VIDEO: The Hunger Games | Working Social Media
The Hunger Games has made more than $600 million worldwide – over $400 million of that in the US alone. It exceeded most of the box office expectations at the time of the shoot with most experts predicting it would take only half of what it ended up taking on its first weekend in cinemas. In short, The Hunger Games broke a bunch of records with its huge success.
A lot of that, many experts now say, was due to the calculated publicity push that saw a massive turnout for that opening weekend back in March. As a fan of The Hunger Games, I can attest the incredible amount of hype that surrounded the production. According to the Washington Post’s Jen Chaney there was around 5,000 mentions of The Hunger Games around the blogosphere every single day. As she pointed out back then:
“The Hunger Games”adopted that approach extremely effectively, constantly feeding tidbits and engaging online experiences to the fans of the Suzanne Collins books that inspired the film. Those efforts that helped maintain high “Hunger” interest and media coverage for more than a year.
Now Shawn Amos, in his 60 Seconds of Social Media has summed up the importance of a really strong social media focus to promote films by looking at the success of The Hunger Games’ online campaign.
The Lionsgate blockbuster proved that social media marketing for movies is about more than just ads and promoted hashtags; it’s about compelling content and user experiences that draw people into the world of the film. Creativity, along with an appreciation of the target audience and an understanding of their social media habits, can potentially return dividends beyond what big budget, traditional ad campaigns can deliver.
The next campaign is in full swing. Not that they have to convince us, but it’s interesting to see how The Hunger Games publicity machine is back in action promoting the release of The Hunger Games on DVD. And as a fan, I can’t wait to see what they’ve got in store for us next year as we get ready for the sequel, Catching Fire!
Related posts:
- Fast Company Goes Inside The Hunger Games Social Media Machine
- Josh Hutcherson: New Film ‘Epic’ Launches Website & Social Media Pages
- Lionsgate and Funtactix Announce The Hunger Games Adventure Social Game
- Donald Sutherland on the Social and Political Importance of The Hunger Games
- Josh Hutcherson at the GLAAD Media Awards
glad to see that THG is so successful and recognised!
One thing… Shawn recorded over 60 seconds…
ok one question about the tribute mailbox. ssoo the tributes will see it ?? or the people that play the tributes??
I’m pretty sure that no-one in the movie saw them – they were sent to the different facebook pages set up for the 12 districts, which then shared some of the best letters/drawings etc.