Movie franchises like the Hunger Games inspire droves of young millennial women across the country to come out screaming in a line of support on opening night. Its story of female empowerment stands in contrast to many other major franchises that are either male-focused (think Lord of the Rings or Star Wars) or dedicated to a mythological love story (Twilight). The difference between these movies’ fans stands out as well: There’s no common tribal identity among Hunger Games’ supporters.

We wanted to change that. In the Hunger Games books and movies, the citizens in the fictitious country of Panem use their costumes and make-up to display the extreme looks that are trendy at the time. The costumes in the first movie made those looks come to life and add incredible emotion specifically to one important part of the story when the lead character is labeled “The Girl on Fire”.

With COVERGIRL we wanted young women to own these moments as their symbol of power, beauty and tribal unity with other fans of the movie.

We convinced COVERGIRL to redevelop a portion of their product line into 'The Capitol Collection' which featured 12 looks inspired by the 12 Districts in Panem. In the September issue of Vogue we teased the first 6 of 12 ambitious looks. The techniques to create these complex looks were directed using a first-of-its-kind iOS and Android application, Blippar. By focusing a touchscreen device on the Vogue pages, augmented reality revealed how-to videos. Fans were also able to design and upload a District-inspired look of their own, connecting them to other young women who were fans of the same look. The same real time experience was available to consumers in store, all while standing at COVERGIRL’s 'Blippar-ized' displays across 25,000 U.S. stores. Supported with TV, digital, social, mobile, OOH, Print and PR, we blanketed the market so COVERGIRL would be noticed and win!

Retailers went wild for the COVERGIRL Capitol Collection making this the biggest retail sell in COVERGIRL has ever had, with a 4X increase in retailer merchandising vs. expected. By offering a new and limited product line, and an exclusive look per retailer, COVERGIRL designed an ownable program for each of their key retailers. During October-December 2013 COVERGIRL sales grew by 4 percent and share by 9 percent vs. the same time period the prior year. For the first time ever, Target created the biggest display for COVERGIRL which had 4 times more the average merchandising space vs. previous displays.