'The Hunger Games' Gaming the System

Clips from Daniel Frankel's piece (paidContent.org) on 'The Hunger Games' approach to marketing:

• To amplify the impact of these campaigns, studios will pay the big social platforms—for Facebook, for example, they’ll often give up more than a doller per “like,” creating an illusion of social media buzz.

• Lionsgate’s campaign differed from most movie campaigns because it created, well, actual social media buzz. The key: instead of paying for likes, the studio put its resources into creating rich-media elements that far outstrip the ambition of simple games and other movie collateral, such as an interactive tour of the source novel’s “Capital,” which was accessible through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG). The tour wasn’t a movie ad—it was an interactive experience rendered from the book with painstaking detail. 

• “They simply appreciated the value of the book and fleshed out its world with a massive amount of content that’s designed to live on the web, well beyond what you see in the film itself,” the rival studio marketer said. “They activated the core fan base from day one, fired them up and let them carry the message to their friends, which in turn grew the fan base.” 

I saw very little of the marketing effort but what I did see was pretty cool, and any campaign that gets a video feature at NYT has to be considered a success. THG's interactive site was, hard to deny, impressive -- probably the best I've seen.

Frankel posits THG may have created a new model for movie marketing based on interactive content, tailored sites, widgets and games and such. I can't argue. We may have become inured to standard ads and trailers, and they cost much more than creating your own web destination for fans to explore.

Frankel continues:

• Promotional costs for a big Hollywood movie typically exceed $100 million. But Lionsgate, a so-called mini-major, coming off a series of bombs, doesn’t have that kind of money. It had to make do with a marketing budget of around $45 million, with a typical allocation of 8 to 10 percent of that going to digital media spending.

That speaks volumes. Really, it's amazing what Lionsgate accomplished with that kind of cash. By contrast, look how bad the campaign for 'John Carter' flopped around, how much more it cost, (and what it accomplished).

If the quality of production of sites like The Capitol Tour is there I think fans, or potential fans, will respond no matter what the genre or who the targeted audience is. I wouldn't be surprised to see this kind of marketing approach become the norm.

















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Stirring 'Hunger Games' Propaganda!

Via FirstShowing, see more at College Humor

Remember kids. Exclamation points are an indication that you're an effective writer. Use them often!

Love this one, which gets on board with Harvey's 'Bully' campaign. (The guy is a genius).

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New Eye Candy/Interactive Site from 'The Hunger Games'

Take the capitol tour.

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'The Hunger Games' Marketing Rundown

Brooks Barnes talks with Tim Palen, head honcho of marketing at Lionsgate.

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Clip from 'The Hunger Games'

How good is Donald Sutherland.

















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'The Hunger Games' Cast Interviews

Fluff, but with a bit of new footage.


























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Donald Sutherland as President Snow

Love this guy.

You can totally geek out at 'The Hunger Games' site.
















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Clip from 'The Hunger Games'

This is cute.

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Poster for Wes Anderson's 'Moonrise Kingdom' Demands Attention

Atmospheric. Quiet. Doesn't try even a bit.

A simple trailer, one unassuming poster, and this movie is at the top of my list.

Not many movies (read: directors) create this kind of stir this easily. The 'auteur effect'... Ridley Scott/Prometheus certainly has it. We clamor over stills, speculate about what imagery in trailers indicates regarding plot/character, soak up fake TEDtalks. We can't wait.

The campaign for 'Alien' had everyone talking. People were clawing to see that movie. The image, both in TV commercials and on posters, of the cracked egg and that tag "In space, no one can hear you scream" -- people loved that. 'I love when the egg cracks. That's so scary! What's going to come out of there?' and 'Remember. In space, no one can hear you scream. It's true! There's no air, and you need air for sound to travel so if you scream in space no one will be able to hear you. Scream as loud as you want -- nobody will hear'. We'd stop and think about the implications, looking at the floor or staring into space. We didn't have a clue what the movie was about, but posters and commercials made us love it. I saw 'Alien' opening weekend. Changed my life. Part of the reason I'm typing these words now, decades later.

'Star Wars' comes to mind, too. "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." Come on -- that rocks. Another reason I like movies so much. Another reason I'm sitting at the keyboard now.

It's the inverse of the 'John Carter' bluster which, after gobs of trailers, a dozen generic posters, loads of clips and featurettes, and over a hundred stills, has created little more than confusion and consternation, and managed to dilute anticipation. Cost a fortune, too. Too bad. (I'll stop writing about that now).

'The Hunger Games' has a pretty good campaign. People want to see that. The anticipation, though, can be attributed to the fact the novel is a bestseller not the promo materials, which are plain to say the least.

It's hard to think of other campaigns that had the kind of effortless grace as 'Moonrise Kingdom'. It's easy to predict when the next one will be, though -- whenever Wes Anderson releases his next movie.

Beautiful poster. Lovely.

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'The Hunger Games' Backstory TV Spot

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