We’re all agog for the launch of The Force Awakens, but the film’s release date is one part of a huge campaign – one we could all learn from
Star Wars – the original film – was released in 1977. There can’t be many kids from those days who didn’t pretend to be Han Solo or Princess Leia (I was always more of a Boba Fett, myself), but we had to wait a year for the toys to come out after the film.
When the studio realised it wouldn’t have any toys ready in time for Christmas, it created an ‘Early Bird’ kit, basically an empty box (now on eBay for around $8,000) that could be wrapped up and stuck under the tree then redeemed for a set of figures a few months later.
It was Andy Warhol who said that the idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting. Each successive Star Wars film has gone to great pains to monetise this phenomenon with energy and sophistication. Now the seventh film, The Force Awakens, is due for release in time for Christmas – and I find myself marveling at a behemoth of a campaign.
The action in the new Star Wars film, #TheForceAwakens, almost plays second fiddle to the sheer scale of its media campaign.
The first trailer has notched up well over 100 million views on YouTube, to say nothing of reposts and uploads, or fan films such as the priest who filmed himself almost in tears watching it for the first time (over a million views) and the excellent ‘Wes Anderson’ edit (two million views). Instagram has also teamed up with Star Wars, using its new landscape picture function to debut some new footage (over 200,000 likes).
But for my money though, the really clever stuff is happening in the merchandise department, where they came up with the “Global Toy Unboxing”. For 18 hours in September – still a good three months before the film is due to come out – YouTube hosted an epic live stream from 15 cities in 12 countries in which fans (or rather, painstakingly curated key influencers) unboxed toys in advance of “Force Friday”, when the first officially licensed merchandise went on sale.
This stuff is instantly collectable, combining nostalgia with on-demand consumption – and it’s not just mini-figures, there’s a ton of things to choose from, whether you want one of the new lightsabers, a Millenium Falcon rug or an official Star Wars bed.
Consumers are forecast to spend $2bn at the box office and $3bn a year on Star Wars merchandise – and the film only cost $200 million to make. Tomorrow’s land fill? It almost doesn’t matter, though in some ways it does rather make the heart sink. I doubt we’ve even hit the zenith (or nadir) of monetising our children’s imaginations.
I do know two things though. First is that this seamless blend of product, this crossing of media and platforms, real and virtual, licensing and merchandising – this is the new normal. It’s not just media companies that need to sit up and take note. If you want to know what your customers expect from you, look what they are happy to spend money on. And second? Well, it’s going to be an expensive Christmas.
