THE HUNGER

GAMES : CATCHING
FIRE
Using Digital and Social Media for Brand Storytelling
Presented By:
Group 4
Anitej Tripathy M007-19
Isha Bali M019-19
Rahul Kumar Shaw M035-19
Siddharth M047-19
S Subhranshu Sekhar Behuria M203-19
Sushree Lasyamayee M054-19
 2

ROADMAP
Audience
Engagement

Promotional
Mix

Hunger Games
& Brand Recommendatio
Storytelling ns

Mockingjay Part
1& Conclusion

Campaign
Outcome
 HUNGER GAMES
It started in the form of 3 novels written by American author and screenwriter
Suzanne Collins.
The novels were a combination of science
fiction, adventure , drama and action.
 The Hunger Games (2008)
It was a top seller on Amazon.com and by
 Catching Fire (2009)
2014 had more than 65 million copies sold
in US.
 Mockingjay (2010)
The theme of the novel was set in imaginary,
post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, which
consisted of a wealthy capitol and 12 districts
ruled by the capitol.

The citizens of the districts were forced to

participate in an annualized television
competition called the Hunger Games.
 Brand Storytelling
Transmedia storytelling is a
It is the method of using various technique which allows a
distribution platforms to create story to unfold across
personal and unique customer multiple media platforms and
experiences. requires active participation
of fans across the platforms.

Important factors:

It uses characters and emotions 1. Spreadability of narrative

to keep audiences engaged and 2. Viral marketing practices
entertained by building a story in all social media
and by extension a brand with channels
meaning.

This proves to be a It has been implemented

powerful way to connect in many films like The Blair
with the audience. Witch Project, Pride and
Prejudice, Game of
Thrones, Matrix etc.
 TRANSMEDIA BRAND STORY TELLING
It started with a live footage of a
car theft at an Audi dealership at
Park Avenue.
It featured a story about a stolen
Audi A3 with the aim to engage
the audience as active
participants
It was designed and executed by
Campfire marketing agency in
2005
Bloggers posted stories about stolen vehicle.
Billboard, messages, flyers were handed out asking
public’s help
Audi A3 “Art of
Heist” Campaign TV commercial was created about car steal
describing the car’s features
Videogame designer was asked to design a
game/app to find the car
A3’s website revealed that it hired
a company “Last Resort Retrieval”
to find the missing car
 A curious visitor to the site would find videos
and clips about theft and details about public
participation in recovery of car.

 Audience had participated in huge numbers

making the campaign one of the largest and
most experiential “reality blurring” campaign
ever executed.

RESULTS
 45 million PR impressions
 5,000,000 story participants
 over 10,000 leads to dealers
 over 2 million unique visitors to AudiUSA.com
 Promotional Mix
Catch Fire Campaign: Instagram: Twitter:
Capitol Couture, Helped Fashionable photographs featured in Served mostly to relay
in creating deeper Capitol Couture Tumblr was posted here. public service
engagement Fashion and Design rather than overall announcements from
story helped in deep understanding of Capitol and Post
very niche fan base. ideological messages
from Panem’s citizen.

Tumblr: YouTube:
Allowed fans to get CapitolTV district voices, District 6’s Facebook:
engaged deeply with the powerful assault vehicles, District 5’s Page to invite friends to
culture of Capitol cutting-edge renewable energy like it; featured photos,
Online Magazine giving technologies, District 8’s videos and app;
detailed and dramatic textiles, and District 2’s peacekeeping launching video teaser of
pictures of 11 main forces, new upcoming movie
characters.
 Audience Engagement
Target Audience:
Catching Fire, fans
producing high amount of
user-generated content.
User Generated Content:
Fan created content on
social media sites of film.
Tumblr’s focused image and
video content. Fan art and
Fan Videos were consumed
and produced at a high
level.
Fan Challenges and Participation:
On Tumblr site, fans were highly
encouraged to enter Capitol Art
Challenge and give their own
Fashion creations.
Challenge like Be Fabulous, Be
Capitol, Be Seen and Red Carpet
look of fans could also be posted
under other challenge.
Ultimate Fan challenge was a
gamification of fan participation.
Fans could participate by
registering, earn points , unlock
badges and bragging rights to share
with community.
 9

Campaign Outcome
The numbers showed the following results

10
Facebook
million

Most
YouTube
Watched

Twitter 850,000 • A huge and • $158.1 million

growing fan box office on
base. opening
Most
Google • High amount weekend
Searched
of user • $864.9 million
generated global box
content like office
blogs, photos collection.
Transmedia Storytelling Campaign of Hunger Games

01
Focus on telling a
good story.
02
Distribution

03
Involvement of
Audience
04
Ease of finding
pieces
 01. Focus on telling a story

A clear plot and main idea are central to the story telling narrative.

Real World

Real Citizens

Real Fashion Magazine

Did all the elements hang together? Was the

Capital Couture idea coherent with the story??
 02. Distribution
Each Social media platform was being exploited for it’s unique qualities.

• Fans could register for • Fans were given an Tumblr blog

a district and have identity such as a
badges for it. reached out to fans
district mayor or
• Connect with recruiter. who had an
communities on • Initially it was started interest in fashion,
Facebook. with core fans and beauty and
then the scope was
Sense of further broadened photography.
belongingness
03. Involvement of Audience

Why was the Capitol in style if it stood for violence,

corruption and oppression?

Did the fashion line really fit with the book’s message?

Was it to make a compelling short term impression

rather than build a compelling story around the
franchise?
 04. Ease of finding pieces
Each piece of the narrative should be easy to find and should have a connection with the main plot.

Catching Fire campaign employed a plethora of campaigns to convey the message.

The tumblr blog tried to

1. Illustrate the World of Panem citizens
2. Real life writers and designers also inhabited the blog.

Did it do anything to expand fans understanding of

the current plot??
 Partnerships

Online efforts were amplified offline by Subway limited edition

using traditional media. sandwich seemed odd for a
movie about hunger and
starvation

The posters of the characters were Beauty partnerships ignored

released online on Social media websites men and children.
like Twitter. Almost half of the film fans
Leading magzines also cooperated with were male
Lionsgate to release cover picture of Didn’t cater to mothers who
characters. shopped for themselves and
Films characters introduced the first their kids
trailer of movie in the show Good
morning America.
 Mockingjay Part 1
Mockingjay part 1 was the next instalment of the Hunger Games series, supposed to be released on November 21st
Challenges Ahead:
 How to
 Successfully blur the line between reality
and Fiction once again?
 Leverage on the already built foundation?
 Expand the storyline & Audience
engagement?
 Promote the concept of rebellion against
capitol without jeopardising the already
developed fan engagement with it?
 Whether to continue using low cost media
such as YouTube?
 What new partnerships and storytelling
techniques could be executed?
Recommended Solutions:
 Create an one stop solution (Mobile App) for the
audience redirected from all possible platforms
 Try connecting to a broader audience while focusing
on Die-Hard fans.
 Try to bring out the rebel among Fans by connecting
to real life situations in similar lines to produce more
user generated content on similar lines.
 Execute more engaging activities such as Interactive
games on the plot, Trying Hunger Games clothes on a
Magic Mirror.
 Focus on Reshaping the target audience to include
the significant male viewers & other relevant
Cohorts.
 Conclusion
Blurring the
lines between
facts and
Persistent fiction Creating a high
story level of audience
participation Transmedia brand
Brand Storytelling development along with
differentiate in real time personalized & storytelling is a subset
across various integrated of brand story telling
brands and platforms Salient experience.
enhances using various media
features of and distribution
Audience interest Brand
& Engagement platforms to promote a
storytelling Creating
brand.
curiosity
Establishing
among fans to
relevant
execute
Partnerships Carefully research on
Overcoming their own
the risk of
overwhelmin
g Fans with
too much
content
 Recommendations
1. They should have used tools like google alerts, google trends and specially social
mention to know about the strength, sentiment and passion regarding the keywords
and campaigns so that improvements if required could be made.
2. They should have done online reputation management by evaluating performance
metrics on several campaigns so that a negative campaign like that of Subway could be
taken down as soon as possible.
3. The target group should have been clearly defined on whom the campaigns should
have been focused on like males, children and women were not catered with the
campaign.
4. Along with assigning districts and badges the fans should have been provided with links
where they could purchase merchandize like mugs, t-shirts, badges etc on e commerce
store like Amazon.
5. The links would act as backlinks and would help to better the Search rankings.
6. For the time Hunger Games was trending their merchandize should be placed at the
home page of e commerce websites which would give it more link juice.
7. A proper brand story should have been developed which laid emphasis on the message
that the book was sending rather than focusing on fashion through Capital Couture.
8. Reaction checks should have been implemented to know regarding a crisis about any
post.
THANK YOU !