Lionsgate | Behind the Scenes

When a Lionsgate-Summit film was created for Veronica Roth’s 2011 novel, Divergent, many compared it to the next Hunger Games Saga. However, with the help of fearless social media efforts, and $56 million at its weekend premiere, Divergent earned its own adventurous identity. Summit Entertainment dove head-first into cutting-edge social media by hitting its target audience right in their comfort zones. They helped their audiences smoothly transition from their own locations, to reclining chairs lined with popcorn. Here’s how:

Divergent Official Site: The Center of All Things Social

Summit constructed their Divergent website in a way that seemed to make Veronica Roth’s story come alive. Divergent is an action-packed story with the idea that people are divided into 5 groups–or factions–based on their virtues and beliefs. Summit, in order to reflect this theory, divided its website into essentially 5 parts. Each section, signifying each faction, displays a feed that flows from multiple social platforms–including Spotify, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, and other mediums. The feeds are created by fans and advertisers who simply tag #Divergent, #DivergentMovie, and what faction they are representing. As a result, the content appears on the feeds.

Social Gaming Meets Social Sharing
Along with sections for trailers, galleries, soundtrack, and links to buying the novel, Summit also included in its website two social games. Both allow fans the ability to step into the world of Divergent and imagine a world like those of the main characters.

Aptitude Test

In the beginning of Divergent, the main character, Tris, must take a test to find out what faction she belongs in. Fans are able to do the same thing by taking their own aptitude quiz. They can share their results on the social media of their choice, and take the quiz multiple times.

Faction Your Friends
Another social game allows fans to connect to Facebook, and click and drag their friends into different factions that suit them. Once they are done, they are provided with a variety of social media sites to share their creation on. Fans can utilize the game as a funny and entertaining way to connect with those they trust, and pass along the Divergent message.

Social Media Sharing
The Divergent main site connects fans to a large selection of social media. Social media, in turn, provides fans with links back to the main site. This circle of communication connects the audience with trailers, games, music, photos, and most importantly, the link where they can purchase tickets.

Twitter: Currently 250,610 Followers
Beyond the norm of twitter movie posts, @Divergent continued to promote the movie even after it arrived in theaters by allowing fans to tweet or post their own reviews. In order for others to see, fans could tag #DivergentReview. This gave ratings and reviews a sense of authenticity, and fans can continue to view these reviews to see what fans, other than experts, thought.

Fans can also tag #IamDivergent and post fan apparel that can be retweeted by @Divergent.

In order to give off a sense of transparency, @Divergent also frequently tweeted at John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars. Divergent cast members Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort are also starring in the movie adoption of FIOS, and jokes between both authors proved to be a hit among fans.

Facebook: Currently 1,821,940 Likes

Along with postings of trailers, clips, and pictures, the Divergent Facebook also included in their countdown a “Faction of the Week.” Each week before the movie came to theaters, a post would display a new faction. Anyone who “liked” the Facebook page could click on the picture and experience a new behind-the-scenes look at the cast, crew, and creation of Divergent. The links of these features usually brought them back to the official site, where they could check out the games, feeds, and variety of links.

Google+: Currently 19,134 Followers, 2,061,790 Views
Google+ is increasingly becoming a popular medium for video chats, document sharing, and information gathering. Summit decided to post on this social media site as well, in order to reach this expanding amount of members. One way they marketed was using Google Play as a way to promote the Divergent series–for a limited time they offered e-books, with photo galleries and an exclusive inside look at the thought behind Divergent.

YouTube: Currently 44,768 Subscribers
YouTube specialized in exclusive interviews, movie trailers, and cast behind the scenes. However, an especially innovative strategy was YouTube’s “Face Your Fears” section. YouTube invited fans to post videos of themselves facing their own fears, and top YouTube viewed videos were placed on Divergent‘s page.

Pinterest: Currently 13,235 Followers
Pinterest is utilized by grouping together all Divergent content found on every social media site, to organize and allow viewers a faster way to view information.

Instagram: Currently 252,482 Followers

Divergent‘s Instagram, while posting photos on their own site, also took over @yahoomovies for an entire week–promoting their site with two accounts. The Instagram account also posted parts of one picture per post. By doing this, they added a sense of mystery to their posts, while also creating what looked like the entire image out of the different parts when users went to the browse version of the account.

Divergent On the Go
With the Divergent Mobile App, fans are notified of recent news, given a description and video reel of main characters, and allowed an inside look at photos and video clips. Accessibility helped the Divergent campaign earn high ratings by placing content in the hands of mobile device holders. By only moving a finger, fans can get up close and personal with Divergent and use the same app to purchase movie tickets. With so many choices in one place, fans are getting more divergence than what appears on screen.

“The Hunger Games” Trilogy, a book series by Suzanne Collins, was first released in 2008. Since then, the best selling young adult novels have been adapted into two movies–with two more on the way–and a popular game based on the movies’ plots.
So how did advertising of a film create these three dominate forms of entertainment?
Lionsgate’s digital marketing team was the powerhouse responsible for an ongoing social media campaign. Starting with the first book’s film, they put their plan to the test before the March 23, 2012 release of “The Hunger Games.” This gave the movie $630 million at the box office worldwide by May 15, 2012.
Lionsgate’s plan was simple, and it came in seven parts:

Step one: Fans come first.
Knowing there was already a large fan base from the book series, Lionsgate took to Facebook, where they knew followers already existed. Their Facebook page revealed new cast members, offered fans exclusive visits to the movie set, and communicated with them through “Fan Fridays” fan-of-the-week posts. A Youtube account was also formed to display trailers, music videos, and interviews with cast members.

Step two: Use many social media platforms.
Viral campaigns proved to be a success in Liongate’s promotion. On a site called TheCapitol.pn, fans can register for a district and community, and receive updates on the Capitol’s status (including how to purchase tickets to the 75th annual Hunger Games, news of the 12 Districts, and what the weather is like in the Capitol). The Capitol Couture’s online magazine was also created, and is a great way for fans to keep up with the latest fashion at the Capitol. A Tumblr and Instagram page is connected to the fashion site, showcasing the movie’s costumes and makeup.

Step three: Make sure everyone is clued in to Hunger Games.
Making sure to hit a wide network of fans, Lionsgate attempted to attract a male audience by posting the movie to the video game-oriented site IGN, along with a description and release date.

Step four: Turn advertising into a series of events.
To keep fans interested and excited, Lionsgate utilized Twitter in order to slowly reveal trailers and different characters. They also made sure their cast members’ Twitters and Facebooks were shown on the Lionsgate website. This would not only introduce them to fans, but allow fans to feel connected to the onscreen characters.

Step five: Get creative with the forms of social media used.
Another unique idea in Lionsgate’s strategy was a “puzzle.” Fans were able to find puzzle pieces from a variety of social media sites, that helped them put together a poster as their end product. Fans were also able to tweet at the Hunger Games Twitter account, for a chance to have their city selected for an early screening of the movie.

Step six: Constant change is key.
Changes along the way, such as a Googleplus site and a trending Pinterest tag, helped in the past and will continue to assist Lionsgate’s promotion of the upcoming Hunger Games movies: Mockingjay Part 1 and 2. The Hunger Games movies also work alongside the creation of the game The Hunger Games Adventures, which is increasingly promoted through each form of social media used in advertising for the movies. The game also updates and adds features in time for each film’s release, promoting the game as well as the film.

Step seven: Let the games begin. And may the odds be ever in your favor.
Continuing to appeal to fans is Lionsgate’s ultimate goal. They are keeping up with updates and working with different social media in order to focus on the long run of the films’ popularity. So far, this is an extremely successful strategy for the films, that in turn is effecting and being effected by the popularity of the books they adapted from, and the games that were created from them.