The ‘Mockingjay - Part 1’ Marketing Campaign So Far - Is It Worthy?

This is a more editorial kind-of post from me and is pretty damn long, so bear with me…to all my other followers, apologies for the HG-related spam. Just that this campaign really sticks out compared to the other big ones this year IMHO. I may have repeated a lot of the points already in my previous posts.

So here we are, over the past few months we have had a whole bunch of different stuff related to the Mockingjay campaign, from long and agonising waits to the first teasers, to the first teaser trailer and to last night’s expedited character poster release - that is to name a few. One obvious thing you can gather from reading the comments on social media - what has been done so far has left the audience divided. To borrow a quote from Thor, the question is - is what has been done for the campaign worthy of the multi-million dollar money making mockingjay the franchise has transformed into from one of your regular young adult book adaptations?



Before I begin, I’d like to note - one of the may things people talk about in their reactions to the campaign are more centered around fans’ expectations - such as of lots of our leading lady Katniss (check out Jabberjays.net’s editorial on that here), and of which characters are featured and not featured, and whether Peeta was in the teaser trailer and so on and so forth - what we need to keep in mind is the reaction of the general audience, since they ultimately decide whether the film will be a success or not. As our favourite D12 mentor once put it - “remember who the real enemy is”:

(because you can’t really pit together an animated film against a huge blockbuster franchise)



So what has Mockingjay - Part 1 got going for it to do well at the box office:



1. Huge franchise that has been established extremely well with the general audience compared to many other young adult book adaptations, with an Oscar (not Academy Award) winner at its helm, and very strong critical reception (84% and 89% for the first and second films respectively)

2. Extremely impressive box office performance so far - with the first film being a breakout hit with the first film being the top March opening weekend, and the second film being the top domestic box-office gross of 2013.



Now, what are the potential issues for the film:



1. The “Part 1” issue - in many other YA-based franchises such as Harry Potter and Twilight, the ‘part 1 of the finale’ has historically got lower box-office gross than most of the rest of the franchise.

2. The reception to the source material - quote a lot of fans consider Mockingjay to be the weakest book (which made the decision to slit the films surprising) and potentially this and the “part 1” issue can make word of mouth and repeat viewings lower that Catching Fire.

3. Possible competition from Interstellar - their campaign captured more of the general audience’s anticipation and awareness so far, the topics and subject matter tackled in the film and the originality of it will bring it better word of mouth in the long-term - and the most important issue - no (US domestic at least) IMAX release planned for Mockingjay P1 as Interstellar will have a guaranteed IMAX run until The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is released.

4. Stepped-back marketing campaign in comparison to Catching Fire and rival films eg. Interstellar which has left general audience and fans alike divided: this will be what I will talk about below.



So, to put it simply, there have been two sides to the marketing campaign so far - the in-universe/viral side more targeted at the fans consisting of the Capitol website/s and posters/content associated with it and the Panem Address teasers/trailers 1 and 2/whatever - and the more regular side which should be more targeted at the general audience which consists of the Hunger Games Exclusive site, the teaser poster with the pin and the recent teaser trailer. To some extent last night’s posters fit in between, and so do the Panem Address teasers. For me personally, while they may have been done by the same team and agencies, there really seems to be a divide between the two, as thought different teams did them.



So let’s go through the good and bad sides of both the aspects.



IN-UNIVERSE MARKETING

The GOOD:

1. Quality of the content - has been pretty much superb on this side, really well received by both fans and also the general audience alike! The Panem Addresses, the fantastic viral websites pushing the boundaries of what can be done, the District Heroes and Capitol Couture/Presidential posters, all fantastic work! Really bringing out the Capitol/District parallels which is fantastic for this sort of targeted marketing.

2. Approach to general audiences - the attachments of the Panem Addresses with screenings of Transformers: Age of Extinction and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and of the Presidential Portrait one-sheet being put up in cinemas was a very bold move but it paid off - the general audience reaction to these has been really really great.

The BAD:

1. Lack of Katniss? (to be expected I suppose at least on the viral side of things)

2. Release planning/execution - very often issues with sites going live too early, security holes leading to leaks (last night was reportedly not as dramatic/all “fans hacking Lionsgate” as people would like to believe).

3. SECRECY - especially when no-one knows what’s happening when we’re so close to release. (And may be a good idea to get your agency partners up to speed with the expectations too? Is it still too early for alternate concept art or BTS stills?)



Now, the REGULAR THEATRICAL MARKETING

The GOOD:

1. Hunger Games Exclusive - a very interesting behind-the-scenes look.

2. Attachment of teaser trailer to Guardians of the Galaxy - kudos to Lionsgate for actually strategically planning/executing these trailer attachments this time around. Definitely a step forward n the right direction…

The BAD:

1. Lack of Katniss - see editorial linked earlier - plus also, she’s our main star and she’s who the general audience are really going in for!

2. The major issue - TIME: in terms of timing and runtime - everything this side of TheCapitol.PN seems way overdue - a 1-minute teaser trailer (and I’m not just talking about the runtime, but what was shown too) is something that in my opinion we should have got way back in May with X-Men: Days of Future Past, not 4 months before release especially at a time when your big studio rival puts out a triple punch of big trailers that the audience will see alongside your 1-minute effort: Interstellar, Hobbit (not mentioning Mad Max because it’s online-only) - walking out of GOTG, which trailer are you most likely to remember? Also I’m hearing mumbles of possible collateral damage to other big campaigns too (HG isn’t the only fandom feeling the side effects of this 1-minute decision). Look back where we were at this point in time with the Catching Fire campaign - maybe the 2:30 teaser trailer from April was a bit too much, but Trailer Park’s award-winning “World Event” theatrical trailer was practically perfect and out of all the trailers got the best reaction from the general audience. Going back to the fan reaction - maybe Lionsgate just wants to see more of Carve’s 1-minute “final trailers” that the fans like? And personally it didn’t reach the high bar set by not just last year’s work, but also the viral teasers.

3. EXECUTION: going back to that teaser trailer - the Samsung/SDCC tie-in. Originally I thought the lack of a Hall H panel was due to availability issues and Samsung helped to provide an alternative venue/experience in exchange for trailer debut rights - but this is different because was the trailer worthy of a big Hall H debut like last year? And while SDCC exclusivity is fine, shutting out international fans and leaving the online release in the air with the Best Buy tie-in which - increased leak possibilities and disappointed many fans, wasn’t exactly the best move.



To expand on the point of general audience perception - in the more regular marketing there always needs to be a balance between what fans want and what the GA needs to get them to see your film. Personally, this is why I’m not the biggest fan of Carve’s 1-minute final trailers (and the MJ teaser) because they really go and push ahead the things that fans will go crazy about but then will alienate the general audience. Even demanding TTL to do the music is more fan pandering than anything. A lot of my friends and family who’ve seen the CF trailers told me they prefer Trailer Park’s theatrical trailer - it really manages to get the balance between fan demands and GA needs right and this is why they are the best in the trailer making business. A trailer needs to do its job, which is get people to see the film, not just basically make the part of the audience that will go see the film regardless happy.



I think I missed out a few of my own points, but in a nutshell, I feel that what has been done now, especially in terms of regular marketing it really a step back from being a blockbuster campaign towards being another typical YA campaign. Some people think that maybe a late September-commencing promotional push will work and bring Mockingjay into the spotlight instead of the 2015 film which will no doubt start to be promoted at that time, but will that work? I guess only time will tell.



I want to end by thanking everyone involved with the campaign (Lionsgate, Tim Palen, Carve, Ignition, Watson/DG to name a few) and take this as a call to both improving on the mistakes, and to keep up the fantastic work that has been done so far.