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New Line Cinema webmaster Gordon Paddison talks to Business 2.0

December 09, 2001 at 17:11:27

Gordon Paddison gives a rare interview to Business 2.0 about what it's like to be Webmaster for one of the hottest content sites on the Web: the official Lord of the Rings movie Web site.

Get Your Buzz to Breed Like Hobbits
Rather than closing down unofficial Lord of the Rings fan sites, Gordon Paddison cooperated with them. Thus began a viral marketing saga.
By Marc Weingarten, January 2002 Issue

Walking into Gordon Paddison's cluttered office at New Line Cinema headquarters in Los Angeles feels like stepping into an amateur film director's home studio. Next to one wall rests a digital camera on a tripod, and along another an enormous fill-light towers over the 40-inch flat-panel color display on Paddison's desk. For New Line's senior vice president for worldwide interactive marketing, this is where the magic happens, the place where he interviews the stars of The Lord of the Rings for the film's official website, LordoftheRings.net. "If any actors come to L.A., they have to sit here and talk to me first," says Paddison, an eight-year New Line vet and self-described "old Net geek."

New Line needs any promotional edge it can get. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, one of three Rings movies planned through 2003, is by far the most expensive and ambitious project in New Line's history. (New Line, like Business 2.0, is owned by AOL Time Warner (AOL).) The $90 million production, due in theaters Dec. 19, is not only the most anticipated pop cultural event of 2001 (sorry, Harry Potter); for the legions of fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's 1,200-page literary trilogy, it is simply "the film," the one they've looked forward to for years.

Whether or not the film lives up to expectations, fans have already been dazzled by the show Paddison has mounted online. LordoftheRings.net is one of the hottest media properties on the Web. According to Nielsen//Net Ratings, LordoftheRings.net drew 460,000 unique visitors last October and more than 3.4 million visitors since January. But what really has all of Hollywood buzzing -- and taking copious notes -- is Paddison's success in spreading his message virally. By partnering with fan sites and feeding them insider tips, New Line has extended the film's marketing reach to a worldwide audience of tens of millions. Ken Goldstein, executive vice president for Disney Online (DIS), admits that Paddison is "simply one of the best in our business."

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