Harry Potter Film Bumped - Dealing with Delays
 
The trailer for the sixth Harry Potter film (The Half-blood Prince) spread on the web recently, sparking the excitement of millions of fans looking forward to seeing the movie this fall. To fans’ disappointment, however, Warner Brothers announced late last week that they had to delay the film until July 2009, leading to some uproar in the Potter community. Some fans even started a Facebook group called “The Delay of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Has Ruined My Life.” Yikes!
Product delays are not uncommon, and can sometimes provide an opportunity to extend PR efforts and build more anticipation. In the video game industry, massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are especially prone to delays as they can take a significantly longer amount of time to develop compared to console games. They are a living, breathing, constantly growing online world where players interact with one another in real-time over the Internet. Because MMO players tend to invest many hours of their time in these virtual worlds, I can understand their disappointment if a game is delayed (just as I can understand Potter fans’ disappointment).
With all of the chaos that can come from a product delay - negative fan reaction, changing marketing/advertising/PR schedules, production schedule changes, etc. - honesty is the best policy. If the reason for the delay is that more time is needed to perfect the product - communicate that to consumers! Include details though, so the message comes across as genuine and not just spin.
In Harry Potter’s case, based on a statement from Warner Brothers, fans walked away with the message that the movie studio was more concerned with making money than with them. But Warner Bros. still has an opportunity - fans are listening if they want to share more!
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