Audience and Institutions Essay

Savanna Nemmers

Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied.

    Marketing is one of the most important elements of a film. Marketing builds the audience and ensures the film’s targeted consumers will want to watch the movie. There are even more marketing opportunities now than there has ever been before. As technology continues to evolve and improve, more marketing methods are introduced. This is vital because of how important marketing is in the film industry. 

How well a film does is significantly impacted by the marketing campaigns and methods used to promote it. An example of a successful marketing campaign would be the film Black Panther. This film was promoted through the release of merchandise like games and clothes. Introducing these clothes and various other products for the film led to more excitement, interest, and anticipation for the movie. This movie's strong marketing made sure to include products that could appeal to people of all ages, which helped create a wider audience made up of kids, teenagers, and adults. Black Panther also used cable networks to expand their campaign. For example, BET released reruns of an old animated series of Black Panther that originally aired back in 2011. Black Panther had made around $361 million in its first weekend alone. The different ways the film was marketed greatly impacted the success of the movie because of the ways it expanded the film’s audience and got the general public talking about it. If a film has a bad marketing strategy, there is a higher chance it will flop. Without marketing, the targeted audience will not be engaged, there will be less anticipation, and less knowledge that the film is even being released. 

Cross promotion is another method of marketing that can greatly impact the success of a film. The movie Jurassic World is a prime example of how cross promotion can successfully be used to promote a film. Since Universal Studios is their parent company, they are able to get Comcast’s television companies to run earlier Jurassic Park movies. They have movie marathons for the Jurassic Park franchise with sneak previews with Chris Pratt and Spielberg on NBC. Marketing like this increases interest from the public because it makes them more familiar with the film and it teases them with sneak peaks that leave the audience wanting more. Jurassic World also partnered up with other companies such as Lego to make toys, video games, and Jurassic World themed snacks. Jurassic World made over 1 billion dollars and is still selling DVD versions of the film. This further demonstrates how marketing for a film greatly impacts it’s success and how vital it is for a film.

Another marketing strategy is through hosting special events for the film. Marvel used this method to promote Black Panther. Chadwick Boseman, the lead actor in the film, participated in an event for the mobile game Marvel Contest of Champions. Marvel Studios also hosted a New York Fashion Week event, where pieces inspired by the movies were showcased. The New York Fashion week allowed a way for the movie’s marketers to appeal to a different form of art, in this case fashion. These special events help the franchise branch out to different types of audiences allowing for a larger number of consumers when the movie is released. Another example of when a film used specials to promote their movie is in the marketing for the live action film of Beauty and the Beast. A couple of the movie stars hosted a special edition of “The Bachelor '' on ABC to promote it’s upcoming release. Frequent viewers that see the Beauty and the Beast themed episode are more likely to get excited about the film and see it when the movie is released. The success of Beauty and the Beast was a result of a huge participatory effort made by fans and non-fans that became excited and involved because of the marketing techniques the film used.

Social media is a huge way films are promoted. This way of marketing is especially increasing in popularity because of the expanding different ways it allows audiences to discover films. Apps like Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube, and Snapchat are some major platforms that marketing teams use to their advantage to promote their film. For example, the marketing team behind the 2016 Ghostbusters film used snapchat to promote their film. They created a snapchat filter that allowed for the apps millions of users to turn themselves into Ghostbusters. The filter added a zappable ghost to the user’s screen all while playing the film's theme song. Since snapchat is an app where you can post images and send pictures to other people, the filter is spread around to an enormous amount of people allowing for more people to find out about the film. Ghostbusters isn’t the only film to use snapchat to its advantage. Movies such as Pitch Perfect 2, Deadpool, and X-Men Apocalypse also had a special snapchat filter right around the time the film was to come out.

Overall, marketing is extremely important and vital to films. Marketing and promotion allows for there to be a wider audience and gets their movie more well known. Good marketing leads to greater success of the movie because it gets the general public engaged, interested, and excited about the film.