The Hunger Games and Social Media

The Hunger Games has had a cult following ever since the first book was published in 2008. However, I believe that social media gave the franchise an extra boost when it came to promoting the film. These social media campaigns mostly targeted a younger market by marketing on MTV and MTV's Facebook page. I think this was a smart idea because the younger generation tends to be the market that is most knowledgeable about social media, and knows how to spread the word via these outlets.

Did the social media campaign work on me? Absolutely. I am an avid Tweeter, and for the past few months, I have been reading numerous tweets about the Hunger Games. The tweets I read prepared me to see the movie, and feel excitement about the franchise.

With any book series I think there is a marginal size initial audience that anticipates the film adaptation of the book, however utilizing social media allowed the Hunger Games campaign to reach beyond the book readers.  Reaching the target market of teens and young adults created a huge following which made this movie a runaway hit.  I did see the movie, my roommate had read the book trilogy and suggested I go see it with her, I do not think I would gone to see it in theater otherwise.  The movie has brought in over $251million dollars, making Hunger Games success a great glimpse into the relationship that the current teen audience has with social media.  Prior to opening weekend the movie generated millions of fan conversations on Facebook and tweets on Twitter which lead to many fans pre-ordering tickets and waiting in lines in anticipation to see Hunger Games.  According to the Huffington Post schools in New York were even taking students to see the movie as a class field trip.  The well executed media campaign was able to reach target audiences beyond the book readers, generating a large fan base and creating a huge social media phenomenon.

I actually became familiar with the Hunger Games series last year, when I had to read them for a class here at MSU last year. At the time, it was only a rumor that Hollywood would be making a big-screen version. But already there were tons of homemade trailers on Youtube, as well as social media pages, fan clubs, etc. Since then the Hunger Games have completely blown up. While I would say that the movie is directed toward a younger auidence, there are people of all ages and genders who are going crazy over the film. The Hunger Games have been a trending topic on Twitter for months, and I had Facebook advertisments for the film all over my homepage. Social media is a great way to reach the teenagers that the book was originally written for.

Although I have not seen the movie nor read the books, the Hunger Games has been a constant topic of conversation.  Many friends and family members of mine have been sharing how much they enjoy the Huger Games.  People are always mentioning to me that I need to become involved in the most recent craze.  I first saw the movie trailer on YouTube a few months prior to the movie release.  Since then, it has been all I have heard about.  The media created a constant buzz about the movie and used various social media to do so.  With a movie targeting a younger generation, social media is an extremely smart way to reach the target audience.  Within the past few weeks, the Hunger Games has been a trending topic on Twitter and has been talked about on Facebook.  No matter if you have seen the movie or read the books, everyone has heard of the new fad.  Social media played a vital role in this constant buzz of the Hunger Games.

I began reading the first Hunger Games book two summers ago. A friend had told me about the books but other than that, I hadn't heard of them before. It was interesting to see the increase in popularity the book has gotten since then. I think especially with books, word of mouth is a leading form of advertising- and social networking sites really pushes that along. I could literally see the boost in interest on Facebook during the two years since I read the first book. I thought the movie was alright, but i'm a tough movie critic. It is amazing how social media has made such an impact in the promotion of the Hunger Games movie.

I did not see the movie The Hunger Games, nor did I read any of the books. But from hearing in the media how much popular these books have become, the movie would have probably been a huge money maker even without all of these social media campaigns. Sure these campaigns have grown the exposure of the books/movie, but it also increased profits. I think their social media idea with making videos that are passed along is a perfect way to get others to view the interests of their peers. Starting this campaign back in 2011 increased awareness of the movie way before it even came out, and those who never read the books were probably curious of the movie because of all the publicity.

I have not seen The Hunger Games movie yet, I admit I jumped on the bandwagon a little late, but I wanted to read the books before I see the movie. So I am currently reading them and have fallen in love with them, like everyone said I would. I think they had a fantastic strategy and they started early enough to really build hype around the books and movie using what their target audience is involved in the most, social media. It allowed people to really get involved in the experience and there for it probable resonated with a lot of people rather than just another movie preview. Personally I don’t remember seeing anything about the movie, but I also hadn’t gotten involved with reading the books yet and it wasn’t something that was interesting to me just quite yet. I really do feel like The Hunger Games became this huge phenomenon overnight, but after reading this article and knowing how far in advance they started putting these social marketing materials out there, it was all part of a well laid plan.

I know that my friends and I were among the millions that shared Youtube videos of the Hunger Games trailer on Facebook.  After reading (and loving) the Hunger Games trilogy I was excited to gain more information on the movie – what actors would be playing each character, how they planned to turn the lengthy book into a two and a half hour film without cutting too much out, etc.  I even followed the actors on twitter.  I have to wonder whether or not I would have been as interested in the movie without the spark of social media.  The trailer for the movie was well edited and easy to share, and made it simple to spread among many different sites.   The attention gained from the movie’s social media extended into more traditional media (TV, Radio, etc.) and gained more hype for the film.

I still think the movie would have been successful, although not as record-breaking, without the use of social media.  There are many fans of The Hunger Games series that would have been excited about the movie and seen it, but the use of social media heightened that excitement.  People who had not read the books gained interest in the movies.  I don’t see how the use of social media in advertisement and PR will disappear in the future.  As we incorporate the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and smart phone applications more into our lives everyday it becomes less of an “advertisement” and more of daily life.  Sharing The Hunger Games trailer on Facebook was not seen as participating in sales or communications for the film, but instead was just a way of sharing my interests on my Facebook page. 

I did go out and see The Hunger Games in theaters during opening weekend. Having read the books, I was thoroughly disappointed in the film's adaptation of the books. I believe that many crucial elements of the books were left out and also that the main element of the book (the actual "Hunger Games") were dulled down to make it a PG-13 rated movie. With that being said, I do believe that the marketing and the buzz that was created around the release of this movie was done exceptionally well. This movie was target toward the tween-young adult audience whom are also the main users of social media networking sites these days. So by utilizing social media to reach their targeted audience was a great strategy. Many people who were not even interested in reading the books still were aware of the buzz the movie was having on social media and went to see the film just to understand what the hype was all about. Good job Lionsgate!

Althought I do think this was a good strategy, I myself had never seen anything on social media websites about this. It may be because I was not looking or very interested, but if so, I feel like if it was that popular I would have seen it on social media networks. The main way I heard about The Hunger Games was through my friends, so I believe word of mouth can be more impactful depending on the target audience and getting to spread it out to more than just the people that may be reading the books or be a fan. 

I think it was a great strategy. It hits the target market and was incredibly effective. Everyone is on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, ect. This will make sure thaty everyone will see the marketing and gain awareness and interest even without searching for it since their friends are all posting about it. I have no interest in this movie or the book but I see a post or tweet about it everyday, so it is definatly doing its job on getting awareness out and generating interests.

I think there are a lot of things to take away from this. One of them being that The Hunger Games is just a great product to begin with. It has a cult following as is, not to say that a lot of books turned movies don’t, but that is certainly contributing to its success. With that said, I think this is a trend that we are going to see more and more in social media, allowing consumers to be targeted and get excited about a product that is still in the making. Instead of flooding the mainstream media for a week, they found a way to successfully create a huge word of mouth campaign. I can tell you that I have been constantly hearing about The Hunger Games for about a month now without ever having directly marketed at. That’s something that we can all learn a little bit about. I think creating content that is exciting like character profiles and behind the scenes makes it more engaging for the consumer and therefore more popular and shared.

I have yet to see the movie or read the books but cannot believe that it is possible to have caught on to every age group and target market. It's increible to me that this is creating a movement. I tend to be late to the punch with things like this but I am definitely going to read the book and hopefully see the movie. I find it fascinating that it is possible to blow a movie and book combo up like this with just social media. It goes to show how powerful social media is. thismoment, inc. is a website to look around on and see of the options they provide. Definitely something to look into for the final project.

Just like the rest of the world, I am also obessed with Hunger Games. Although, I am yet to see the movie because I am waiting until I finish all 3 books. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest have been targetting Hunger Games fans for weeks now, the social media efforts produced by Lionsgate were genious. Even if you do not like Hunger Games or were unaware of what it was, you now know all the characters and the basic plot due to the social media campaigns. Their efforts to get the audience involved increased the hype of the movie and definitely made for its huge opening night. I am not suprised that Hunger Games had more success than Twilight. I do not remember any social media efforts towards the movie, but I know I will never forget the Hunger Games craze. The movie has now been in theaters for over ten days, yet it has been talked about for over ten months.

I’m a huge fan and am obsessed with Suzanne Collins books. However, I’m also a fan of the social media campaign that Lionsgate used to promote the movie. For the past year, they’ve been targeting content platforms embraced by young audiences including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Tumblr. They’ve launched Facebook contests and Twitter scavenger hunts, put casting news on Facebook, aired a one minute sneak peak on MTV.com, dedicated a Tumblr blog called Capital Couture dedicated to the movie’s fashions, shared iPhone games, featured live Yahoo streaming from the premiere in Los Angeles and announced ticket giveaways. 

The Hunger Games new media marketing strategy definitely nailed it. The whole idea of the pre launch to gain awareness to their target market before the campaign even began was honestly brilliant. They were able to get their target market excited about the movie way before the campaign was launched, and they were also able to keep the excitement going. Social Media is the reason that The Hunger Games will gross more than the Twilight series and also possibly Harry Potter. New Media drives business and success, and The Hunger Games is just another example.

I have to admit that the movie looks less than intersting to me. With everyone and their brother talking about it on Facebook, it also annoyed the heck out of me, sine the movie doesn't/didn't appeal to me anyways. But now, even when I log into Pinterst, everything is "Hunger Games Inspired", or pins regarding Katniss (or whatever her name is). I probably wouldn't mind all the socia media hype, if it were something that actually appealed to me.

While the movie's social media coverage probably worked on most, I have to admit I was nothing but annoyed by all the coverage of this, and becase of it I will most likely not see this movie. However, overexposure is probably something people behind these marketing efforts have to think about. How much is too much? 

I feel the same way about reality starts like the Kardashians. Sure, they were funny at first, but now I just want them to crawl in a hole and never come out. I don't care about their lives, and I hate that it's everywhere I turn. The same goes for these movies. 

I am so sick of things like The Hunger Games and Twilight. In my opinion, they aren't good, and I don't understand why people care so much. However, after reading this article, I found some great ideas about how I might be able to translate these social media campaigns into someone more useful to me. 

The Hunger Games has definitely been the recent storm in social media. I haven't seen the movie or read the books personally, but all my friends have given both positive reviews. The Hunger Games series is something enjoyed by all ages, and it doesn't come with the drama of Twilight. The epic story of a herioc girl captures the attention of the audience. In fact, I had an interview about a week ago. Right after the interview, the candidates and the recruiters met in the lounge to chat for a while. One of the recruiters had to leave early, and when asked why she replied: "I am taking my daughter to see the Hunger Games tonight!" After that occurence I decided I must see this movie soon. Since the movie is so good, social media does not have to do too much work in promotion. Word of mouth helps the most and the movie industry is making a lot of money from this. What a storm in social media. 

The social media marketing efforts used in promoting Hunger Games is unique in many ways.  The idea of starting before the product is even launched is rare and typically not used.  They started gaining publicity and spreading the word about the movie before many people knew such movie was being produced.  The success of this effort could be largely linked to Hunger Games originating as a book, and people already knew about it.  Another interesting tactic used was encouraging viewers to upload videos showing how much they enjoyed the moive.  Without even asking (or paying), Hunger Games fans were sharing videos and promoting the movie across all types of social media.  Targeting a younger audience and involving the media markets typically used by such demographic (MTV) also played a role in Hunger Games becoming such a "social marketing phenomenon".

I have not seen The Hunger Games, but it definitely doesn't surprise me that much of its success comes from social media. It really is genius to start the campaign early and directly toward your target audience, especially partnering with other websites and organizations that your target audience frequents like MTV. I'm honestly not all that interested in seeing The Hunger Games, but I have plenty of friends who are and who have already seen it. I've also seen the massive buzz on social media and through social networking. My friends have posted links on Facebook to popular blog discussing the movie, I've seen tons of retweets it, and news stories all over the place. It's also really cool that a startup company was able to create something this powerful. It truly shows how key social media has become in marketing campaigns and the future one can have in the industry if they master social media.

I first heard about the Hunger Games from my roommates at the end of last summer. Ironically, the article pinpoints that point as when the social media campaign started to get up and running. I can't specifically pinpoint when I first realized there was going to be a movie - I heard about the books and quickly devoured the whole trilogy. Soon after, though, I remember seeing movie posters advertising the impending arrival of the premiere in March. After reading the Forbes article, the thismoment strategy to social media marketing makes total sense to me. I think it's vital to get the involvement of users (in this case, readers) to help spread the word in social media channels. I also think it's logical to market to the younger crowd, because they're commonly the most active on social media networks and can be a huge assistance when trying to spread the word.  These two distinct groups - young adults active in social media and fans of the Hunger Games trilogy - are also prime targets for getting user generate content, which was another aspect of the marketing campaign. I find it no surprise that these two groups would be wildly interested in generating their own content about the movie, which is a huge way to market it without even spending money.

I think it's a great idea to start promoting early, like ThisMoment did for the Hunger Games.  A large part of their audience is young people and they make up the majority of social media users.  ThisMoment created buzz on sites like YouTube, profiling characters and the story long before the movie came out.  It's fairly easy to do and inexpensive as well.  Why not get people interested and feed them information on the internet, where you know they spend so much time?  Utilizing social media is becoming just as important, if not more, than traditional advertising, especially for the younger generations.

I haven't seen The Hunger Games yet - I haven't read the book yet and want to finish it before I see the movie - but for the longest time, the movie was all my friends could talk about. Given the social media campaign ThisMoment launched for the movie, it doesn't surprise me how much buzz the movie got. I saw commercials for it on TV, but I think the true success can be attributed to the user-generated content Hunger Games fans were encouraged to create. People undoubtedly saw the TV commercials, but those ads didn't necessarily start a conversation among consumers; the YouTube videos fans created about their excitement for the movie, however, did. The fact that they started this campaign last summer also helped build momentum, because it gave the conversations consumers were having time to develop and gain strength. The Hunger Games' campaign is a solid example of how successful social media marketing can be.

After hearing all the buzz about The Hunger Games, I had to break down and go see the movie. It was great! After seeing the movie and reading the books I found myself noticing the social media campaigns more and more. ThisMoment did a great job at creating an incredible amount of buzz around the premiere. Even after the initial opening weekend audiences are still raving about the film. With its $155 million opening weekend response, the movie has the potential to be larger than Twilight in terms of move theater income. It is amazing social media had such a large impact in an otherwise overlooked movie. After seeing the success of this film I'm sure that others will follow suit when it comes to their promotion. I would say that the $155 million opening weekend was more than worth their money spend with social media.

I have not seen the movie yet, but I also never heard about the movie until it was about to come out and it was announced on TV. I also didn't know there was a book series until I started hearing people reading about them. It might have something to do that this kind of movie genre does not really interest me or that maybe I just over looked ads on my Facebook page. But if I overlooked them, that means that the ads didn't pop out at me and were basically lost in the clutter. In my opinion the social media campaign might have been overall successful in reaching the niche audience that likes those types of books and movies, but it did leave out the rest of the population, even though that population could have been hooked by the ads and trailers and went to see it as well.

After I started reading the first book, I have book hooked on the Hunger Games. This book is so well written and is a truly amazing story. And yes, I was one of those crazy people who waited for 3.5 hours in line to see the Midnight Premiere of the movie. Although many were disappointed, I thought the movie was amazing and brought the entire story of the Hunger Games to life for me. There has been a huge hype building up the Hunger Games craze through social media, blogs and news articles about the latest "next big thing". I work at Charlotte Russe and we even had promotions for the Hunger Games including the Hunger Games trilogy signed by Suzanne Collins and a chance to see Taylor Swift in concert. I truly believe that the Hunger Games will be even bigger than Twilight and maybe even close to the popularity of Harry Potter.

I haven’t seen the movie yet but I am quite interested in that after viewing some trailers. From the article of Forbes.com, the success of the movie is attributed to social media. Social drumbeat around the Hunger Game is created for getting more people to talk about it. Most important of all, the company embraces the strategy to encourage user generated content which can get any potential customers involved as much as possible. However, I doubt about the same method using in different situation. What if the storyline of the movie does not caters for all taste? Will the buzz be brought up so easily?

I had to read "The Hunger Games" for one of my classes, and as soon as I finished the first book, I was hooked. I read all three books within a week. I never thought I would jump on the bandwagon but I did. The way that Lionsgate and ThisMoment used social media to promote this movie was amazing. Instantly, this movie became all the rage due to social media. I think that ThisMoment and Lionsgate were right on mark when specifically targeting the teen market and gaining everyone else's interest because of the hype that the movie brought along. It is a fun story to follow and I think the social media for the next two movies will become more intense because people are dying to see how Catching Fire and Mockingjay are portrayed onscreen. 

No, I haven't seen the movie yet.  It's actually killing me! I adored the books, and was extremely excited for the movie.  I have been waiting to watch the film with my roommates, and we haven't configured the perfect time to go see it yet.  Hopefully it will be sometime this week!

I did stay in touch with a couple of the social promotions for the movie.  I watched every "teaser" trailor that was posted on YouTube and regularly checked the Hunger Games website for information on the actors playing the characters and the featured musical artists, such as Taylor Swift, that recorded for the movie.

Yes, I saw the Hunger Games this past Wednesday night. I wanted to go to the midnight showing, but I had some prior commitments that I had which did not allow me the opportunity to. I was very excited for the movie because I read the series this past Christmas Break. This was going to be the first time that I read the book/series before the movie release. I got into the series initially because of the influences from my friends and family. In turn, I have been sharing with my friends the joy I received from the books. I agree with my peers in saying that the publisher did not do as good a job promoting the books in comparison to the movie, but I do understand that its hard to promote a new book, and the movie hype was built off of the fans of the books.

One of the main reasons I started reading the Hunger Game books this past summer was because of the influence from my friends. Whether they told me about it in person, through Facebook, or tweeted about how good these books were, I felt like I had to read them. I feel like this is just how the Hunger Game movie’s social media campaign by ThisMovement took place. So many people were already interested in the movie that the social media campaign only fueled their interest in seeing the movie once it came out. I think the social media aspect only added to people’s interest – more and more people were picking up the books right before the movie came out. Even though I am a huge fan of the books, I still have yet to see the movie but even a week after the movie was released, I still see people talking about it on Facebook and Twitter- and that right there shows how it had a successful social media campaign.

I actually have not seen the move Hunger Games yet! Although I have heard excellent things about the movie, I have never seen or heard about any of the hype before it came out. When I started to see articles about how successful this movie has been and heard about people waiting in line to go see the movie I was extremely confused. I haven't heard of the books that have been out there for quite some time now. So in my opinion they didn't do a very good job in their social marketing strategy, but to the rest of the world they did an excellent job. To be on "Harry Potter" status is HUGE! I hope to go see the movie soon so I can make decisions for myself as to how great this movie really is.

I saw the movie last night and it was really good!  But, I didn't know anything about the books before the movie came out and I probably wouldn't have been half as excited to see it if it weren't for all the buzz it got online and on TV.  The social media strategy behind The Hunger Games definitely helped push it into the spotlight.  Honestly, I think the movie would have been a hit anyway because of the large following the books already had, but it's online presence propelled it to "Harry Potter status" which is an amazing accomplishment for the first movie in a 3 part series.  

The way Lionsgate started getting their target involved early on before the movie was promoted was the smartest tactic when attempting to make this story huge. Without pressuring the movie trailer on consumers by not providing any background knowledge they were able to obtain a following. Their following became powerful when previews of the movie started to surface. In my experience of hearing about the Hunger Games I had a friend explain the concept to me and I was hooked and found myself unable to turn away from the book. Without Lionsgate and thismoment providing information about this great story and its epic characters their target would have found it hard to be inspired to read the books. The Hunger Games is great and I hope it continues to be a success.

I have not seen the movie but I was quite impressed with the buzz Lionsgate created with the movie.  I did not even have an understanding that Hunger Games was a book, let alone a trilogy.  I am quite curious how this trilogy is going to pan out in cinema.  I understand that tilogies like this are going to have a massive following regardless of how great the movies end up being.  Since people are always on the internet and being one of the most popular ways to find out information, a social marketing campaign has the potential to esclade beyond the expectations of a movie, which is the scary aspect of advertising. 

The Hunger Games has always been on my radar since the book came out. I remeber when all my friends were telling each other to read it. So when I found out that the movie was coming out it was already on my list of things I would like to see. However, I was suprised to find that there was a constant buzz about it on all of the social media site that I frequent. It seems like in the weeks leading up to the movie release and even now Pintrest has about 15 posts on each board relating to The Hunger Games in some way shape or form. My favorite are the TOMS shoes that have the Mocking Jay symbol painted onto them. It has even gotten to the point where there is a Peeta meme that people like to add their own captions to. The funniest Hunger Game reference I have seen is a text message conversation that was put to the words of "I'm Sexy and I Know it". The lyrics are "When I walk out the shop this is what I seen. Katniss Everdeen is a looking at me. I got loaf in my hand and I ain't afraid to throw it, throw it, throw it... I'm Peeta and I know it". Overall I don't think that the posts about the Hunger Games will stop for a long time. 

I seen the movie earlier in the week and thought it was fantastic. I thought it was really great strategy on the part of Lionsgate and Thismoment to market using social media at an early point to try and generate interest before the movie was released. I had heard a lot of buzz about the movie months before it came out, although up to that point I had not even been made aware of the books. With the book series being a trilogy, it will be interesting to see how they will use social media with the other two movies that Lionsgate will presumably make. I do hope they focus more on following up with great sequels rather than terrific social media campaigns, as The Hunger Games has already achieved great popularity, and the expectations will be very high for the upcoming sequels. 

Before I read this post, I was wondering why hunger game became so hot right now. Personally I think it s just a hollywood copy of Battle Royale (a Japanese novel written by Koushun Takami, completed in 1996 and published in 1999. In 2000, Kinji Fukasaku has directed a Japanese action-drama-thriller film with the same name. The story tells of school-children who are forced to fight each other to the death. The film aroused both domestic and international controversy, and was either banned or excluded from distribution in several countries). After reading this post, it seems Hunger Game got such huge success thanks to the magic power of social media. Internet do have advantages for promoting controvercial film because there is little limitation and barriars. Of course I have to admit Hunger Game is much more "lighter" than Battle Royale and mix with several popular hollywood elements.

I loved the movie the Hunger Games. While there has been mixed review from glowing to glowering because they didn't hit every part of the book, when all is said and done the movie did what it needed to do: Entertain me. I think using thismoment, inc. for their marketing was a great idea as it really did utilize the public to create teh hype for the movie for them. By strategically choosing certain sites that would target certain groups, they were able to find the Hunger Games' frenzied market that was already out there.

It was the 22nd of this month, my friends and I went to movie theater after dinner. It was around 9PM when we arrived at NCG Cinema. Surprisingly, a long queue was waiting outside the theater with 80% of them are teenagers, they were all waiting for The Hunger Games. I looked at the time schedule, the 12:05am one was already sold out, so NCG had to add an extra one at 3:00am. It is amazing to see the huge passion toward a single movie. I thought it was all due to the success of the novel, but apparently, it was more than that. The maniac passion was driven by a combination of the love of the story and more importantly, the marketing strategy.

The target audience is clearly identified. Youth, of course, is the main target audience of The Huger Games. Social media, by all appearances, is the best way to reach this type of target. Lionsgate, the producing company, did a very good job on identifying and reaching the target audience. As pointed out in article, this company started promoting the movie via social media, especially on YouTube and Facebook in 2011. So when The Hunger Games finally show in theater, it has already been the hottest topic. It is a tread or fashion to watch it among target audience. it is social media that leading the trending. Let me quote from the article: “The power of social media is starting to show the business value in terms of dollars verses the hype.”

First of all, I didn't see this movie, so I could not judge the movie itself. But thants to the social media, it does make a buzz online. I kind of think this case really prove that the time of "good product sells itself" has gone. Marketing tactics are quite needed to sell a product even though the product itself is really good enough. In this information age when people are exposed to overloaded information, it's hard for a good product to stand out just by itself. But if with social media and word-of-mouth, once it creates a buzz, it might be a huge success around the world. 

I havn't seen the movie yet, and I hope to not see it until after I read the books.  I am looking forward to getting into it, because there is so much hype about it.  I am very interested in what thismoment is doing with their social marketing strategy to make the Hunger Games such a successful strategy.  You can download a PDF, ebook, or get the documents on other social media sites such as Scribd.  This has a socal maketing strategy that you can read about and pull from for your own work.

I have not had time to enjoy this movie yet, but it is on my plan. As so much attention this movie has gained, I think it must be worth it. At least the production team of this movie is confident enough to push it on top of the leaderboard. Social media made this movie a $155 million for the weekend opening, and everyone knew it overnight. Don't you think this blog post can be another "earned media" for The Hunger Games' promotion? So, user generated content is indeed one of the hottest trends in social marketing for any business. After this benchmark, I believe more and more movie would used social media as one of their major promotion media.

I finally went to see the movie last night!! Haha. I knew this movie from TV commecials and friends that were talking about it. I wonder how a new setup Facebook brand page gets public attention.... Anyway, I checked out their Facebook page (just now which is after I watched the movie). The page contains "colorful, engaging video content about the characters and stories of the Hunger Games. "

First of all, I have not seen this movie yet because I am waiting to finish the book before I see it. However, I have heard great things about the movie. Besides the movie itself, before the actual opening all you saw was advertisements for the movie. Before the commercials came out, I didn't evem know about the movie. In the weeks leading up to the movie all websites and TV shows had something to do with Hunger Games. They were very smart about advertising the movie because they went straight to where the money was coming from... kids. They hit Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which are all hits right now. In turn, as the article read, they made mch of their viewers do the marketing for them. This was a very smart marketing program they set up which all led to the success of the movie.

Through Facebook, Twitter, iphone app and Youtube, Hunger Game’s team is building an excellent but virtual community where people could spread the information and interact with each other spontaneously, instead of being forced or persuaded to make an action. That’s the biggest value of viral marketing, linking target consumers with potential ones in a very short time. It reminds me of the case of Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD). UMD, a non-profit organization, spotlights many unusual streets on Foursquare like abandoned warehouses or old buildings where many homeless people may spend the night. And then Foursquare users who check in around could discover and pay attention to those unusual places, which results in spreading awareness about UMD and its mission of homelessness prevention. It is a perfect way to grab people’s attentions and educate the public naturally. But the most important thing, I guess, is that marketers should always “surprise” their target users in each stage of the campaign.

Comparing to the old rules of marketing (reaching people off line) The new rules of marketing is about publishing content online. Although the ideas of reaching people off line is still valid. But it is important for the marketer to know that social marketing is not about blogging something nice online, but about publishing useful information on online- YouTube, Facebook page or blog. The Hunger Games made a good example here: Marketers should think about how creating a really great piece of information can and in itself become the basis for terrific search engine optimization. The content marketer create should really about “you”- the people they are trying to reach and not about the company’s own ego.

Lionsgate made sure that “the odds were ever in their favor” by teaming up with ThisMoment and starting their online campaign about a year before the movie’s release and using promotions and user generated content. It’s amazing to see how much of an impact their social media campaign had on their record setting opening weekend… And I definitely thought that the movie lived up to all of the buzz. I’ve read the book and saw the movie, and I’m telling you – if you haven’t seen or read The Hunger Games yet – do it! It’s so thrilling and engaging… just like their use of social media.