A round up of the games

The results speak for themselves and The Hunger Games has certainly achieved and exceeded expectations. Their integrated marketing communications campaign has been applauded in nearly every article I have read with hardly any negativity and the box office results have clearly shown how engaged the audience was in the campaign.


I think Lionsgate were clever to start getting people excited early. The marketing campaign started at the same time as the film went into production so the buzz had been there for a nearly a year before the film hit the big screen.


Their choice of platforms was faultless. The combination of all the social media sites together was inexpensive and integrated perfectly. It is the main platform used by the target audience and the interactivity of these sites got people talking and passing on to each other - great word of mouth. I like that traditional media wasn't ignored too, and TV spots and trailers at Imax and during 'The Superbowl 'were used well to attract the male audiences.


The consistency in the messaging and the delivery of the communications have been very successful at building up a movie franchise. So the excitement is already there for the second movie, we already know what the campaign for the next movie will look and feel like and where we will be able to get all the information we need on the next movie. Very exciting for the audience and very exciting for Lionsgate, who has successfully built what they set out to do a multi-million dollar franchise!

The results are in

So were the target audience engaged in The Hunger Games? Did they all go and see it? Did the integrated marketing communication get people excited and promote the film well enough?


Yes, yes and yes! I truly believe Lionsgate achieved all their objectives because the results are in, and since the movie was released 10 days ago, "The Hunger Games" has made 365 million worldwide in ticket sales, and was the third biggest opening at the US box office of all time and no sign of slowing down! Not bad for having a relatively small marketing budget.


Its no surprise that Lionsgate are planning another 3 Hunger Games films and planning to continue marketing the movie in the lead up to the DVD release and award seasons.


So after reading so much about the movie for this blog, and not being able to avoid the numerous media, I thought I would check it out.....and yes, it does live up to the hype and no it is nothing like the Twilight movies! I can see why Lionsgate have tried to market to the males just as much as the females - males  would love this movie just as much as the females. Having seen the movie now, I can also understand more why certain creative decisions were made , why certain colours, symbols, headlines and social media channels have been used and linked all together. Very clever job. I may even buy the books!


References
Richwine, L. 2012http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/04/02/boxoffice-hungergames-idINDEE83102120120402 Accessed 3/4/12.

Not forgetting the traditional games

The digital integrated marketing campaign has clearly been the gold to secure the 25 and under male and female audience. Traditional media has also been used to secure the 25 plus year audience, who are still used to making their purchase decisions based on traditional media. 


Lionsgate have given away 80,000 posters, secured 50 magazine covers and advertised on over 3,000 billboards and bus shelters, used TV spots and all media has a very eye catching message.


Below is the link to the advert that played during half time at the Superbowl. Riveting stuff and leaves you wanting more. This is a clever use of advertising to get the boys excited also.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IVjVgx193c


Below is a link to show just how many magazine covers The Hunger Games have been on the front of! I think definitely the strongest covers are the ones that stick with similar colour and themes as the movie posters, trailers and all other media used for The Hunger Games because they are instantly recognisable as something to do with the movie. The black and gold colours with the fire is the look and when used, really come across strong and links everything together.




http://www.google.com.au/search?q=the+hunger+games+magazine+covers&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvnsu&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=HCB5T4KCAYeYiAfemsjYBA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBEQ_AUoAQ&biw=1916&bih=879




The marketing budget was relatively small for a movie with a 80 million plus production budget. This is obviously because Liongate have been smart enough to recognise their core target audience and used very successfully, the platform which is used daily by 25 and under - social media. This type of media is also very cheap compared to traditional media. I think they also used their traditional media smartly e.g - Superbowl half time  - an engaged male audience and every trailer and TV spot I have seen has been really riveting with high impact. 




References
Arthur, L. 2012. Marketing the Hunger Games. Aprimo. Website accessed 2/4/12http://blog.aprimo.com/marketing-the-hunger-games


Belch. Kerr. Powell. 2012. Advertising: An Integrated Marketing Communication Perspective. McGraw Hill Australia, North Ryde.

The Social Media Games

Lionsgate have created a comprehensive and what I think is a very effective social media campaign, which I'm sure you have already seen something of as it is everywhere and hard to avoid! In my opinion the social media campaign is extremely integrated. Here is some social media channels they are using well:

Twitter

http://twitter.com/#!/thehungergames


Tweets include real life news about the movie release, messages from the actors, engagement with fans by asking them to talk about their favourite part of the movie, favourite scene, character etc. There is also a link to another Twitter account on The Hunger Games page which takes on the guise of Panema's capital city official account (this is the city the movie takes place). Very exciting for the die hard fans who get to feel like they are actually in the movie!


Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/thehungergamesmovie

Comprehensive Facebook page for the movie, as well as Facebook pages that have been created for main characters in the movie as well as the districts from the movie. There is not just you regular pictures, status updates and info there is so much more - you can buy tickets on here, play games, even become "fan of the week"!

YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/thehungergamesmovie

YouTube has its own channel featuring everything to do with the movie. It has trailers, short teaser clips, interviews with the cast but what I find interesting about the whole thing is you forget you are even on YouTube. They have called it "The Capitol TV Productions" The Capital of Panema is where the Hunger Games takes place they have completely built up a channel so you completely feel like you are living in this city with these people and a part of the games.

What I like about  Lionsgate's social media campaign is the integration of all the different channels. When you first visit some of these sites, before you read a word you know that you have entered something do with The Hunger Games just by the colours used, the fonts, the logo, look and feel. What I also love is the interactivity, you are not just reading about The Hunger Games on any one of these sites you are actually part of The Hunger Games. They really have used each platform to its best ability there is a hell of a lot to do on all of these sites.

The disadvantage of using social media can be that you leave yourself open for all the bad comments as well as the good due to the interactivity of these sites. One of the actors from the movie Amanda Stenberg was subjected to racist attacks against herself via The Hunger Games Twitter page. It is one of the disadvantages of using social media and something that cannot be avoided if you are using an open forum like this. I do think the pros outway the cons though. It is so inexpensive and the perfect medium to reach the target audience of the movie.  The Hunger Games social media campaign is perfectly integrated and investigating and using all these sites has made me really want to go and see the movie now!

Who is the target audience of The Hunger Games?

Lionsgate had the advantage of already having a built in fan base for The Hunger Games, thanks to the success of Suzanne Collins' trilogy books. About 9.6 million books were already in circulation when the film first began shooting. The problem Lionsgate had was the core fan base was made up of female fans 14-25, the lead character is a 16 year old action female and historically movies with a female action lead like Tomb Raider haven't always done well at the box office. Films like Tomb Raider already had a built in fan base too from the video games and completely flopped at the box office. The similarities to the Twilight trilogy also worked at alienating male moviegoers. Lionsgate's strategy was to target their campaign towards young males at the same time not neglecting their pre-built female core audience. Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns was quoted as saying "We always wanted this as a four-quadrant movie." Meaning it would appeal to boys, girls, men and women, that would be the target audience.

Some promotional strategies that Lionsgate have used to allure men have been opening the film on nearly 300 IMAX screens for a limited time - IMAX cinemas have a much bigger male audience. Also airing a full length trailer of the movie in the ad break during the superbowl in America. The film also apparently plays down the romance aspect of the story and focuses more on the action - this shows the strategy to enlist more males was in the pipeline from the beginning.

I think it was the right thing to target the males as well as females during the marketing campaign, it gives the film more credibility and hopefully wont turn it in to what the Twilight craze has become with it's "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" girls gone crazy craze! The Twilight movies seem to be getting more critical panning as they continue and I must say I saw Breaking Dawn on DVD the other day and it wasn't good and I can't imagine if that movie was a stand alone and not part of a trilogy if it would have any viewers apart from a female 12-18 year category. 




The fans of Twilight - mainly female

Fans lining up to see first midnights screening of The Hunger Games - males & female

Reference

Barnes, B. Bosman, J. 2012. Hunger Games' book sales bode well for the film. The New York Times Accessed 27.3.2012.http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/hunger-games-book-sales-bode-well-for-the-film/

Let the games begin

This is just one of the many trailers, teasers, featurettes, interviews and so on that can be found on YouTube about the movie franchise set to blow the Twilight series out of the water - The Hunger Games.


The movie only opened on Thursday (23rd March) yet the hype has been present for nearly a year now - right about the time Lionsgate, the studio behind The Hunger Games began its integrated marketing communications campaign to launch this multibillion dollar franchise.


The Hunger Games movie is based on the first novel of a trilogy of books written by Suzanne Collins. It tells the story of a 16 year old girl, Katniss Everdeen who is called upon to represent her district and  fight  23 other teens to the death in a twisted annual survival competition that is televised to the nation of Panem. (Dodes & Jurgensen 2012)


I have not read the book, nor seen the movie yet I feel I already could tell you a lot about the story, characters, actors etc. It has been very hard to avoid the enormous hype surrounding The Hunger Games, that is for sure.


The world has already been watching The Hunger Games through Lionsgate's very successful social media campaign in particular and according to Torchlight digital Solutions "they have one of the best and most integrated social media viral marketing campaigns." Although the focus has been on using social media and other inexpensive online techniques, mass media or now what we class as "old media" like newspaper and magazine ads, haven't been ignored. 

References
Dodes, R & Jurgensen, J. 2012.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204603004577267832212316716.html. Accessed on 24.3.12

Barnes, B. 2012http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/business/media/how-hunger-games-built-up-must-see-fever.html. Accessed on 24.3.12