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July 22, 2009
The Harry Potter tweet

In the UK for the release of the latest Harry Potter movie, Warner Bros has decided to "use" Twitter. On a dedicated website Twitter users get the chance to send potions and cast spells on the people following them.

harrypottertweet01.jpg

Revolution has the details of the campaign. But I'm actually more interested in testing it and asking a lot of questions...

First, it's a question of trust, because they ask you for your username and password to access your Twitter account, second because I'm curious to see how intrusive Harry Potter is. The idea might sound nice, but if it's just a new way to spam people, than it will be a new nightmare. Last but not least, what happens if you cast the spell on someone who doesn't use Twitter but Tweetdeck or Twitterfon or something like that???

Comments on this entry

The "app" world for Twitter is still in its infancy, so don't let this sound like a judgment on the whole app for Twitter world. But, I just don't see this as relevant to the average Twitter user whatsoever. There's no "poking" on Twitter for a reason!

.. But then again, as "featurecrawl" is crowdsourced, I'm sure there will be improvements in future iterations, or from other sources (spymaster fits into the Twitter culture and interface really well, for instance).

Posted by: Glenn Friesen at July 22, 2009 10:32 PM

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Well, it seems that it's being received well enough: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=harry+potter+been+casting+spells

I quite like it, and I'm not sure that it's all that spammy. At least it's an innovative use of the platform and is something different from the norm.

Posted by: Jason at July 23, 2009 08:07 AM

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Hi. I used it on tweet deck and it works - it launches your browser to cast the spell. On a mobile you will trouble seeing the flash though. Cool app.

Posted by: Matteus at July 23, 2009 10:20 AM

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I think this is very clever. It was a little slow on my end which did hamper the experience, but a very clever use of viral marketing on Twitter.
Does anyone know which agency was behind this?

Posted by: Dale at July 23, 2009 11:11 AM

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Hey,

I like the app. And it's not spammmy as you can only cast spells on your followers (people who have chosen to follow you).

Not all apps have to have a specific function, why can't some of them supply a little bit of fun?

Posted by: Julia at July 23, 2009 12:30 PM

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I thinks it's awsome!!!! But then again I am a Potter fanatic!

Posted by: Sarah Louise at July 23, 2009 12:58 PM

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Misterous idea :)

Posted by: Alexander Bickov at July 23, 2009 06:53 PM

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