‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay’ Is Viral Media Done Right


The Hunger Games has been a popular book and movie franchise. It’s launched careers, spawned numerous knockoffs and parodies, and is still going strong. The next installment will be The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1. This will, of course, be followed by a second part about a year later. What’s interesting about the Hunger Games at this point, though, is the genius viral marketing it’s generating through these Mockingjay video shorts.

Marketing is not easy and the producers of the Hunger Games films can attest to that, with the Catching Fire installment teaming with Subway for disastrous results. This time, though, it’s social media done right.

With the Hunger Games: Mockingjay‘s release still weeks away, the buzz being created (and sustained) by these two films (which obviously promise more to come) is building a lot of interest in the new Games film. The first installment features President Snow talking to the people of Panem with a message some might find eerily familiar. Think “State of the Union” and the disruptive way that kills your TV night with say-nothing platitudes from some guy in a suit.

Speaking of disruptive, this is Hunger Games, so there must be something happening here. Right? Well, if you’re following One Panem on Twitter, you’ll have noticed a couple of “interruptions” in the feed, which lasted only a few moments and then disappeared. That was quickly followed by the release of President Snow’s second address, which was itself interrupted by, it turns out, the rebel forces. You can see the second address for Hunger Games: Mockingjay here. Meanwhile, the Hunger Games capitol (named, fittingly enough, Capitol) has its own website now. That site’s source code, if you care to right-click and look, has a commented-out message reading “The Mockingjay Lives” (seen above).

Shortly after the interrupted video released last week, the Capitol sated more hunger when it unveiled a new poster for citizens to put on their device screens and hang on their bare walls. It didn’t take long for Perez Hilton to make a mockery of it.

Any time now, a third installment of the Hunger Games teaser videos should hit their YouTube channel. When it does, you can expect that their storyline will continue, priming audiences for more Games.

This is one of the most interesting, integrated, and well-done viral media marketing campaigns we’ve ever seen. From this, we can assume that Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 will be a huge blockbuster.

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