Question

Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling

1.     How did the marketing campaign for Hunger Games mark a departure from a traditional marketing campaign for a movie? What was innovative about the marketing approach adopted by Lionsgate?

2.     A good transmedia storytelling campaign should be persistent, pervasive, participatory, and personalized. Critically evaluate the campaign based on these elements.

3.     Carefully review all of the creative and media tactics used in the campaign. What did Lionsgate do well and what could have been done better?

4.     What elements would you reuse to promote the subsequent movie Mockingjay Part 1? What elements would you change?

Answer 1

1.     How did the marketing campaign for Hunger Games mark a departure from a traditional marketing campaign for a movie? What was innovative about the marketing approach adopted by Lionsgate?

Lions gate Entertainment and Ignition Creative collaborated to create a new type of marketing campaign that relied on storytelling in a digital world and blurred the lines between reality and fiction. This innovative method that they used is called brand storytelling, that consists of mixing social media campaigns undertaken across a variety of platforms such as youtube, tumblr, facebook, twitter, and Instagram, while bringing into sharper focus brand and designer partnerships in the film, and attracting enthusiastic fan participation

2.     A good transmedia storytelling campaign should be persistent, pervasive, participatory, and personalized. Critically evaluate the campaign based on these elements.

Lionsgate used the brand storytelling method to create long-lasting personal and unique consumer experiences by using a variety of platforms. It induced powerful emotions using brand content to connect with the audience. The campaign drew the participation of passionate fans and blurred the borders between reality and fiction. Lionsgate's marketing approach used a mix of social media and platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram, while a traditional marketing campaign mostly focuses on ad placement on TV, magazines, billboards, radio, partnerships, a dedicated website, YouTube teasers, in-person PR, online PR, and cross-marketing partnerships. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire marketing plan was innovative because it used transmedia storytelling: a combination of new and traditional media storytelling to increase audience engagement across platforms. Finding passionate fans who are willing to share the narrative of the story was essential to achieve a viral marketing by spread ability, which is the most significant part of transmedia storytelling. A good transmedia storytelling campaign should be persistent, pervasive, participatory, and personalized. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire campaign captured all elements of a good transmedia storytelling campaign. The Catching Fire team was careful to amplify online content offline to keep consumers interested over the period of the campaign. This meant magazine pieces and TV appearances correlated with online releases of content. Fan challenges also demonstrate the campaign’s success in creating a hands-on environment. Fans of the series participated in a #CapitolStyle challenge, as well as an Ultimate Fan Challenge, each of which required fans to create and share content. These challenges increased involvement with the series and encouraged discussion both on and offline, which therefore increased excitement for the upcoming movie. The campaign focused on fan participation, which made it naturally a tailored campaign. Fans took existing ideas from the Hunger Games world and made it their own, expanding on existing involvement in the story. Finally, the Catching Fire campaign was persistent in that it took place across all platforms. Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube were all frequently showcased content from the Hunger Games marketing team and fans. These approaches combined with traditional media (billboards, TV, print, etc.) meant that fans could find an advertisement for the film just about anywhere.