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Original submission details

Original title: Re: Hunger Games Transmedia Storytelling Review

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The original question / King’s College London

5.8 The Hunger Games_ share your thoughts

1. How did the marketing campaign for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire mark a departure from a traditional marketing campaign for a movie? What was innovative about the marketing approach adopted by Lionsgate? 2. A good transmedia storytelling campaign should be persistent, pervasive, participatory and personalised. Critically evaluate the campaign based on these elements. 3. Discuss why Lionsgate focused on engaging existing fans rather than attracting new movie customers. Do you agree with the decision to not focus on other segments like older customers or male customers? 4. Carefully review all the creative and media tactics used in the campaign. What did Lionsgate do well and what could have been done better? 5. What elements of the Catching Fire campaign would you reuse to promote the subsequent movie, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1? What elements would you change? 6. To what extent can the transmedia storytelling approach be used for marketing non-entertainment products? What contextual factors would determine the applicability and effectiveness of this approach?

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Fiona’s response

Hi Anastasia,

I really enjoyed reading your take on the Catching Fire campaign — you unpacked the transmedia elements with such clarity, and I could feel your understanding of how immersive and layered the Lionsgate approach was. 🙌

Your breakdown of the 4Ps (persistent, pervasive, participatory, personalised) was particularly strong. I liked how you tied each one directly to tangible campaign tactics like quizzes, poster puzzles, and character journeys. It made your analysis easy to follow and convincing. The point about people naturally aligning with characters or districts is such a smart observation — and very in line with modern segmentation strategies that favour self-identification and personal relevance (Kotler et al., 2021). It’s just like the Hogwarts houses.

I also really appreciated that you raised concerns around community board moderation. That’s such an important point, especially considering the risks of user-generated content undermining brand integrity — something many transmedia campaigns overlook. Your call for offline elements and more inclusive tactics (to reach less digitally active audiences) shows you’re thinking strategically and ethically. 👏

A couple of thoughts you might explore further if you were expanding this: • You mentioned that fans were identifying more with the Capitol than with the rebellion — such an interesting insight! I had no idea! That might connect to brand meaning drift or narrative imbalance (Escalas, 2004), where the ‘cool’ aesthetic of a villain overtakes the intended emotional arc hahaha like Dexter or SOA. Maybe there’s a conversation there about how brands manage unintended fan interpretations? • Also, I’d be curious to hear more about your ideas for non-entertainment brands like Apple and Starbucks. Your point that “it just takes imagination” is so right! — I would love to hear you how they could use story archetypes or user personas to personalise storytelling at scale?

😊

Thanks for a great read!

Best, Fiona

References.

  1. No references were listed in the original contribution.
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