional field guide to Pandora
  
• "James Cameron's Avatar: The Reusable Scrapbook"- A children's book
  
• "The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure" - A book all about the production art work for the film
  

Finally, "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game", produced by Ubisoft Montreal for most video game platforms, including:

• PS3
• PSP
• Xbox 360
• Nintendo Wii
• Nintendo DS
• iPhone
• Microsoft Windows
  

Trailer Analysis

One of the main methods by which the film has been marketed to reach the U.K. target audience is via the trailers, shown on Channel 4, E4, Film4 and in cinemas

Teaser Trailer

Key Points:

• Quick, fast paced clips
• No dialogue
• "From the director of Titanic"
• Release date
• Title
  

Full Length Trailer

Key Points:

• Dialogue from film gives a sense of characters and lays out the narrative
• Release date
• Distributer
• Director
• Director's past films
• Title
  

Differences:

• Full length trailer uses dialogue to explain the narrative and characters
• Full length trailer places more emphasis on Cameron and his past successes
  

Avatar Website Comparison

Official Avatar Site (http://www.avatar-movie.co.uk/)

• See the trailer before entering the main site
• Links to share/follow the film creating audience interactivity (facebook, myspace, youtube, flickr, twitter)
• Links to buying merchandise, maximising awareness and profits
• Avatar theme music plays to immerse viewer in the site and the whole narrative world
• Flash based site fits with the technological side of the film (e.g. special effects)
• 20th Century Fox logo used to promote the distrbuting company through the Avatar brand
• Link to the 'avtr' narrative world site
• Links to downloads (desktop backgrounds) create more interactivity and promotion through the release dates being displayed

Avtr Site (http://avtr.com/)

• Presents narrative world to the audience through, for example, the themed link bar
• Coke Zero sponsor is prominent, creating synergy. The adverts also promote Avatar, forming a symbiotic relationship
• '#1 Transmission from Alison Boyd' creates believability that the characters can communicate with Earth. It compliments the film's narrative by providing information about the world of Pandora, its inhabitants and the human technologies
• Short video clips showing blue prints of the human warships/technologies in the film, appealing to the modern, majority masculine audience
• Link to facebook game creates interactivity and younger/teenage audience appeal, immersing audience in Avatar brand
• Live twitter feed gives instant audience feedback, creating a word of mouth viral response

Comparison

The avtr website gives more narrative information about the film whereas the official Avatar site serves to broaden the platforms the film is distributed through. The avtr site also provides a platform for the sponsor (Cokezero) to advertise on, however the official site purely serves to promote Avatar and the 20th Century Fox brand. Despite differences, they both work together in linking to interactive social networking sites (e.g. Facebook and Twitter) and creating a clear Avatar brand through, for example, colourscheme and images

At the Cinema

Audience Sample of our Avatar Screening:
(Cineworld in Enfield, Wednesday @ 11:30)

Key Points:

• Majority male
• People present in family groups or couples
• No elderly
• No groups of teenagers

Adverts Before Film:

• Alcohol x7
• Phone x3 (including Avatar sponsor LG)
• PS3 x3 (action/warfare games)
• Car x2
• Sky/Virgin
• Batteries
• The Economist
• Boots
• Coke Zero (Avatar sponsor)
• Cadburys (3D advert)

Key Points:

• Majority masculine focused (e.g. car, coke zero, warfare games)
• Technology (e.g. batteries, PS3, phones) fitting with modern audience (no elderly)
• Alcohol adverts shows the film's older audience (more male adults than children)
• Avatar sponsors (Coke and LG)

Trailers Before Film:

• Glee (E4 musical drama, female teenage audience)
• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Fox distributed, similar fantasy/action genre, teenage audience)
• Wolfman (Universal distributed, similar fantasy thriller genre)
• Toy Story 2 3D (3D rennovation appeals to film fans, younger children/family audience)