I`m taking an indulgent tangent today, in anticipation of the movie release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher`s Stone, based on the first book in the Harry Potter series.
The event marked the biggest single order in the history of e-commerce.
Basheera Khan, Journalist, ITWeb
I was, sad to say, not one of the lucky ones who managed to catch the preview this weekend. From what I hear, the film lived up to general expectations, keeping an audience of several hundred children of all ages spellbound for close to three hours.
Even if you`re not a fan of the novels, which introduce us to the 11-year-old Harry in book one, as he embarks on his wizardly learnings, you`ve got to admire the calculated method in which the Internet has played a pivotal marketing and sales role in propagating the cult of Potter.
In July last year, Amazon.com and Federal Express shipped copies of the fourth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, to 250 000 US homes in one morning. The event marked the biggest single order in the history of e-commerce.
The project required the resources that most of us only ever see in the movies, when they depict large-scale military operations. The companies made use of temporary phone lines, technical advisers at all Amazon distribution centres around the US and remote support services from FedEx`s Memphis, Tennessee, headquarters.
Online teasers
Earlier this year, the first teaser trailer was made available on the official Harry Potter Web site, and while the downloads didn`t quite rival those triggered by the Lord of the Rings trailers, Nielsen/NetRatings measured traffic increases to the site of 239%, during the six weeks ended 4 November.
I can`t really remember how I first heard about book one in 1997- I have a feeling it was through an article on Salon.com - but having read it, I immediately spread the gospel to any who would listen.
There is now a small but incredibly committed band of Potter fans at ITWeb, and there isn`t a single one who doesn`t own all four books and some sort of Potter-related memorabilia - from lunchboxes to T-shirts to bookmarks, we have it all.
To date, more than 60 million copies of the books have been sold in 200 countries. And of course, the popularity of all things Potter has fuelled the sales of related products, such as Harry Potter journals encouraging children to write as well as read.
Perhaps the most inspiring story in this vein is that of Ben Buchanan, a 12-year-old dyslexic who was so enchanted by the books that he eventually created a prize-winning board game based on the Harry Potter series, and ended up a published author as a result. His autobiography, My Year with Harry Potter, relates the story of his triumph over dyslexia.
For more, visit www.harrypotter.co.uk.
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