Unorthodox Advertising Campaign Raises ‘Hunger Games’ Curiosity Levels

Fans have already purchased enough tickets to ensure that at least a 1000 shows of ‘The Hunger Games’ runs to packed houses. Such is the keen anticipation that has reached unprecedented heights, as the D-day approaches for the screening of the film adaptation of  ‘The Hunger Games’, a hugely popular book series, penned by Suzanne Collin.

The book is rather volatile in nature, the basic story line being an annual event, held in a place called Capitol, in which a young boy and girl compete with 12 other contestants. It’s a no holds barred competition and in the end, of the all contestants only one can survive. All this is televised live to a futuristic audience.

However, in an uncharacteristic marketing strategy, studio Lionsgate, the makers of the movie, have made ads that show none of the combats that made the book series so popular and viewers hardly get to see any of the film’s content.

It is a huge risk to take for a, $45 million advertising campaign, to promote a movie, that is estimated to have cost upwards of $100 million to make, in such an unorthodox manner. The stakes are extremely high, success, film analysts’ estimate, could mean anything between $800 million and $2 billion of profit for Lionsgate. On the other hand failure would spell disaster, and the shares of the company that have soared sky-high, primarily because of the movies goers high expectations, would come crashing to earth.

Unable to fathom the reasons why the producers have chosen such an unconventional campaign, the analyst feel that the reason behind their thinking is, that they want to raise curiosity levels, the message being, you want to see the real thing, well, you’ll have to buy a ticket. “If you can get people excited while insinuating that you haven’t even shown them the good stuff yet, it’s an incredibly powerful notion,” said Jim Gallagher, a consultant formerly with Walt Disney Films.

The second reason could be that scenes of extreme violence, that showed hunting, stabbing and other sadistic scenes, could alienate and isolate potential viewers. It is worth remembering that the film has a PG, Parental guidance rating, which states that it may contain scenes unsuitable for children, but they are allowed to come anyway.

It seems that the producers are banking on the huge popularity of the books that have sold 12 million copies, over the last seven months whipping up fan hysteria like never before. Overall the book has sold 26 million copies and has been translated in 26 languages, ensuring a global audience for the film.

Everything portends to guarantee, that when “The Hunger Games” unveils on March 23, it will be the biggest debut on celluloid for a long-long time.