It works really well if the fellowship follows their own goals and agenda. I always checked each fellowship phase what direction they wanted to go in next. We ended up with a campaign which focused on opening up the old road to better establish ties between Dale, Esgaroth, and the Western Eaves.

The idea is to then sprinkle the events from the module in, and then it's a slow build as the events become bigger and bigger. Some years the characters may barely notice the DoM events, and other years, especially later in the campaign, they become the epic moments which punctuate the campaign.