The Wilks Communications Blog

By now, most are familiar with the pop culture phenomenon, The Hunger Games. The three-book series by Suzanne Collins is difficult subject matter to sell: children fighting to the death for a future society’s entertainment. However, this campaign has taken the media’s interest for its highly successful movie campaign with a shoestring budget. Big studios normally spend $100 million marketing major releases, whereas “The Hunger Games” staff of 21 people spent about $45 million.

1. The group created a controlled release of information via the most popular social media websites, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.

-          They cultivated “Hunger Games” fan blogs and drafted a chronology of the online effort on a day-to-day basis to keep track of what information they were sharing in order to slowly gain momentum and interest in the movie.

-          Providing sweepstakes and giveaway offers to blogs (posters, movie tickets, even bringing five fans to the movie’s set)

2. Making the movie a spectacle was important, but again, the kids killing kids theme had to be handled delicately. Wording became important. Instead of saying “23 kids get killed,” they focused on “Only one wins.” Focusing on the positive protected them from negative reactions and added to the mystery of the games. The most radical idea that changed their campaign was never showing the actual games. This protected them from dealing with the sensitive subject matter, but also treated the audience to the same anticipation found within the audience in the books. “In order to see the games, you have to buy a ticket,” explains Palen.

3. Keeping the audience’s attention by involving them in the campaign – making audience involvement important in the campaign made the audience feel important and invested in the story.

-          The creation of “TheCapitol.pn” allowed visitors to become Panem (the movie’s futuristic society) citizens with digital ID cards and its own social media world.