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Brief
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis are one of the all-time classic fantasy series. Voted the Best Children's Read of All Time (Booktrust, February 2008), the movie adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe took $750 million at the global box office and the HarperCollins tie-in programme was the most successful ever with 15 million titles sold during the film release period. With Prince Caspian, the second Narnia movie instalment, released in June 2008, our challenge was to ensure that a new generation of readers were encouraged to read this lesser known title before seeing the movie and that a strong online presence was secured.
Strategy
Our strategy involved working closely with Disney to ensure access to movie talent in addition to ongoing liaison with Douglas Gresham, CS Lewis's stepson and last remaining link to the great man. We created a Key Facts release alongside generic tie-in releases and targeted both traditional media for interviews, features, extracts and reviews and online media for interviews, features and competitions. We also worked closely with HarperCollins Digital to ensure maximum use of the online assets featured on the Prince Caspian microsite and ensured Narnia fansites and bloggers were kept informed of all news. It was vital that our publicity hit early and focussed on the books behind the movie and we placed generic features on the success of children's book to film in addition to targeting national press family and children's bookclubs to cast a spotlight on Prince Caspian, the book.
Execution & Results
HarperCollins 'Read it Before you See it' campaign was key in all our messaging and we secured early coverage in book trade, consumer and online media including both the Times Online and Telegraph Online creating a combined early circulation hit of 34,052,366 . Further interviews and competitions were placed online in addition to placement of Prince Caspian widgets, podcasts and other Narnia related audio and video material. Online highlights included KidsAOL, CITV.co.uk, The Sun Online, GMTV.co.uk and FirstNews online with stories consistently linked to the Harpercollins microsite.
Traditional media were targeted early with the Telegraph Family Bookclub featuring Prince Caspian as their Family Book of the Month in May and book to film features appearing in The Times, S magazine and PA News. Select reviews appeared in national and regional press including The Times and Independent in addition to magazine reviews, competitions and interviews in StarGirl, Mizz, Girl, Bliss, Sugar, First News, Shout, Good Housekeeping, YOU magazine, Junior Times, Empire, Total Film and SFX. Special CS Lewis features also appeared on R4's Go4It programme and Premier Radio. Working closely with Disney we were able to place further news and lifestyle features using movie talent and coverage was secured in the Daily Mail, Daily Mail Weekend, Daily Telegraph and Total Film.
Total campaign coverage equalled 197,110,696 circ. and Prince Caspian by CS Lewis hit the Children's Bestseller Lists. The campaign also won a PRWeek Digital Award for Return On Investment.
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