Media: Strategy Analysis - Narnia turns curiosity into DVD sales.(Digital videodisks)

 
Brand: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 
DVD 
Client: Lucy Manning, Disney group brand manager 
Brief: Launch the Chronicles of Narnia DVD in the UK 
Target audience: Housewives and children 
Budget: pounds 2 million 
 
AGENCIES 
Media: Carat 
Creative: Creative Partnership 
Others: Hyperspace 

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe faced an uphill struggle to become king of the DVDs. It was up against King Kong, which had a 20 per cent bigger budget. Also, research suggested that Narnia needed a revamp of its Edwardian image to highlight the all-action epic nature of the 2005 film.

The brief was to find a way to communicate with the key DVD-buying group known as the 'entertaining family'. This group was defined by parents' constant need to find ways to keep their children happy, and a dislike of intrusive ads.

It was quickly realised that adopting conventional DVD launch techniques - broadcasting 'trailers' on TV - simply wouldn't work.

The idea was to use Narnia's central theme of curiosity to drive all communications. Ads would echo the curiosity of the story's protagonists to lure potential DVD buyers. Every medium would have to make parents as inquisitive as Lucy, who first opened the wardrobe in the story. Each would have to encourage parents to seek information. Success would require media formats that encouraged interaction and rewarded interest. All elements would have to be innovative - if consumers had seen the format already, they wouldn't be intrigued.

EXECUTION

- TV: The media intrigue started with TV. Instead of trailer ads, Carat used three different dynamic short executions in every break. Each spot focused on a single character to spark curiosity - these included a ten-second 'lion' spot, a ten-second 'witch' spot and a 20-second 'wardrobe' spot.