The Hunger Games: An E-Marketing Success Story

A recent New York Times article details the sophisticated marketing campaign that went into promoting the film, The Hunger Games. It opens with a statement that, as students of E-Marketing, should come as no surprise to us.

Selling a movie used to be a snap. You printed a poster, ran trailers in theaters and carpet-bombed NBC’s Thursday night lineup with ads. Today, that kind of campaign would get a movie marketer fired.

This statement provides the foundation for an explanation of the Hunger Games' creative and elaborate E-Marketing campaign. In addition to the standard production of posters, trailers and TV spots bought to promote The Hunger Games, an expertly orchestrated E-Marketing campaign had been set in motion many months before any other promotional material had been released. It started with the release of the logo to movie blogs, meant to tease and promote preliminary discussion. From there, over the course of months a multitude of creative E-Marketing stunts were executed. One such example was a Twitter scavenger hunt where100 puzzle pieces were distributed among 100 different websites who were told to post their piece on their twitter account. The idea being that fans could hop along the twitter-sphere collecting them in order to form the full image, A new poster for the film. Another example would be their invitation of 5 fans (instead of reporters) to the set of the Hunger Games, who would then create an online buzz. In addition to these two examples, a network of alternate reality websites, facebook and Iphone games, and user generated Hunger Games Youtube videos have all been created or prompted by this campaign.

This campaign reflects what we have learned thus far in class. The invitation of fans instead of reporters reflects the idea that the words of peers outweighs the words of standard marketing correspondence. Prompting bloggers to foster participation in their scavenger hunt, as well as prompting users to create their own youtube videos also reflects this notion. This E-marketing campaign also made sure it was offering value through their Facebook/Iphone games.

It is worth noting that despite how extensive the E-marketing portion of their marketing campaign was, the marketing budget for the film in total was around 45 million dollars, which is apparently quite small for a major release.

Despite its modest marketing budget, it seems the film has been able to do very well for itself. A more recent New York Times article states that it took in 155 million dollars in North America in its opening weekend. This figure broke records for a spring release; something that perhaps could not have been accomplished without an expertly crafted online marketing strategy.

Pray to Google

A recent Washington Post article details Google's latest moves in their ever increasing effort to organize the worlds information. In a nutshell, they are changing privacy policies across their vast product line in order to coordinate user information, drawn from multiple google products (search, youtube, gmail, etc.),  into a single profile for each user. The primary reason given for this change is that it will enable Google to streamline their services and add value to their product line by allowing for the potential of  benefits and conveniences to consumers who use multiple Google products. An example given by a Google spokesperson on the official Google blog reads as such:

"We can provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what traffic is like that day.”

This news has great implications for e-marketing as well. As our text continues to state, the internet is allowing consumers to be less and less captive to the advertising once put fourth by formerly dominant mediums such as television and radio. A flip side of this is that the internet allows for much greater personalization of marketing efforts. Google's capability to tailor marketing efforts to individuals will be greater than ever before. For example, if you watch a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers videos on youtube, you might have an advertisement for an upcoming Chili Peppers concert show up beside a gmail composition. In this way, Google will be able to increase the relevance of their advertising to individual users on an unprecedented level.

Of course there is the matter of privacy. Some people (especially in Europe according to our text) may be very weary that an organization, even one with as much perceived benevolence as Google, is creating such a detailed and comprehensive profile of each individual depending on how much they use Google products. Given the fact that these changes will be a mandatory part of using Google's products, some people may be turned off enough to cut Google out of their lives all together. On the other hand, such notions haven't stopped people from putting their whole life on Facebook.  

As long as Google simply uses this information to enhance their products and their advertising capabilities, I am not particularly concerned about these changes. Although I do acknowledge the fact that it is a tad unsettling to think a company has been able to compile a detailed dossier on you complete with your location at any given time through the use of your Android phone. Come to think of it, Google can probably do a better job getting intelligence on you than most private investigators. The only difference is, you have to allow them to do it through the use of their products. Google, I like your products. Please use your powers for good.