Media Products and Marketing & Distribution

 “Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices.”

The dependence upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience compared to good production practices in successful media products varies. Many media products such as films only make money if they sell at the box office. Films will make a lot more money when the marketing and distributing techniques stand out from others. This is known as ‘blank marketing’. If the film production is fantastic, but the film has not been displayed in distribution and marketing to an audience, then it will not sell well as the target audience will not hear about it and so won’t watch it. For some film franchises, their popularity along with well-known directors and actors mean that marketing and distribution are not that important. However, if the film is the first in a franchise or is just one film then relying on marketing and distribution techniques is a very good idea. Many famous film franchises will focus more on the quality of the film production and less on marketing techniques. This is due to public interest in the film being wide and so big marketing campaigns are not needed because fans will already want to go. Film production should always be focused on ensuring the film lives up to previous ones and meets the expectation of fans as letting fans down means upcoming films will have much less media attention and so marketing and distribution techniques would be very important.

An example of this would be the film Life of Pi that had a very large marketing campaign, calling it the next ‘Avatar’ due to computer generated technology in film production.The film became a hit just as James Cameron’s Avatar was. Life of Pi was based on the 2001 novel by Yann Martel but no other films had been released so, as a result, anyone who hadn’t read the book needed a marketing campaign to give them some idea of the film’s plot. However, Marc Webb’s hit The Amazing Spiderman had quite a small marketing campaign and still gained over $752,000,000 in the Box Office, which is more than Life of Pi. The marketing and distribution of the film was not as important as fans of the previous Spiderman trilogy didn’t need to be persuaded to watch it as they were willing based on their view of the previous films. It also had a well-known cast list, for example, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. People would be encouraged to watch if they enjoyed something these actors had previously starred in. In Life of Pi however, the main actor Suraj Sharma had never played a role in other film.

I also agree with this statement as different marketing techniques help the audience to engage with the film and this helps in the balance of distribution. In Star Trek, the head marketing body for the film released an app where members of the general public could watch trailers and read an in depth analysis of the film without any of the best parts being ruined. So, the marketing techniques as well as production are balanced and of equal importance. Some separate films will push distribution and marketing on films, for example, the Weinstein Company. They will push medium budget films. One of their biggest hits was The King’s Speech and after a slow start they pushed the production team and, as a result, it won Oscars and received great reception from a number of critics around the world. It also made $414,000,000 in the Box Office.

Distribution, however, is always key in films. If a film is distributed in only top-end cinemas then the film’s popularity will decrease as it will have a smaller audience. The Life of Pi and The Amazing Spiderman were distributed by large American distribution studios (20^th Century Fox and Columbia pictures) and so they were distributed in a theatrical release and home entertainment release. Films released only on DVD and not in cinema would have a smaller profit than a film released in the cinema and on DVD. This is due to consumers paying to watch the film in the cinema and later purchasing it in stores when it is available, resulting in an increase in profit. However, if the quality of film production was not high, it will not be as successful even if it is released through a large distribution studio. Popularity occurs in the combination of high quality production and distribution.

However, I would disagree with the statement due to the fact that some lower budget films do not need big budget marketing as they are a smaller market of films and will be more interested in showing the quality in the production. An example of this is ‘Kill List’. The film was not set out to receive a massive profit and instead was used to show the quality of new talent through the director and actors. It had a budget of $500,000 and took $171,000. The film was considered to be a moderate success because of its critical reception. The film is an exception to the statement as it was made for quality, not to be a massive sell out.

To conclude, I agree with the statement. I believe that in the media industries, marketing and distribution is key as the media has to be endorsed with the public to become a success. With today’s flourishing new technology it is a fact that marketing is by far as important in media as production. We can see this in looking at media in which production was poor, for example, the film World War Z and it still made a huge amount of money.