Eshika Chopra
| 13 minutes ago
Views: 59
Your browser does not support the audio element.
For a franchise like Harry Potter, fandom has never been limited to films, books or merchandise. For many, it is tied to childhood memories, favourite characters, Hogwarts houses and a sense of identity that has stayed with them for years. That makes bringing the franchise into a product category like smartphones a more complicated exercise than simply putting a familiar logo on a device.
realme’s Harry Potter Edition of the 16 Pro 5G attempts to make the fandom part of the product itself, from its colour-changing technology and Hogwarts-inspired design to its custom UI, packaging and on-ground activations. The idea is to make the phone feel like an extension of the Harry Potter universe while retaining the technology and design language of realme.
In conversation with Adgully,Francis Wong, Head of Global Product Marketing, realme, discusses what makes an entertainment IP worth building into a product, how the brand approached the balance between nostalgia and contemporary youth culture, and what it learned from earlier collaborations with Game of Thrones, Coca-Cola and others. He also explains why the most important part of an IP collaboration may be knowing where to stop.
A smartphone is one of the most personal products people own, while fandom is also deeply tied to identity. What did realme see in the Harry Potter fan that made this more than an interesting licensing opportunity and convinced you there was a real product opportunity here?
The opportunity was never just that Harry Potter is a powerful IP. For millions of people, it is something they have grown up with and still feel personally connected to.
A smartphone is probably the most personal piece of technology we carry every day. So, the question for us was simple: Can the phone become an extension of that fandom instead of simply carrying a Harry Potter logo? That is where the real product opportunity came from.
We brought the Harry Potter world into the design, UI, colour-changing technology and even the unboxing experience. We wanted a fan to pick up the phone and immediately feel that connection. For me, that is what makes a collaboration meaningful. It should not feel like a realme phone with Harry Potter branding. It should feel like Harry Potter brought to life through realme technology.
There is a big difference between putting Harry Potter branding on a phone and actually making the phone feel like it belongs to that universe. Where did realme draw that line, and what did you deliberately choose not to do?
The line for us is very clear. Putting a logo on a phone is not enough to call it a collaboration. We have learned this over several years. WithThor: Love and Thunder, we created packaging and collectibles around the fandom, but there was more we could have done with the phone itself. With Coca-Cola, we went much deeper into the design, UI, sounds and camera experience.
Every collaboration has taught us something. With the Game of Thrones Edition, for instance, we went beyond branding to deeply integrate the IP into the product’s design, details and overall experience, creating a product that felt authentic to both realme and the Game of Thrones universe.
Similarly, with Harry Potter, the collaboration started at the product development stage itself, with both the realme and Harry Potter teams working closely together to ensure the IP was meaningfully integrated into the product’s design, details and overall experience, rather than simply added as a layer at the end.
And sometimes that also means knowing what not to do. We chose not to put Harry Potter references everywhere, but instead focused on meaningful details that fans can discover, while keeping the product experience distinctly realme. The idea was simple: give consumers the magic of Harry Potter without compromising the realme experience.
Harry Potter has both an established fan base and a younger generation discovering the franchise on its own terms. How did that shape the product and marketing brief for the 16 Pro Edition? Were you designing more for nostalgia, discovery, or a combination of both?
It had to be both.
Harry Potter is quite unique because you have one generation that grew up with it and another that continues to discover the world today. With the upcoming TV series, we will see yet another generation discovering and growing up with the Harry Potter universe, making the fandom even more relevant and enduring.
For existing fans, details matter. Hogwarts, the Four Houses and the Sorting experience cannot be reinterpreted casually. They have to feel authentic.
But the way we bring them into the phone has to feel contemporary. That is why you see things like the Sorting-inspired colour-changing experience, the custom Hogwarts UI and the collector’s box with the acceptance letter and Platform 9¾ ticket.
Your previous Game of Thrones collaboration gave realme a first-hand look at how entertainment IP can influence a technology product. What did you learn from that experience that changed the way you approached Harry Potter?
The biggest learning was that a strong collaboration cannot stay at the surface.
With Game of Thrones, we had already taken the IP into the phone design, UI, packaging and overall experience. The colour-changing design was particularly well received by consumers, which reinforced the value of making the IP a part of the product itself.
That learning shaped our approach to Harry Potter. We wanted to go further and ask: can the technology itself become part of the storytelling?
That is why we have continued the colour-changing design, while finding new ways to make the Harry Potter universe feel embedded in the product experience. The Four House crests are a good example. Under sunlight, they reveal their respective House colours using our Quadra Light-Sensing technology.
So the technology is not sitting separately from the collaboration. It is actually helping bring the Harry Potter experience to life.
When you move from a franchise’s visual world to an actual product, seemingly small details can become important to fans. Which design or experience decision behind the Harry Potter Edition took the most thought because it had to satisfy both the fan and the realme user?
The hardest part was actually knowing when to stop.
When you work with an IP as rich as Harry Potter, there are hundreds of characters, symbols and references you could use. But if you put everything on the phone, very quickly it starts looking like merchandise.
The design decision that took the most thought was how to make the Harry Potter connection part of the phone’s technology and experience, rather than simply putting Harry Potter elements on the surface. That is why the colour-changing Hogwarts Crest Glow Wonder became so important to us. Under sunlight, the phone reveals the colours of all four Hogwarts Houses, almost like a Sorting experience.
We did not want it to be just a graphic or a logo. We wanted the IP to reveal itself through something the realme user can actually experience.
The same thinking went into the smaller details. The Argyle leather texture takes inspiration from Wizard’s Chess, the camera deco references Hedwig, and the Hogwarts elements continue into the UI and packaging.
My test is quite simple: if you remove the Harry Potter logo, can a fan still recognise the story? And if you remove the Harry Potter references, does it still look and feel like a realme phone?
If both answers are yes, then we have found the right balance.
The Harry Potter bus activation takes the collaboration out of the retail and digital environment and puts the fandom into a physical experience. What consumer behaviour were you hoping to trigger with that idea that a conventional product campaign would not?
It is all about bringing magic to life. If fandom is about participation, why should we expect people to come to us? We should take the experience to them.
Young consumers today don’t just want to see an advertising campaign. They want something they can discover, participate in and share.
That is why we took the Harry Potter experience across campuses in Delhi, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Jaipur and Noida.
The bus is not just another media format. People can actually step into the Harry Potter world, explore the product and experience the collaboration for themselves.
For me, that is the difference between advertising to a fandom and giving the fandom something to participate in.
You operate at a global product marketing level, while fandom is experienced very differently across markets. How do you decide which parts of a global IP-led product experience need to remain universal and where local consumer culture should influence the way it is brought to life?
I don’t think localisation means changing the IP.
India has a very young and highly engaged consumer base. People here don’t just follow fandoms; they participate in them, create around them and make them part of their own culture.
There are certain things that make Harry Potter what it is, such as Hogwarts, the Four Houses and the Sorting experience. Those are universal, and you have to respect them. Where local understanding becomes important is in how you bring that world to consumers. In India, for example, we created a Harry Potter-themed bus activation exclusively for Indian consumers, bringing the fandom into a distinctly local, real-world experience.
Our Indian consumers also influence how we think about the collaboration, from the elements they engage with most to the experiences that make the fandom feel more relevant to them. So for us, it is not really global versus local. The global IP gives us the DNA; local consumer understanding tells us how to bring that DNA to life.
If the bigger ambition is to make realme part of youth culture rather than simply market phones to young people, what role do you see entertainment collaborations playing in the brand’s product strategy from here? And how will you know when an IP is genuinely worth building a product around?
Entertainment collaborations play an important role in helping realme connect with young consumers in a more natural and culturally relevant way. But the product will always come first. We believe the formula is simple: a good product x a good IP = a perfect combination.
We do not build products around an IP simply because it is popular. We first focus on creating products that offer strong design, technology and experiences, and then look at IPs that can add another layer of cultural relevance and excitement to them.
As a young brand, realme has always been closely connected with youth culture, and our ambition is to continue growing alongside young consumers. That is why the IPs we have collaborated with have strong resonance with this audience, whether it is Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Aston Martin or Coca-Cola.
For us, the right IP is one that naturally connects with our community and complements what the product already brings to the table. The collaboration should feel relevant to young consumers while making the overall product experience more exciting and distinctive.
Show More
exclusives01-Oct-2026Francis Wongrealme
similar newsZoher Kapuswala on Ferrero’s next India bet: Premiumisation and occasion-led growth
similar newsBeauty’s festive shift: How beauty brands are localising India’s festive calendar
similar newsAbakkus’ Ujjwal Singhania on making investment communication simpler and relatable
similar newsAbhik Sanyal on DSP Mutual Fund’s new playbook for purpose-led storytelling
similar newsBeyond the match: How sports sponsorship is becoming an always-on marketing play
similar newsThis is a big white space: Amazon’s Siddharth Bhagat on the next men’s grooming wave
similar newsHow iD Fresh is turning transparency into a competitive brand advantage
similar newsDecoding the shifting alco-bev festive marketing playbook
similar newsTrendspotting: Another Govt-media face-off; Rom-com throwbacks, Award-show feels; Period talk
similar newsThe new power wardrobe: How women are taking ownership of fashion
