synergy and cmc essay

"Synergy and Cross-Media-Convergence are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences." To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to your chosen media area?

Media institutions use synergy and cross media convergence as a vital process in the success of marketing their media products to their audiences. Oligopolies such as the big 5 consists of Disney, Columbia Pictures, Universal Studios, Warner Bros. and Paramount pictures. These 5 conglomerates dominate the film landscape who have acquired many subsidiaries and are known as the media giants of Hollywood. For example, in 2019, Disney acquired Fox for $71 billion, which made Disney the largest shareholder over the media/film market, with a total of 27%. This being said, this small amount of oligopolies have the benefit of vertical and horizontal integration where they can promote their products through many different platforms under their ownership. This is seen through Disney using the ABC to help distribute their products. This helps these so called 'monopolies' to slowly dominate the worlds market share of film. 

Media and its audience has had a massive change over the last few years trying to keep up with the ongoing updates of technology. However, synergy and cross media convergence have been great ways of marketing and distributing media institutions products. This is seen through the web 2.0 where the audience can now interact with the product, Levelling  out the playing field for smaller filmmakers with a smaller budget than big Hollywood films. For example, Jurassic World came up with a creative idea of introducing a website which was portrayed as the real site for the Jurassic world Park. This website treated users not as moviegoers but as park visitors. It launched seven months before the movie to introduce the variety of dinosaurs featured, Lists of attractions they had, ticket stations, maps of the park and even little details like the temperature and weather on the island. This innovative idea got a hype buzz Buzz which segmented to different audiences. This Hollywood film had a budget of $150 million who made gross earnings of $1.670 billion. One A-list actor in this film was Chris Pratt who has a following on Instagram of 32 million. He posted the trailer on his account and promoted the movie to all of his followers which created a big deal for the movie in a positive way. Universal studios didn't just create their website, they posted trailers on YouTube which got 91 million views as well as videos they released from the movie on the Jurassic World youtube account, like the end fight between the dinosaurs which Got 239 million views. Universal teamed up with Lego and got many dinosaurs made into toys, Video games were also designed based on the film which have their own website. This being said, smaller filmmakers with a smaller budget have also had positive outcomes using synergy and cross media convergence. This is seen through the New Zealand film 'What we do in the shadows' where The director Taika Waititi Came up with some creative ideas to help promote the movie. Released in 2015 with a budget of $1.6 million, the crowd funded movie directors Turned up to media screenings, fan events and even ran art competitions for the viewers. Some bigger ideas Was changing the New Zealand capital Wellington sign from a white W to a red V which spelt 'Vellington', going along with their vampire film. They ran a trade me account actioning of items from the house in the film and they had an online dating profile as the vampires. All of these innovative ideas created a bigger viewing which led them to get gross earning of $8 million on a global scale. This shows that synergy and cross media convergence work for both big Hollywood institutions as well as more filmmakers like this New Zealand film. Both were successful for their positions.

With the fast growing industry for technology and devices, this is a great way for all filmmakers to market and distribute their films. Viral marketing campaigns have been seen to spread really fast creating a big hype buzz. This can be seen through marketing strategies such as publicity stunts, pre-roll video advertising, being smart With the press,  letting the audience Experience the story and involve them in the making of the film. One great example for a worldwide marketing campaign that went viral was for the movie paranormal activity released in 2007. This movie did really well during test screenings which made the produces decide to use the footage from test screenings in the movie marketing campaign. Rather than focusing on the movie itself paranormal activities commercials instead showcased audience reactions with night vision cameras capturing frightened moviegoers screaming, gasping and recoiling and shock. This technique worked and got a lot of buzz on a small budget and kicked off a long-running movie franchise where they now have a total of 6 movies. With a crazy budget of only $15,000, the gross earning for this film was a huge $193 million internationally. This market campaign shows us that synergy and cross media convergence Really is a vital process in marketing and distributing a film giving them a potential to go worldwide. 

Disney is known for its crazy amount of synergy and cross media convergence which helps them create an even bigger audience than they already have. Disney have all of the resources they need which includes their use of vertical and horizontal integration. In 2021 before the release of the new black widow movie the Disney platform, Disney+ changed all of the Marvel icons to photos of black widow and what she looked like in all of the films she's been seen in. With a huge market share of 27% Disney has a great advantage of already having a huge audience. However they still use energy and cross media convergence to further upgrade every day. Every day Disney's parks and resorts have a revenue of $20.3 billion on a yearly basis And the Disney Studios produce a revenue of $10 billion per year. This being said Disney parks make almost double what their studios do. One cool fat is that the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were based off rides at the Disney theme park. All of these movies did well and the 4th  instalment of the film series had the biggest budget for a movie in the world which was $410 million. This is the most expensive movie made ever. Disney has mini business Holden such as Fox, Marvel, Lucas films and Fox. Among all of these companies Disney has the rights to thousands of characters which gives them an advantage to create toys for them and new characters. Disney uses advertisements for their parks and expansions and they also rely on heavy nostalgia and ads which makes the audience want to go and watch movies. Disney creates new park rides for new movies as well which encourages the audience to not just go to the movie but to also go to the film. This is seen as promoting all of the companies in one film. 

Synergy is simply working together with other companies or conglomerates to maximise their exposure and profit. For example using horizontal integration, Disney  Disney and their black panther movie wasn't just a film. They had a comic book, video games, films such as black panther and scene and Captain America, as well as an animated TV series. This is the same brand seen in different places. The revenue for this film was $1.348 billion worldwide.This revenue was also encouraged by the Collab with other companies such as Lego where Lego produced many black panther toys. This is also seen through the soundtrack with Kendrick Lamar who is signed to a record label owned by a different conglomerate. This helps create new audiences for each other. Black panther was also seen using product placement where black panther was seen in the ad for Lexus used within the film and black panther also seen in the Lexus ads. Advertising the movie and many different ways can gather the fragmented market an audience and bring them together to watch the film. 

A movie that didn't do so well 'the interview' released in 2014 with the director Seth Rogen, won an award for marketing campaign where James Franco was on talk shows and interviews which engaged their fan base. Their budget was $44 million however they only had a gross earning of $11.3 million.  It became a popular film despite the negative review because of its controversial political portrayal of North Korea including the death of their political leader. Sam saw this movie not as a joke but as a declaration of war which made them less successful. The indie film 'perks of being a wallflower' released in 2012 with the director Stephen Chbosky was first a book. The author was hired to write the movie who incorporated a list actors of Emma Watson from Harry Potter, Nina Dobrev from the vampire diaries, and Logan alarm on from Percy Jackson. Emma Watson Emma Watson has an Instagram following of 60.3 million followers. Nina dobro has an Instagram following of 24,.1 million followers. And Logan Lerman has an Instagram following of 1.8 million followers. They had a budget of $13 million and made a gross earning of $33.5 million. These A-list actors posted trailers on their accounts used Twitter to respond to fans, They did interviews online as well as promotional trailers and posters. People went to the movie just to see Emma Watson Nina Dobrev and Logan Lerman as they were seen and very popular TV shows and movies. The use of having a list actors can have a great effect on the gross earnings of a movie as using cross media convergence they help promote the film on their own personal accounts. 

Today 95% of all teams have access to a smart phone and 45% of them say that they are online almost constantly. Linking to the web 2.0 Media is now fall of an interactive audience where they can engage and interact online such as liking or commenting on a trailer or a film. This is great as cross media convergence has also been on its all time high where everything is posted and advertised on social media and online since events have been ongoing restricted due to Covid 19. This has created more connections between the producer and consumer where a list actors can post on their social media platforms as Well as posting behind the stage photos and videos which gets the audience and fans excited and engaged. This is also seen through Chris Pratt the A-list actor for Jurassic world who posted a lot of behind-the-scenes photos from the 2015 Jurassic world movie. 

Overall the media market is very fragmented with lots of people and different media platforms. This makes cross media convergence and synergy a very easy technique for all filmmakers on different budgets to use for potential success. This gives any filmmakers the opportunity to promote and engage with the audience online through trailers Instagram posts tik toks and interviews with a list actors. Now media institutions can find it easier to engage the audience on a number of different platforms and to communicate with them. Utan overall this proves that strong Synergy and cross media convergence are a vital process and the success of any film.