• by Thom Forbes  @tforbes, July 15, 2011

How do you keep a marketing juggernaut rolling, Hollywood-style, even beyond the creation of new "original content"? That's the question two movies opening today -- Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2," and Disney's "Winnie the Pooh" will be attempting to answer in coming years.

In the latter's case, in fact, Time Warner's movie folks have decided to go back for the future. Writes Brooks Barnes in the New York Times: "Hollywood's formula for freshening up old cartoon characters like Alvin and the Chipmunks and the Smurfs goes something like this: Reformulate them in 3-D, give them a skateboard and sunglasses, add some dance moves and inundate children and their nostalgic parents with advertising."

That's exactly what Disney did four years ago when it turned to Pixar-style animation and tried to update the Pooh characters in a TV series (poor Christopher Robin was given the ax). But, Barnes writes, "nobody wanted to see Eeyore breakdance."

The version going up against Harry Potter today is closer to the original 1966 movie, "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree," in animation style and spirit. Its directors even pored over Ernest H. Shepard's original illustrations, which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, for A.A. Milne's 1926 book.

Pooh is Disney's No. 2 merchandising character after Mickey Mouse. Overseas, it's a popular image on high-end items such as dresses and handbags in Japan, but the trick will be resolving the "tension of remaining relevant to kids versus maintaining a love-mark brand that parents trust," Matt Britton, a founder of marketing firm Mr. Youth, tells Barnes.

Ethan Smith, Michelle Kung and Robert A. Guth, meanwhile, take a look at the dilemma of marketing a beyond-blockbuster franchise whose finale is being advertised with billboards that proclaim: "It All Ends." Warner has garnered about $20 billion from sales of videogames, toys and a theme park and the like from Harry Potter since "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" debuted in 2001, representing a cool billion in profits.

They don't call it "movie magic" for nothing. "We obviously think Potter is an evergreen property," Barry Meyer, Warner Bros.' chairman and CEO tells the Wall Street Journal reporters. "This is not something that ends with the film franchise."

The studio owns audio and visual rights to two companion books published a decade ago by Potter creator J.K. Rowling -- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages, for one thing. It is also turning London's Leavesden Studios, where all the Potter films were made, into a "museum-style tourist destination."

Because of Rowling's legendary control of her characters, marketing of the franchise has been more restrained than it might have been, "[creating] tensions with Warner departments that wanted to more aggressively license goods." But, as Meyer points out, "that restraint helped keep the Potter brand from being overexposed, increasing its long-term value."

In the Los Angeles Times, Ben Fritz and Amy Kaufman report that surveys conducted by the market research firm E-Poll show that Potter ranks second behind "Star Wars" among all audiences in awareness and appeal and is first among people ages 13 to 24. "On the question of whether people want to buy new products related to the brand, Potter is a decisive No. 1," they write.

"That data is code-word for 'We still want more,'" E-Poll CEO Gerry Philpott tells them.

Rowling has launched Pottermore.com as the exclusive venue for "Harry Potter" e-books and audio books. But Warner is doing just fine with its own sliver of the pie, thank you very much.

"The Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios in Orlando has drawn more than 7 million people since it opened last year and will probably be expanded, as well as possibly replicated elsewhere," Fritz and Kaufman point out that. "More than 42 million Harry Potter video games have been sold, and the studio is expected to make more in the coming years. 'Harry Potter: The Exhibition,' featuring paraphernalia and film-inspired settings, has toured the U.S. and Canada and is now headed overseas."

In a related story, the animated cast of South Park may not be quite as winsome and cuddly as Winnie or Harry but they'll be getting plenty of attention, too, as they celebrate 15 years on Comedy Central, Stuart Elliott reports this morning. It's the "Year of the Fan" and we can look forward to such delicacies as a limited-edition of Cheesy Poofs -- the fictional snack -- on the shelves at Walmart, courtesy of a deal with the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo.

Then there's the Ultimate "South Park" Fan Experience at Comic-Con International, which opens in San Diego next week. It's a 15,000-square-foot, real-life exhibit of the show's animated set that also will "offer artwork, memorabilia, photo and tattoo booths, trivia contests and a station to create 'South Park' avatars that can be uploaded to profile pages in social media like Facebook," Elliott reports.

Sometimes it really does seem like we're living on a cartoon set, doesn't it?