Kristin Thompson, Flying Billboards and FAQs

(In The Frodo Franchise)

This chapter is lighter on analysis than other parts of the book, but effectively highlights some of the contemporary offline alternatives to traditional means of promoting a film. "Infotainment" such as Entertainment Tonight and making-of specials in particular are a highly effective means of marketing, with audiences actively seeking them out rather than being targeted. These forms allow the studios to tightly control what information is released and how the film is presented to audiences via electronic press kits and web content intended for journalists, actively constructing the franchise.

Peter Jackson seems very aware of the importance of behind-the-scenes content, and many hundreds of hours of footage were shot, to be gradually presented to the public in various forms and across multiple new DVD (and surely soon Blu-Ray) releases. These specials are often produced by networks, rather than by the studio, minimizing the studio's overhead. Again, because fans will seek out and pay for these supplementary materials, they become extremely powerful marketing tools which cost significantly less than traditional trailers and print campaigns.