The teaser poster (the image on the left) is very effective for both people who have read the Harry Potter books and those who haven't. For people who have read the books, they realise what exactly is about to happen and it makes them excited yet sad that it's about to end and they know how dramatic it is going to be. For people who have never read the Harry Potter books, it makes them intrigued to see what is going to happen and makes them excited for the movie to come out. Seeing the teaser poster may make people think "I wonder if the trailer has come out yet...", when they find that it hasn't come out yet, it again makes them more excited for the trailer to arrive.
This is the teaser trailer for both part 1 and part 2 of The Deathly Hallows films. It gives the audience a few iconic scenes which will represent key points in the film. It doesn't give away too much about the film but it gives the audience a rough idea of what might happen without any spoilers. It gives the audience the release dates of both of the films and uses clips from both films and merges them into one massive teaser trailer. Traditionally, teaser trailers aren't that long. For example, here is the latest teaser trailer released for part 1 of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.
This teaser trailer is roughly only a minute long. It gives only very subtle hints as to what might happen in the film which people would only really understand if they have read the books. For example, someone who has read the books and follows The Hunger Games franchise would realise that in the first film, Peeta (who is the man stood next to President Snow) said that he didn't want the Capitol to change him and turn him into something he isn't. Clearly, he has been changed and turned into a person he doesn't feel like he really is. This is a massive teaser for anyone watching the film as you want to find out what's happening to Peeta but not only that, Katniss isn't featured in the trailer. As we know from the latest film, Catching Fire, she has become a symbol of rebellion so the audience might be wondering whether she's still alive, where is she, has she changed etc. This teaser trailer is very different from the Deathly Hallows teaser trailer because it features no scenes from the film itself and is giving the audience barely any information at all.
The main poster (image on the left) for The Deathly Hallows features our three main characters (Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley) running away from something. It is a dynamic and exciting freeze frame which makes the audience think "what are they running away from?". It has the title of the film which is written in the classic "Harry Potter" font which has featured on every single harry potter film. It has the tag line of "The End Begins" which is slightly different to the teaser poster tagline which was "It All Ends", however the teaser tag line is more of a summary. Considering as this poster is for the first part of the last two films, it makes more sense to say "The End Begins". These posters would be displayed in cinemas, around towns and cities, in magazines etc and it would help get the word out to the audience that this new film is coming out soon. Another thing to mention is that the dark colour palette used for the poster helps suggest that this film is a lot more edgy, dramatic and maybe violent than the others. It could also suggest that The Dark Lord himself, Voldemort, is on his way.
This is the main trailer for the first part of The Deathly Hallows. It has a lot of action and fast paced editing which helps keep the audience interested. Like most trailers, it's not edited in chronological order either which means it's less easy to guess the plot and piece together which scenes go where in the film. There are scenes of conflict between Harry Potter and Voldemort which is almost traditional of Harry Potter films. The release date is shown so that audiences are again reminded when they can go see the film and the production company is also depicted in the trailer. Even if somebody hadn't heard of Harry Potter but had heard of Warner Bros, they would more likely see a film by a massive, well known production company e.g. Warner Bros rather than a small indie company. The title scene is the same as it is on the film posters and on the website which is an example of synergy.
The Harry Potter saga also have a website (which at the time of posting this, it doesn't seem to be working for my laptop) but it has a series of games on it, a synopsis of each film, character profiles, trailers for each film and it also has one of the many film posters of The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as the backgrounds for different pages on the website. The website helps promote the films because by making the website fun and interactive, more people are going to talk to their friends about the website and get others to visit it too. A few years ago, a massive craze went round called Pottermore. Pottermore is an interactive online game where you are sorted into one of the four houses at Hogwarts and you make your way through challenges and complete levels. This was a massive success for the Harry Potter creators because it was such a hit. Millions of people signed up and played, which must have helped spread the word of the Harry Potter films even more.
The T.V spot is a trailer which is summarised into around 30 seconds for television. Most adverts on TV are around that length as well and because so many people watch TV, especially between the hours of 5:00pm and 11:00pm, it helps promote the film even more as it is showing the trailer to a wider audience. Even though it is shorter, it is summarised to a level where still, all the key information is featured and it is very fast paced and exciting still.
Merchandise has always played a massive factor in the publicity of the Harry Potter films. You can buy things such as cloaks, wands, wizard hats, chocolate frogs and other Harry Potter themed items. By purchasing these items (mainly aimed at a younger audience but not always) it is making the buyer seem more involved with the film and may make them feel more part of the story.
I personally think that the marketing and promotion of all Harry Potter films, not just The Deathly Hallows was done brilliantly, not only on the success of all of the previous films but on it's extraordinary ability to "tease" the audience with trailers and posters and convince the audiences to go and watch the films. I think another factor to Harry Potter's success was it's directors and production team. There has never been an "average" Harry Potter film, in my opinion. The editing, mise-en-scene, directing, actors and filming has always been of such a quality standard. This might make audiences want to go and watch the upcoming Harry Potter films because traditionally, the first film is always the best when you have a group of films being produced which all follow the same storyline. An example of this is The Hangover. The first Hangover film had a massive success with rave reviews regarding how funny the film was and the plot it was based around. However when The Hangover 2 came out, it wasn't so highly rated because people had already seen a film like it (the previous Hangover). Other than the location, the plot didn't change that much so viewers may have been bored by the lack of change.
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