"Cross media convergence and synergy are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences". To what extent do you agree with this statement?
To a greater extent I agree with this statement. The process of Cross media convergence in social media can be argued as crucial for a successful marketing campaign due to the free use and the massive audience that uses it. Synergy is also an important process, which is the simultaneous release of two products. It boosts the success of marketing as it is much more affective than releasing single products because they are mutually beneficial. They also have a symbiotic relationship, this means that one product could not exist with out the other. With out the release of a new film, a book, magazine or video game would not be as successful.
It is a well known fact that Disney did a spectacular job of the marketing campaign for their latest Star Wars film - Star Wars: The Force Awakens. A very successful method of marketing is to release film trailers before the films is released. These trailers captivate the audience as they give them a very short insight into some of the events that take place in the film, but do not give away too much. This often leave the audience wanting to know more, which is why they go to see the film in cinema or purchase the DVD etc. Therefore it is important that the audience is made aware of these trailers. This is when cross media convergence has an impact on the marketing. Social media sights such as YouTube, with over 1 billion active users, are huge sights that audiences from all areas of the four quadrant turn to to view film trailers. If the film trailer appears on YouTube, which is highly likely for a mainstream film which is a part of a successful film franchise, it will increase the amount awareness of the release of the film. it will also dramatically increase the availability for the marketing product as it is accessible to a much larger audience on a different media platform.
Along with the social media marketing, Disney also put a lot of effort into synergising with external companies (not in the film industry). It was easier for Disney to synergise as it was already a big, powerful, well respected and recognised media conglomerate. Companies through themselves at the idea of collaborating with the institution. For example, Disney synergised with a lot of supermarket companies to created orange packaging packaging. They proved the film by associating an everyday fruit with one of the characters from the film, R2-D2. The packaging was seen by millions of regular shoppers who purchased oranges. However it worked both ways, not only were Disney gaining recognition for their latest film, but the supermarkets chain were also benefitting. Due to the fact that Disney is so recognisable worldwide, it increased the sales in the oranges (and any other food item that was packaged with Star Wars). A very similar process occurred with other brands which included makeup (Cover Girl) and other industries. Both product were released simultaneously which benefited both Disney and the other institution.
Having argued that it is clearly essential for big media conglomerate companies to cross media converge and synergise with other media platforms, the independent companies also heavily rely on these processes. In order for niche films to be marketed successfully,they are going to have to compete with the larger blockbuster films. As discussed early Disney, a conglomerate film managed to to stretch to almost all areas of the four quadrant and work with a lot of different industries. This was made possible through having good financial strength. Unfortunately niche films do not have very big budgets, therefore they are not able to synergise with other companies successfully. In order to become reasonably successful, like Ex Machina, they need to rely on free marketing methods. One of the most powerful marketing strategies is to cross media converge with social media, due to incredible amount of users from all target audiences having access to this platform. Ex Machina used the free social media site, Tinder - with an estimate of over 50 million users, to kick start their marketing campaign. By incorporating the theme of the film and involving and interacting with the audience they managed to gain some recognition of the film. Not only did they gain some recognition but this new method of marketing was so original and unique that it attracted a lot of attention from the press. This resulted in the cross media convergence with YouTube - interviews would be documented on the site and shared through their network of audiences, newspapers and magazines which would reach the older spectrum of the four quadrant, TV time which would be broadcast to other audiences and even radio interviews. Although Ex Machina did not cross media converge and synergise to the vast scale that Disney did, it still proved that they needed that process to promote their film.
Personally, I would argue that cross media convergence and synergy are vital processes in successful marketing as it widens the availability of the product to bigger audiences. Incidentally increasing the awareness of the media product. By expanding into other industries, such as food and clothing, the media products are being promoted to a wider and more diverse audience.
In conclusion, regardless of whether a company is a media conglomerate or global institution or an independent company with limited financial strength, both have evidence of cross media convergence and synergy in one way or another and both were successful films. This is despite the fact that they are almost opposites as one is a huge mainstream film which is a part of a long film franchise which was produced, distributed and exhibited by Disney and other well respected, big institutions. Where as Ex Machina is a niche film produced by an independent company with much smaller budgets. In summary this again highlights the vitality of the two processes as no matter the size of the institution , it they are both proven to be a necessary process.
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