Pottermore: The Marketing Scheme That Made Millions Lose Sleep

Pottermore. The word has become synonymous to Harry Potter fans for “never sleeping again,” and abusing the F5 key. The site has yet to open to the public, and no one really knows what to expect – but man, has it caused a stir on the internet.

During the month of July, Pottermore started encouraging those interested in more information to sign-up for exclusive emails. There were promises of receiving an email to let you know when you could early register for Pottermore. Being a Potter fan, I got sucked in. I gave my email address willingly, but I never got an alert about the stress that I would soon be put through. It wasn’t until my friends were IMing and texting me in a frenzy with things like “OMG MAGIC QUILL?” and “WHEN IS THE CLUE UP?” that I realized what was happening. We were starting to fall victim to one of the best marketing schemes ever created.

When J.K. Rowling announced back in June that Pottermore would be an interactive way to read the Harry Potter series, complete with being sorted in Hogwarts houses, choosing a wand, and visiting Diagon Alley, there was a collective screech heard among Potter fans, reminiscent of an overly excited barn owl. If there’s one thing all Potter fans have in common, it’s that they desperately wish the magical world was real and that they could take part of it. This was their chance.

July 31^st is J.K Rowling and Harry Potter’s birthday. Potter fans across the web deduced that something huge would happen with Pottermore on July 31^st. They were right. On July 30^th, Pottermore transformed into something so cryptic that it made Potter fans absolutely lose their minds:

That’s it. Enough information to cause widespread panic amongst fans everywhere, but not enough to really explain what was going to happen. Enough information to cause millions of fans to STOP SLEEPING so they could be one of the first to see the first clue and then gain early access to their beloved Pottermore – a perfect recipe for going viral. It should also be noted that so many people tried to access the site once rumor started spreading that it had been updated, that the site crashed. I refreshed the site off and on for a good half hour before I gave up.

Fans all over blogging sites began to speculate the exact time the first clue would be posted, all the while linking directly back to the Pottermore site. News sources like the Guardian and the Huffington Post caught wind of Pottermore mania, giving links back. Free advertising, AND NOTHING HAD EVEN HAPPENED YET!

Finally, around 4:30am EST (Note: No, I was not awake for this moment, but the majority of my friends were. Crazies.), the very first Pottermore clue was posted. I imagine the fans that had stayed up almost all night for this, contemplated throwing themselves out a window at this point.  It had been assumed that each day between July 31^st and August 6^th, the clue provided would be in reference to a specific book, aka day one meant Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (book one), day two meant Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (book two) and so on and so forth – which ended up being true.

However, regardless of how dedicated of a fan you are the first three clues were not easy. Pottermore Insider claimed that the level of difficulty for clues would range so everyone had a fair shot, which proved to be true with the reveal of the fourth clue. Did I mention that Pottermore admitted that there may be discrepancies between the British and US versions of the books, so when in doubt reference the British version? Quick! Spend some money!

I’ll spare you the detailed explanation of how you find The Magic Quill once you figure out the answer to the clue, as it was really a mini-scavenger hunt that was different every day, all in the name of getting to the registration page. Surely you can find somewhere to read in great detail how the scavenger hunt worked amongst the 6,490,000 search results that currently up for “Pottermore.”

Once The Magic Quill is found, the process was always the same. It took you to a registration page. Basic details were asked, before you get to what Harry Potter and Pottermore Publishing and Sony are truly after… email addresses. Pottermore’s Twitter account said prior to the madness of the clues being released that through the 7 days of clues, a total of one million people would be granted access to experience Pottermore in its beta form. Remember that number – one million.

Pretend for a minute you’re a deeply dedicated Potter fan.  You’re sleep deprived. Your F5 key is officially worn down. You’re completely thrilled you figured out the insanely detail oriented clue and found The Magic Quill. You’ve surpassed the odds and are moments away from getting a username for Pottermore. You get to where you’re asked to provide your email. (Note: You can only have one username registered to an email.) Do you actually read the fine print, and make sure you’re not checked off to receive emails from Pottermore or Sony partners? If any of the Potter fans are like me, they didn’t uncheck the permissions for partners to email them, simply because they rushed through the registration process just to make sure they got one of the limited spots for that particular day.

So what does that mean? It means that by the end of the week Pottermore, Sony and any other partners had collected one million UNIQUE email addresses. Of course, that number is assuming that absolutely no one unchecked the box to receive emails from partners, and that no one goes into Account Settings and changes it after they’ve confirmed registration, but even if you ignore those facts – a large number of registrants will still be willingly accepting emails from partners. PLUS, Pottermore now has the ability to market to registrants. Seeing as how a Pottermore store is set to open with the October release, I imagine coupons and promo codes will be available via email. All of that is pure speculation of course. Besides, no one that waited up all night hitting F5 repeatedly will request Pottermore not email them – there’s still the welcome email to receive… which won’t even come for weeks.

That’s right. Weeks.  The whole idea of figuring out clues and hunting down The Magical Quill is just to hold a spot for you to access the Beta version. Pottermore Insider states:

“… we will not be enabling early access to the site straight away. Once The Magical Quill challenge is over, we will send successful early access registrants a Welcome email, letting them know when they will be able to access Pottermore. We won’t be able to let everyone into the Beta site at the same time, so please be patient with us. You may have to wait a few weeks for your Welcome email to arrive.”

Pottermore opens to the general public in October of 2011, so in theory… you may only get access for a week, or even a day, before the general public is allowed in. Pottermore has now officially started sending out “Welcome emails,” but there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when anyone can expect to get theirs. Those who “found the Magical Quill” on Day 1, were not guaranteed immediate access to the Beta version. It’s a mystery. No one knows exactly when they will receive their “Welcome email.” In the mean time, this is what you’re greeted with when you try to log into Pottermore before receiving that “Welcome email:”

That’s it. There’s nothing to click on, except your account settings link (not shown in picture) at the very bottom and other links that Potter fans don’t care about (i.e. Terms & Conditions). So… basically, everyone is lost sleep and ignored their social lives for nothing.

Let’s recap shall we?

Emails – Pottermore will manage to grab one million unique emails during the week of July 31^st, not including any emails that were submitted earlier in the month to be notified of when early registration would take place.

Word of Mouth – Free advertising. How many teens and young adults do you think heard about Pottermore because a friend heard about it from a friend?

Going Viral – The sheer mystery of when the next clue will be released and what is behind the registration page is enough to get people talking, gossiping and showing everyone they know.

Traffic – Can we take bets on how many unique visitors Pottermore has received since the update on July 30^th?

Multiple Links – All of the bloggers and news sites linking directly back to Pottermore’s site definitely help in the “quality links” regard.

Moral of the Story

Get the fans of some major cultural phenomenon to lose countless hours of sleep, and they will blindly do what you want – allowing you to create one of the best marketing ploys ever.