MED5108 FILM CULTURES

ASSIGNMENT 1: FILM MARKETING PORTFOLIO

‘Driving Content and Catching Fire –

an analysis of the marketing campaign behind The Hunger Games movie franchise by

Thomas Harris’

S 13162685

The film I will be analysing is The Hunger Games – Catching Fire. This is the second film in

the Hunger Games series.

Background information

The Hunger Games is a series of three books consisting of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire

and Mockingjay. This trilogy of books was soon turned into a franchise of four science-fiction

dystopian adventure films, with the third book ‘Mockingjay’ being split into two final movies.

The films were distributed by Lionsgate and so far the first three films have collectively made

over 2 billion dollars worldwide.

“The Hunger Games is a 2012 American science fiction adventure film directed by Gary Ross

and based on the novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins. The film stars Jennifer

Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny

Kravitz, Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland. The story takes place in a dystopian post-

apocalyptic future in the nation of Panem, where boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18

must take part in the Hunger Games, a televised annual event in which the "tributes" are

required to fight to the death until there is one remaining who will be crowned the victor”

Target Audience

The books were written to a theme of young adult novels, meaning that the age range for these

films are from 12-18 year olds. However when the books were released, alot of critics and fans

were from an older generation, however their main audience was the young adult area. The

films were released to a PG-13 age range, meaning that anyone younger than 13 had to watch

the hunger games with an adult, due to “intense violent thematic material and disturbing

images”. When the first film was officially reviewed by the British Board of Film

Classification in 2012, it was rated as a 15 due to the disturbing scenes involving deaths and

violence, but this was changed after producers agreed to re-edit the film making sure it was

suitable for a younger audience, thus allowing the film to appeal to its target market of 12-18

year olds. I think this was an interesting point that the first film had to be changed and edited to

suit an

classification of certificate, as the books were just as violent but still made millions of dollars

worldwide and became best sellers. It shows that although a book may sell well and create such

a hype, people become offended and disturbed when they can see violence being acted in front

of them and it causes alot more controversy This relates to the theme of censorship in the film

industry. This worked out well for Lionsgate as it created free publicity for the film, as the

release of the film was hyped so much, when a 15 rating was announced alot of fans of the

books were annoyed and this created a backlash against the film, thus creating a mass amount

of media coverage about the films release before and after the films change of certificate and

release.

Catching Fire Marketing Campaign

Catching fire is the second book and movie in the Hunger Games Franchise. It was released in

November 2013 and has grossed over $864 million worldwide. After the success of the first

Hunger Games film, Lionsgate began to create a marketing campaign for the second film and

began to plan this well in advance before the films release. They decided to go with an

integrated strategy of merging online advertising against traditional advertising so that they

could reach greater heights of marketing.

Lionsgate created the first ever evolving logo, meaning that the necklace seen throughout the

hunger games series was constantly turning and changing, to tie in with the meaning on the

necklace in the books. This created alot of press as it was always an eye catching design

anywhere on screen. They also created various different posters of the four note musical motif

which became the iconic whistle of the film – turning into available ring and text tones on

smart phones and apps worldwide, it created hype by using a signature and recognisable

hunger games sound – a form of marketing that hadn’t been used alot for film promotion.

After the first teaser trailer was released by the films star Chris Hemsworth at an award show

ceremony, which created millions of instant views after the teaser trailer was released on

Youtube, Lionsgate began to release a series of 11 portraits of the main characters in Catching

Fire over 5 days on the most popular social media websites worldwide (Facebook, Twitter,

Tumblr etc). This created a constant stream of hype by letting one fanbase in America for

instance share their excitement about the poster online at a certain time, quickly followed a

few hours later by the exact same response in a different location at the opposite side of the

world, thus resulting in days of constant exposure on media platforms for Catching Fire.

After releasing the posters over this certain amount of time, it was expected by alot of the

online fan base for the hunger games series that the hype would die down, as these posters and

teasers were released months before the films reelase, but the marketing team behind Catching

Fire began to start releasing ongoing clues and teasers every few weeks to keep delivering

content to the fan base and create constant interest burning over the upcoming months before

the film. Posters with fans favourite quotes was also a marketing tool that began to be used

online, as fans of the books and movies would instantly recognise the quotes and share them

with their social media platforms.

Another form of marketing for Catching Fire was an online magazine called Capitol Coture.

This was related around the fictional city in the Hunger Games universe called the Capitol,

were opulence, flamboyance and fashion are the main aesthetics in that area.

“a luxury clothing line called Capitol Couture will be released this fall. The line will feature 16

pieces from high-end designer Trish Summerville, all of them meant to reflect the outrageous

fashion trends of Panem’s rich and privileged.”

Although this is a very interesting form of marketing, as it involves real life fashion and

clothing to a film audience, it also cause alot of controversy between fans of the franchise. As

the story line behind the hunger games reads that the Capitol is full of rich and privileged

people, the other districts within this universe are alot more under privileged and below the

poverty line, suggesting that everyone buying the clothes and make up line by Capitol Couture

would be undermining the struggle that alot of their favourite and adored characters would face

in the book by not living in the Capitol. This shows that although marketing can be innovative

and daring, sometimes it can backfire and for alot of fans they find it hard to blur the lines

between fiction and reality. Billboards of fashion by Capitol Couture were also on display all

around New York and LA.

The marketing team also began to ‘join in on the conversation’ by using third party software

through social media platforms to comment on posts relating to Catching Fire, by inviting fans

to special screenings, offering them incentives to share and join fan websites, and handing out

clues to open special areas of the official website, it created an online world that fans began to

crave and want more – something which you don’t find in alot of marketing for a film in this

area.

Public Appearances

The two main actors in the Hunger Games series – Jennifer Lawerance and Josh Hutcherson,

began to do alot of press together for Catching Fire. They began with interviews at press

junkets and various different promotional appearances at certain events like Comic Con. As

both Jennifer and Josh are close friends in real life, their bubbling personalities and humour

both enriched their interviews and resulted with hilarious final cuts which gained millions of

views on Youtube and various other media platforms. This shows how important stardom is

within film marketing – by using two very topical and famous actors for their press junkets,

this let Lionsgate sell their film with a happy face as people would walk away not online

admiring both their talent at acting, but also their genuine and humorous personalities.

Other forms of Marketing

Lionsgate also partnered with various different companies to promote to a wider audience and

add to hype that was already building around Catching Fire.

By creating deals with Subway, this allowed for all different types of demographics to be able to

see and hear about Catching Fire, regardless of weather they were a fan or not, they would

simple see it branded over their Subway products and find out more about it at their own

pleasure. I think this is an interesting technique for movie companies to team up with food

companies as both have such different products but similar demographics as both can essentially

appeal to all ages. Whereas a Childs film being promoted through a Mcdonalds happy meal will

obviously be aimed towards a childs film, where a film like the hunger games aims their

marketing through a food restaurant like Subway, its lets the audience find more about a certain

film that they wouldn’t necessarily find out about for example if the hunger games was

promoted only through a kids fast food chain, such as McDonalds happy meals.

Personally I find that the marketing behind Catching Fire was very bold, daring and innovate. By

focusing all their marketing towards online formats, as opposed to simple traditional marketing,

they managed to completely find their target audience and basically let them share and promote

alot of their marketing that was put in place. The marketing behind Catching Fire allowed it to

become one of the biggest selling movies of 2013 and the 10th biggest selling movie of all time –

showing that off the wall, innovative and modern ways of marketing works.

Bibliography

N.p., 2015. Print.

Austin, Thomas, and Martin Barker. Contemporary Hollywood Stardom. London: Arnold, 2003.

Print.

Egan, Kate, and Suzanne Collins. The World Of The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic,

2012. Print.

Eisenstein, Sergei, and Jay Leyda. Film Form. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949. Print.

Hart, Kylo-Patrick R. Film And Television Stardom. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Pub., 2008.

Print.

Mail Online,. 'Shocked Youngsters 'Are Walking Out Of The Hunger Games' As Experts

Demand Film's Certificate Is Raised To 15'. N.p., 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Mast, Gerald, and Marshall Cohen. Film Theory And Criticism. New York: Oxford University

Press, 1974. Print.

McClintock, Pamela. 'Box Office Milestone: 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Becomes Top 2013

Release In North America'. The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

McDonald, Paul, and Janet Wasko. The Contemporary Hollywood Film Industry. Malden, MA:

Blackwell Pub., 2008. Print.

Phelps, Guy. Film Censorship. London: Gollancz, 1975. Print.

Slide, Anthony, and Anthony Slide. The New Historical Dictionary Of The American Film

Industry. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1998. Print.

Wikipedia,. 'The Hunger Games (Film)'. N.p., 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Williams, Michael. Film Stardom, Myth And Classicism. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire:

Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Print.

Wittern-Keller, Laura. Freedom Of The Screen. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky,

2008. Print.