Marketing: Capitol Couture

Capitol Couture is a website created to promote the The Hunger Games film. It went live on January 27, 2012.
The chief marketing officer of Lionsgate was quoted saying that Capitol Couture “quickly became an out-of-world experience for both fans of the franchise and those obsessed with the future of fashion.”

There are websites devoted to couture spreads of each of the Quarter Quell champions, advertising them much in the way that you would expect the Capitol to—treating the former victors as assets in promotion, viewing them as canvases rather than people. It’s frighteningly real, which is why it’s jarring; if the Hunger Games were an activity that the world participated in, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine real ads and websites just like these ones.

The Capitol Couture website is a test for those trying to find the line between reality and fiction. It gives the fans the opportunity to be part of a community and interact with each other and explore categories such as fashion, design make up, Capitol TV and so on.

Capitol Couture is meant to do something different—to be ahead of the curve, as outrageous as the overfed, over-stimulated, undereducated Capitol citizens are in the novels. And it’s intriguing that designers are partnering with the film as an excuse to push the envelope of what they can do, certainly.

People who have zero interest in fashion may scoff at all of this regardless, but it doesn’t change the fact that clothes communicate. The Hunger Games Trilogy itself acknowledges this: Cinna’s designing of Katniss and Peeta are what make them a focal point in the Games, their costuming arguably one of the most important elements in keeping them alive. Fashion is used to exploit the tributes, and the slavish manner that Capitol citizens adhere to its trends show readers and viewers just how far removed they are from their own reality. 

 Creators

Distribution

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 was Distributed by Lionsgate Films, which was involved in the co-production of all the Hunger Games films with Production house Color Force. Nina Jacobson sold the movie rights to Lions Gate and that is also a way the distributor is involved in the film.


Positioning and Release:
The movie premiered in Los Angeles, at the L.A. Live, complex on November 16, and in New York on November 18. 
It premiered internationally in Berlin on November 4, in London November 5, in Paris November 9, in Madrid November 10, and in Beijing November 12.
But due to the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, Lionsgate scaled down its L.A. premiere, cancelling press interviews on the red carpet (which was scheduled to last two hours). 
 Mockingjay – Part 2 was released on November 20, 2015 in the United States and Canada. The film was originally scheduled to be released in 2D, Digital 3D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D, which would have made it the only film of the series to be globally released in 3D formats; the previous film was released in 3D in China.
 However, the decision to release the film in 3D and IMAX 3D in North America was revoked. 
Director Francis Lawrence discussed the decision, stating, "I love the 3D format and I know that Mockingjay Part 2 will play perfectly in 3D and 2D internationally – but I'm pleased that we're maintaining the 2D only (and IMAX) formats domestically. It is the best of all worlds!". 
It was nevertheless released in 3D formats in overseas markets, including China.

 The film was also released in the Dolby Vision format in Dolby Cinemas, which is the first ever for Lionsgate.

International Distribution

Internationally, it was released day-and-date across 87 countries, starting from November 18, in certain markets like Belgium, Brazil, France and the Netherlands and on November 19 in Australia, Germany, Russia, Italy, and the United Kingdom, followed by China, Mexico, Japan, the United States, Canada, and 19 other markets, on November 20, as part of the biggest movie roll out ever by Lionsgate. The only big territories where the film did not open on the same weekend are Spain, Greece and India, which released the movie on November 27.

Merchandising

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 was released on Digital HD on March 8, 2016, and will be followed by a Blu-ray and DVD release on March 22, 2016.

Along with that more merchandise in the shape of clothes, collectibles and action figures, even trading cards were made and sold.

 

Guerrilla Marketing

Guerrilla marketing is an advertisement strategy concept designed for businesses to promote their products or services in an unconventional way with little budget to spend. This involves high energy and imagination focusing on grasping the attention of the public in more personal and memorable level.


For Mockingjay Part 2, promotion started  in the form of the rebellion hacking into the Capitol’s official Twitter page.
The page had been inactive since last November, and on 1st June it began tweeting.

 Never-seen-before footage from the film will be unveiled at the movie's presentation at Comic Con in San Diego in July.

As part of other promotional activity related to the film, billboards featuring the salute symbolic of support for Katniss, has been put up in 18 different countries.

 Each billboard shows a different hand, featuring varying ages and races.