The Independent has a story

The Independent has a story on what to expect from Warner Bros. PR machine in the next ten days. Here are some excerpts:

Industry sources said that Warner Bros would have set aside about £5m to publicise the film in Britain alone. The set-piece event of a 48-hour publicity blitz after Sunday’s gala première will be a press conference on Tuesday featuring the film’s young stars – Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson. Also appearing will be the movie’s director Chris Columbus. The location, naturally in the cloak-and-dagger world of Pottermania, is still secret but The Independent understands that it is the Hertfordshire stately home, Knebworth House. An invitation warns that entry will be conditional on having seen a special screening on Monday.

According to experts, the studio’s tactics represent a mixture of “front-loading” – the Hollywood practice of hyping a film to the maximum in the days before it opens – and a more subtle building up of grassroots enthusiasm with a constant trickle of trailers, posters and gossip. One marketing executive at a rival studio said: “Warner is trying to have its cake and eat it. There are dozens of tabloid stories – most untrue – about the film, which add to the sense of expectation. At the same time they are keeping information to a minimum this weekend ahead of a big push next week to get bums on seats on 16 November. It’s very tight, very clever and it will probably work.”