Audiences and Institutions Practice Essay

Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied.

The importance of marketing in the film area is because the movie must make money and thrive right? Producers must connect with other productions, sell products, and more if they want a successful movie. Producers can use marketing through synergy, cross promotion, and cross media convergence. However, just because you spend time marketing a film, does not mean it will work out.

Marketing must be done throughout the whole production of the movie. If you want the movie to be sold, it must get out through the people. One way a film can be marketed is by using synergy. Synergy is one of the most effective ways because companies are working together to make money. The more the film gets marketed, most likely the better chance it has. An example was Spiderman Homecoming. Spiderman partnered with the cereal brand Cinnamon Toast Crunch. A toy with Spiderman was on the box. This is effective because people are buying the cereal, which helps the Spiderman film make money. Younger kids may want to go see the movie as a reflection of the toy, thus the producers of Spiderman Homecoming are making money. Another way synergy was used was Frozen 2. The marketing was kept throughout the company. Disney made the movie, the ride at Epcott, and the music soundtrack is on Disney radio. Using companies under the same conglomerate is the effective way because it keeps the money in house.

In cross promotion, films can use other companies to market their product. Sometimes, in house production like synergy is not enough for film companies to sell their movie so they branch out to others that are not under the same conglomerate. For example, in Fantastic Beast, the production companies Hey Day Films and Warner Bros. used AT&T to promote their film. Posters and other merchandise were posted in the AT&T stores to get peoples attention. Another way cross promotion was used is in Jurassic World. The production companies got earlier Jurassic movies to air on Comcast network. This gives the people a run down and a preview of what is going to happen in Jurassic World. Once people see it, they’ll want to buy movie tickets to go see the movie. Cross promotion is very effective for both companies. Not only does the film company benefit, but also those who have promoted it.

Through cross media convergence, video games, music, and more are used to promote a film. This is somewhat like cross promotion, but it is different in its own way. Cross media convergence is another way to successful market a movie. For example, if an upcoming movie makes a video game, not only will people watch the movie, they will also buy the video game. That means money, views, ratings, and etcetera is coming from all directions. In the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the film producers partnered up with Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen made an ice cream blizzard dedicated to the movie. This will catch the attention of the people and make them want to buy the ice cream and buy tickets to see the movie. Another way cross media convergence was used was The Lego Movie 2. A video game was made while in process of distributing the movie. This way, many people will buy the video games and movie tickets to see the actual movie. Cross media convergence is effective for marketing because it brings peoples attention to the film in many ways.

However, just because a film is marketed, does not mean its bound to be successful. It takes lots of money for a movie to be marketed. A film company could use cross promotion, cross media convergence, or anything else, but it just may not be enough for the film to be a success. An example is the movie Uglydolls. According to cartoonbrew.com, “STX Entertainment launched Uglydolls on wide 3,652 screens, netting 8.5 million.” Since it was marketed a whole lot and how it was released, those numbers are considered low. Most likely, the audience did not like the movie, nor did they see a purpose in it which was why it was so low. This shows that no matter how much a film company markets the film, it won’t always be successful.

To conclude, despite some films not being successful no matter how much it is marketed, marketing is very important in films. Many movies would not be advertised and sold as much if it wasn’t for marketing. The biggest purpose for marketing is to get the film out to the people and capture their attention so they can watch it. In the film world, synergy, cross promotion, and cross media convergence is a good way to do it.