Marketing for Avatar
US conglomerates can use their size and reach to create massives synergies to awaken desire in audiences to see their films.

With all the talk of the "Twitter effect" and social media making or breaking Hollywood releases, Fox took a decidedly big-picture approach to go to market with the most expensive film ever made.

The studio teamed with Coke Zero and McDonald's for extensive promotions that gave fans access to the virtual augmented-reality world of Pandora. Consumers could download an AR application from AVTR.com and scan their Coke Zero can or 12-pack to take a virtual ride in the Samson helicopter featured in the film. McDonald's took a similar approach with its Happy Meal and Big Mac tie-ins, creating a virtual "Avatar" space called McWorld, where fans could interact with other aspects of the Pandora environment. Both marketers had large-scale media buys to promote the tie-ins, including general-market TV buys from Coke and multicultural TV, print and radio ads from McDonald's. LG and Panasonic pitched in for global tie-ins to cross-promote products with similar 3-D innovations, while Mattel partnered on the toy merchandising front.

In early November on Fox's World Series and National Football League coverage, with multiple 30-second spots in the same commercial break, followed by the full trailer airing during pod breaks for "Glee" and "House."

Just how mass was the marketing? Fox didn't even have a sponsored Twitter account to speak of, so the studio can't even take credit for the film's daily appearance as a trending topic on the microblogging site after its theatrical debut -- a surge of organic word-of-mouth that certainly didn't hurt.