Introduction
The Hunger Games journey began as a trilogy novel written by American author Suzanne Collins. The Hunger Games unites the genres of science fiction, adventure, drama, and action. The story revolves around a wealthy Capitol that ruled over 12 districts that were all suffering from poverty and starvation. The residents of the districts had been pressured to take part in The Hunger Games, which is an annual television competition.
The first film within the franchise, The Hunger Games, was released in 2012 and the sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, was established in 2013 and broke the record for the highest opening weekend for any November film ever. The film’s marketing strategy began long before its release date, and it comprised a coordinated and extensive promotional campaign that leveraged a multichannel transmedia storytelling through digital marketing and social media to convey a brand story and attract existing fans of the novels as well as the first film engagement. Lionsgate Entertainment and Ignition Creative had a collaboration in order to create an interactive marketing campaign with the fans .
Features and Benefits
Features
The main character of the series, Katniss Everdeen, is given a mocking jay pin as a good luck charm. Throughout the story, the mocking jay is a reoccurring symbol as it reminds the Capitol of one of their failed experiments and citizens of hope by wearing this pin. The symbol had also become The Hunger Games’ representation.
Benefits
The Hunger Games has a benefit of teaching fans that life is unpredictable, so they should keep an eye out for new opportunities.
The Media of the Campaign
Paid Media
Paid media is the marketing that Lionsgate’s marketing team paid for to promote the Hunger Games that includes Google Ads, social media ads, and more traditional methods like television and radio commercials, print ads, billboard advertising and partnerships with real – life authors.
Owned Media
Any web property that Lionsgate’s marketing team had an authority over and that was specific to the Hunger Games is considered owned media. The owned media of the Hunger Games consists of communities on social media platforms, which are Tumblr, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Earned Media
Recognition or awareness achieved through other than paid or owned advertising is referred as earned media. The owned media of the Hunger Games includes word of mouth, blogs, forums, and public relations.
The Marketing of The Hunger Games
Digital Marketing
As a cost-effective marketing technique, Lionsgate’s choice to establish a digital marketing campaign offered financial benefits. Lionsgate had a $45 million marketing budget and a marketing workforce of twenty-one employees. Digital any-to-any communication can work on a global scale, lower conversation costs, and allow consumers to exchange information and value. The other advantage of digital marketing is timing. The Lionsgate marketing campaign began more than a year before the film’s release date, and even before the film was completed. Before the film is released, the marketers of the film reached out to an audience, connected with them, and built a two-way relationship through digital marketing. Because of the ability to leverage digital marketing as a cost-effective marketing technique, Lionsgate was able to start targeting online fans long ahead of the opening weekend, even with a relatively minimal marketing budget. Using only traditional marketing strategies would have been more expensive and difficult .
Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing refers to marketers’ initiatives to connect consumers directly to the creation and marketing of media content. The digital campaign was actively used to with communicating with fans, who annotated, appropriated, and recirculated content relevant to the film. Lionsgate’s usage of the existing social media platforms is an example of how relationship marketing relies on customers sharing information and content with other internet users by using social media platforms3.
Word of Mouth
The promotion of Lionsgate was pushed by the spread of online and in-person word of mouth. One strategy used by film marketers to ensure positive word of mouth is target marketing, that involves finding the most likely audience for a film and bringing it to their attention. The Marketers can use the internet to interact with tighter target segments in ways that appeal to them, while also evaluating the effectiveness of the communication. This is similar to the Lionsgate’s strategy, which recognised the online fan base as the primary target demographic for spreading favourable word of mouth early on3.
Promotional Partnerships
Lionsgate had partnerships with Capitol Couture, Target, Subway, CoverGirl, William Dean Chocolates, Samsung, Mazda, Doritos, Whole Food Programme, Whole Planet Foundation, Dodge, Chrysler and Fiat .
The Marketing Campaign of The Hunger Games
Traditional Media Campaign
Lionsgate used several of the traditional marketing strategies to promote the Hunger Games and to raise brand recognition and they were integrated with inventive online campaigns six months before the film’s release date. To promote The Hunger Games, Lionsgate has distributed over 80,000 posters, leased over 50 magazine cover stories, and advertised on approximately 3,000 billboards. In addition, they utilised established elements such as television, radio, magazine, and billboard advertising, as well as having partnerships, dedicated websites, and YouTube teasers. In-person public relations such as interviews and red-carpet appearances of actors of the movie and internet public relation such as blogs and social media, and cross-marketing collaborations were also used to promote the Hunger Games. Lionsgate’s aim was to keep fans interested and curious throughout the campaign by constantly providing them new contents. Lionsgate’s objective was to develop a mass appeal through using traditional media techniques3.
Transmedia Storytelling
Brand storytelling is defined as the use of narrative techniques to engage with an audience and develop a brand’s identity beyond of traditional media approaches .The approach of telling a single story or story experience across numerous platforms and formats using current digital technology is known as transmedia brand storytelling .
Lionsgate Entertainment and Ignition Creative used a multichannel transmedia brand storytelling to engage fans of The Hunger Games, launching a variety of social media initiatives on Tumblr, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram platforms.
Tumblr
The Hunger Games fans were able to connect extensively with the Capitol culture by using Tumblr. The Capitol has remained mysterious in the books despite its importance in the plot. The Tumblr website transformed the Capitol in people’s mind by allowing them to see the Capitol’s strange fashion culture. Designed like an online magazine, Capitol Couture Tumblr demonstrated the Capitol’s outstanding work in design, fashion and art. Real writers also participated by submitting their opinions on related topics and terms and they were also given titles, in examples of Editor-in-Chief, Fashion-designer, Capitol Correspondent, and Capitol Contributor7.
YouTube
Catching Fire was distributed on YouTube as well as other social media platforms. Capitol TV (https://goo.gl/fjoWbt), was a YouTube channel committed to the film that provided teasers and trailers for fans. Fans were also encouraged to submit videos, which were subsequently broadcast on Capitol TV7.
When the first Hunger Games film was released in March 2012, it had already a Facebook page that was created months ago to attract fans and interact with them. Several Facebook pages were created for the promotion, even the Capitol and each of the twelve districts had their own 7.
The marketing team communicated and engaged with fans on a daily basis by using Twitter. The Capitol’s Twitter account (https://twitter.com/thecapitolpn) was primarily used to share public service announcements and ideological statements with the broader public. Fans could sign up for a district and receive a district badge, giving them a sense of belonging in the Hunger Games universe7.
Many of the trendy images on the Capitol Couture Tumblr were also shared on the Capitol’s Instagram account (https://instagram.com/capitolcouture). By focusing on fashion and design, Lionsgate indicated that they were aware of the film’s niche audience and they targeted those niche audience through Instagram. Although, the Instagram account didn’t contribute to the plot necessarily, it helped the interest of Instagram users to pique, who were expected to share the high-fashion photos with their friends. The Capitol had a total of 31,464 followers7.
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