Social numbers for live events are better than ever, but social networks, broadcast networks, and second screen companies are still working to figure out how to best engage audiences after the live viewing window.
We have covered in the past interesting ways that VH1 and USA have accomplished this; Tumblr maintains that it’s the best social network for viewers catching up in-season or post-season.
For the home release of ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1’ Sizmek, a publicly traded ad management company for multiscreen campaigns, is leading a social campaign that will engage people who purchase the film. In a code-breaking excursion, viewers are led across Facebook, Twitter, and websites to ultimately lock deleted scenes from the film.
“Sizmek’s open technology allows advertisers to aggregate conversations in real time across multiple social platforms and publishers to deliver a single social creative experience. In this first to market campaign, Sizmek helped Lionsgate drive fans along a journey that included Facebook to multiple publishers and Twitter where fans can participate in a collective experience. We aggregated hashtags across platforms in real time to effect a creative execution and ultimately unlock exclusive content,” said AJ Vernet, VP Sizmek Social.
Below, additional details about the campaign via the release:
In the campaign, a movie fan is first shown a Sponsored Post on Facebook from The Capitol of Panem. Upon click, District 13 (the rebel district) actually breaks into the feed and instead serves a secret message in Binary Code. Once the user translates this code using a free code translator tool – they learn it’s a bulletin urging them to ‘Join the Rebellion’ and can head over to one or more of the 19 partner sites for further clues.
Partner sites include a wide range of outlets in order to maximize potential exposure:
- IGN – a leading gaming-news site
- Break- an aggregator of amusing videos
- Celebuzz – a premiere entertainment site
- Teen and Just Jared JR- to reach teen audiences
- WWTDD & Pink is the New Blog – blogs that provide societal commentary
When users arrive at one of the partner sites, they follow the breadcrumbs left on the homepage to the actual source code of the site. Inside the code, they’ll find an image from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, which directs them to tweet with the hashtag #UnlockMockingjay.
Additional Sponsored Posts on Twitter contain a Rich Media Unit that prompts users to continue tweeting the hashtag in order to reach a maximum threshold and release an exclusive first look at a deleted scene from the film, a full day before it arrived on Digital HD. This entire campaign, including secret messages and hidden codes, creates a user-generated rebellion which mimics the core themes from the film.
Although it is unlikely that many viewers will follow this process through, it is an extremely impressive campaign and is the right type of thinking for engaging with and rewarding fans purchasing content outside of their original cable, satellite, or OTT packages.