8/10/2019 Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do up

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Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to

a specific audience as they do upon good production practices. To what extent

would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?

I agree that the marketing and distribution of a film is more crucial to the success of one than

whether it is highly regarded by critics. This is due to a number of factors, such as; theproduction practices used in contemporary times to distribute and market films to specific

audiences, how audiences respond with these strategies, and how media convergence targets

a specific audience. However, there is an element of positive opinions from critics playing a role

in a films financial success as well.

For example, The Grand Budapest Hotel has been highly acclaimed by critics and has a 92%

rating on the website 'Rotten Tomatoes'. These positive reviews of the film interest people into

going to see it in order to know what all the excitement is about, and to see it as they don't want

to miss an excellent film. Furthermore, those who can't afford to go to the cinema very often

want to go to see a film that they think is worth the trip- so if the film is critically acclaimed than

they are more likely to go to see it. All of these factors contribute to the films financial success,

meaning that the critics opinion is vital.

However, production practices which allow films to be distributed and marketed for specific

audiences are more integral in a films success than critics reviews. For example, The Grand

Budapest Hotel is available in UltraViolet (UV) format- this means that when consumers buy a

physical DVD they don't have to buy a film again online in order to have it on devices (like

tablets) as they receive a redemption code with their physical copy that allows them to

download it on to multiple devices. This distribution targets people with devices such as phones

and tablets, so it targets mostly young people that are stereotypically more technologically

advanced than those who are older. UV allows young people to access films easily andtherefore they are more likely to buy the film, contributing to its gross- and subsequently its

success.

Other production practices such as the actors used in a film also make the film a bigger success

due to them appealing to a certain target audience. In The Grand Budapest Hotel there are

some actors that perhaps target a mature age group, such as Bill Murray and Ralph Fiennes.

Older age groups tend to have seen these actors work before, more than younger age groups,

and may be interested in seeing their new work, meaning that they'd go to see the film.

Subsequently, the film would have a larger audience and a higher gross- resulting in a bigger

success.

The size of a distribution company also allows for a film to be a bigger success. For example,

20th Century Fox are the world's second largest film studio- distributing massive commercial

successes such as Avatar and Alien. The size and wealth of this distribution company means

that they can afford to distribute their films worldwide and therefore can allow a vast audience to

easily access their films, and they can afford a large marketing campaign to raise their films'

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profile and encourage people to see them. These factors tend to result in a huge gross, due to a

film having a large audience, and a hugely successful film.

Furthermore, the marketing of films through social media using convergence promotes a film

and therefore makes more people aware of it, and likely to go and see it. An effective use of

social media to market a film to a specific audience was during the promotion of The Amazing

Spider-Man. There was an official Twitter account for this film that revealed a scavenger hunt by

posting a tweet saying 'Property of Peter Parker... Lost' with the latitude and longitude co-

ordinates of direct markets in big US cities. The people who won this scavenger hunt were able

to view a scene related to the film after graffitying the Spider-Man logo on a wall. This use of

marketing was effective as it used Twitter, which young people mainly use- and therefore got

them talking about the film and encouraging others their age to go and see it.

The marketing of specific types of products is also key in a films financial success. The

marketing for The Amazing Spider-Man included the release of action figures of the film's

version of Spider-Man by various companies such as Hasbro, which was revealed at the July

2011 Comic-Con. These action figures appeal to children and therefore may make them want togo and see the film and encourage their parents to see it. Furthermore, the fact that the Hasbro

figure was revealed at Comic-Con clearly appealed to The Amazing Spider-Man's key audience-

as these are the people who are most likely to be fans of the comic, and therefore will want to

see the film. This subsequently got these people even more excited for the film, increasing its

audience size, gross and success.

Furthermore, the marketing of specific types of products is also seen in the promotion of the film

Dredd. There was a prequel to Dredd in the form of a comic book, which followed the life of the

antagonist of the film (Ma-Ma) before the film begins. This raised awareness of the film in fans

of the comic book, which were a large target audience, and got them increasingly excited aboutit and talking about it, therefore encouraging more people to go to see it and creating a bigger

audience. This resulted in larger financial success.

How audiences engage with distribution and marketing strategies clearly conveys the

effectiveness of them. For example, statistics say that 15-24 year olds make up the largest

percentage of the cinema demographic- this shows that marketing (through social media) aimed

at them obviously works as it encourages them to go to the cinema resulting in this percentage.

On the other hand, the fact that phone-free screenings and over 30s screenings have had to be

created suggests that this is the result of such a large young audience that other age groups

may not want to sit and watch a film with. This goes against the communal experience of going

to the cinema, and infers that marketing strategies may not be as effective as it seems when

concerning all age groups. So, this may show that there needs to be more marketing aimed at

older audiences in order to have a more equal cinema demographic so measures like these

wouldn't have to be necessary.

Also, there are arguments against the film industry's methods of success at times. For example,

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Lionsgate UK CEO Zygi Kamasa has said that he believes that cinema admission prices should

be lower for British films. He said that 'a blockbuster can cost $250m and a UK independent film

can cost $4m but it's 10 or more to see both. I think we should see UK films priced at 4 and

US films at 10'. He believes that this would stimulate admissions and also increase the

demand for British films. The lack of price flexibility makes people less likely to go to the cinema

to see a smaller, independent, British film than a US blockbuster as they want to go when theyknow that it will definitely be worth it if they can't afford tickets on a regular basis. They don't

want to take a chance on spending their money to see the smaller films that they are not

guaranteed to enjoy.

Furthermore, at times audiences challenge distribution practices such as the use of UV. For

example, redemption sheets that come with the physical DVDs can sometimes direct the buyer

to websites that you need to make an account on, and these often confuse the consumers. This

problem caused a backlash when UV was first launched. Also, some consumers have tried to

sell their redemption codes online- taking away gross from the DVD sales. Another problem with

UV is that companies such as Apple do not support it, and this is a problem with films that are

released in this format that are targeted at a young, and mostly technologically advanced,

audience that perhaps have iPhones or iPads and will not be able to use UV- resulting in a

lower gross from the sales of UV DVDs.

In conclusion, I believe that the use of effective distribution and marketing to a films target

audience is far more pivotal in a films success than whether the critics regard the film highly or

not. Without marketing and distribution people would not be necessarily aware of a film at all,

and would have no ease of access to it- meaning that they wouldn't be able to watch it in some

cases. This would mean that a film would be a financial failure, and therefore what the critics

thought of it wouldn't make much difference to its financial success.

By Sophie Marlowe