Evaluate how
different media institutions market and distribute products in the media area
you have studied.
In today’s
media landscape, audiences are completely fragmented and the competition for
audiences has never been more competitive. Production companies use many
different methods to attract audiences. Despite the fragmented audience, media
companies have used different ways/ techniques to get their product across and
to gain audience attention.
One
media institution is Disney. Disney is a major studio and is one of the ‘big
six’ institutions. One of their products is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which
was shot globally and was approximately a 6-9 month shoot. The budget was £200m
and was partially shot on 35mm film. Another media institution is Film4
Productions and was an independent production company. One of their products
was A Field in England directed by Ben Wheatley, which took under two weeks to
shoot at one single location. The budget was significantly lower than star wars
with a budget of £300,000 and was shot entirely digitally (homemade camera
& lenses).
The
marketing strategies used by both institutions were used to attract the
fragmented audience. Disney used technological convergence engagement, which is
the coming together of different media platform onto one product. An example of
this is The Star Wars Interactive App, which allowed audiences to take selfies,
buy tickets and watch augmented reality clips. This marketing strategy is
effective as engages an audience. Also, the app being on a smartphone is very
convenient as the majority of people have smartphones in today’s society so is
easily accessible. The Multimedia Interactive App is also effective as it uses
audience interaction with selfies and encourages sharing and spreading branded
content virally by connecting the app to Twitter and Facebook.
A
marketing strategy used by Film4 Productions is social media and in particular
the director’s twitter (Ben Wheatley) as he had 11,000 followers and used this
to market A Field In England to the public using retweets etc. This is an
example of web2.0 as it is part of the World Wide Web that is focussed on the
ability for people to collaborate and share information online. This strategy
is effective as it took advantage of the director’s small but committed fan
base as his fans would want to see the new movie he has directed and this
allowed the marketing side of the film to create a niche cult audience for the
film. The strategy was also effective as big companies and famous people were
able to tweet about the film such as Mark Kermode, Virgin and Film4. As we can
see from the different marketing strategies discussed there is a major
difference in the way Disney and Film4 Productions market their products. This
is because of the budget each institution has to market their film. Film for do
not have the finances to create a Multimedia App so have to stick to marketing
which is cost free, such as social media whereas Disney have a much larger
budget so can design, create and promote their app on ITunes. The marketing
strategy that was most effective is the Multimedia interactive app as it is
easier accessible for the fragmented audience whereas Ben Wheatley’s twitter
account would only attract a small percentage of audiences.
The
distribution of the film also plays a major role in gaining fragmented
audiences and both A Field In England and Star Wars are distributed in different
ways due to what benefits their institution. Disney’s distribution had a day
and date worldwide release which was also known as a saturation release. The
distribution was also done in a very traditional way as it was first released
in Cinema the on VOD/DVD then it was able to be viewed on TV/Streaming. The
traditional distribution is effective as it creates an ‘event’ as it was
released on July 5th 2013 which creates hype for the audience as
they wait for the film to be released and capitalises on the demand and desire
from a vocal hard core fan base. However,
Film4 Productions use a very different and unique strategy that will
benefit their independent institution. Film4 use a simultaneous release which
is a new method used by independent institutions were a film and in this case
is AFIE is released in Cinema, on DVD/Blu-ray and streamed on film4 website all
on the same release date. Cancelling release windows and releasing on all
platforms at the same time is effective because it maximises a dedicated but
small audience as it allows fans to view AFIE regardless of geography as it was
only released on 17 cinema screens so not all audiences can go to view the film
in cinema. Both distributions are effective as they have used a release
strategy that benefits them financially. The saturation release benefits Disney
as they have the budget to release Star Wars across many different cinemas
whereas due to the niche audience of AFIE they are not able to do this which is
why a simultaneous release would be effective for Film4. The saturation release
was most effective due as they can attract a broad fragmented audience.
However, the simultaneous release was a unique and clever way to attract
audiences while also having a significantly lower financial budget.
In
conclusion, different media institutions market and distribute their products
in different ways depending on what is cost effective for the institutions
financial budget for the product. The marketing and distribution of the product
contribute greatly towards the final product and how successful it will be.
From comparing Disney and Film4 we can see that a major institution can market
and distribute their product (Star Wars) in a way which engages a much broader
fragmented audience whereas an independent studio/institution targets on a
niche audience to attract fragmented audiences which is why marketing
strategies such a Ben Wheatley’s twitter account is beneficial to them and
these different strategies explain how major institutions and independent
institutions differ.
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