3. Why is this a good example that illustrates how NZ film is used for a different purpose than the films created for the Big 5? Was this safety video purely for entertainment?
Let's look at this together and make some notes about how marketing is changing with technological advancements to be more interactive. Also, for a marketing essay, let's use this as an example of how movies can create hype/ buzz in creative ways. This was produced by and distributed by Warner Bros. Use this as an example of how big studios have an advantage for this sort of reach, in their marketing.
Audience behaviour has changed due to the internet and the ability for audiences to create their own content at home thanks to the lower cost of technology. This new audience doesn’t just consume media, but also produces it – creating the term ‘prosumer’.
Amateur content made this way has different values to professional media producers, in that it promotes a connection between other amateur producers – they both deeply care about the products they make and can help them work together.
When they work together in this way, audiences can make more content than producers – Wikipedia is a good example of this.
What is the advanced version?
In the ‘old’ media, centralised producers addressed atomised consumers; in the ‘new’ media, every consumer is now a producer. Traditional media producers would ‘filter then publish’; as many ‘new’ media producers are not employees, they ‘publish then filter’.
These amateur producers have different motivations to those of professionals – they value autonomy, competence, membership and generosity. User-generated content creates emotional connection between people who care about something. This can generate a cognitive surplus – for example, Wikipedia can aggregate people’s free time and talent to produce value that no traditional medium could match.
‘The Audience’ as a mass of people with predictable behaviour is gone. Now, behaviour is variable across different sites, with some of the audience creating content, some synthesising content and some consuming content. The ‘old’ media created a mass audience. The ‘new’ media provide a platform for people to provide value for each other.
Research the definition of the following terminology and get examples from the case study above (Avengers Endgame) and/or Avatar, Way of the Water, for each one;
- 360' Marketing / immersive marketing
- viral marketing
- hype/ buzz
- global marketing
Also look up the following;
- Box office for this film, how it was released and how well it did.
Activity #2 - we will work on this during the week
Write an essay in response to the question below, using all the terminology and case study research above...
"How far does cross-media convergence and synergy affect the success of a film?"
Cross Media Convergence This is really a Business Studies term and refers to companies coming together vertically or horizontally (or both). The example often cited in exams is of Working Title making use of its parent company(s) to gain access to bigger stars and a better distribution network for their films. The same theory can be applied to the music industry where small labels are bought up and taken under the wing of larger groups, like Sony and EMI. Sony is a good example where they produce films, TV and music as well as the hardware to view/listen to their products (including smart phones)
Synergy Synergy basically means working together to achieve an objective that couldn’t be achieved independently. Cross-media convergence can help with synergy if companies are wise enough to take advantage of the links they have forged. Disney is an obvious example of a synergistic company from the top down from Film Studio to Kids’ TV Channel (where it further plays and promotes its films) to the Disney Store (in the street and online) where your kids can pester you to buy all the merchandise and DVDs/CDs they’ve seen on the TV/Web or in the cinema.
Today I want you to do some research into MARKETING strategies for your case study films.
I want you to add examples of SYNERGY and CROSS-MEDIA CONVERGENCE for how your films were marketed to their audience.
Did they use any marketing campaigns? Were they global? Were they successful? Did they use vertical integration in any cases?
Write a few bullet points for each case study movie.
ALSO, we are adding Disney to our case study list as an institution we study. I want you to write down a few key examples from our online class as well as add a few of your own to the list on how they successfully use synergy and cross-media convergence in marketing.
Here's the Disney video we checked out the other day if you want to re-watch it to make some notes.
