With the mounting success of
Avatar: The Last Airbender and its spawned sensation, Nickelodeon now clings to its Emmy Award-nominated series with high hopes.
Nickelodeon, which expects consumers to spend about $121 million this year to $254 million in 2009 on its products, has launched
Avatar as an instrument that appeals to young people's growing interest with its magazines, videogames, toys, DVDs and other merchandise. With its positive hype that's already manifested on the internet, where fans devote long hours of discussions about the animated series, and its promising season 3 premiere that aired last Friday, the network is optimistic that
Avatar will turn into “the next big entertainment business trend.”
"If we do this right, it could become our
Harry Potter," Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami said. "We have the opportunity to create a different kind of loyal audience that will follow
Avatar here, there and everywhere."
Marjorie Cohn, who oversees development and original programming for Nickelodeon, says that a significant part that measures the success of the show is the fans' reception of the series' merchandise.
"The success of shows is the emotional connection that viewers have with the property, and it's a new world — this is one way people make an emotional connection," she said.
As reported previously, Nickelodeon has exerted efforts to tap into various markets, which includes the live-action film trilogy written, produced and direct by M. Night Shyamalan (
The Sixth Sense). This will further fuel the promotion of
Avatar.
"Once we start the movie marketing, that's when we kick into high gear," Zarghami said. "We've already done some ‘making-of' and interviews with Night that we're putting on the home video releases [for the TV show]. We're laying the foundation for what's coming."
"That will send people back to the network for more in the animated series, he added. “The movies will be released on home video and go into another movie. And hopefully, when I'm replaced 10 years from now, somebody will be making
Avatar 10."
-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: USA Today
(Image courtesy of Nickelodeon)