Essay 5

"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 in relation to your media area? 



I personally believe that synergy and cross media convergence is important, but not absolutely necessary. This is because you can still make successful films without these things. But, they are nowhere near as successful as those with synergy and cross media convergence. Synergy means the interaction of two or more products which creates a greater effect than it individually. An example is merchandise. Cross media convergence means when companies come together horizontally or vertically. An example of this for film is making it available on phones and tablets etc.

This is because the film does not get recognised as much, meaning less people will know about it. With bigger films made by bigger companies it is not necessary as they will have die-hard fans who will still go and see the film no matter what. But, for these to be even more successful they can create merchandise and soundtracks available to fans. This helps market and promote the film even more, and helps boost profits. Star Wars: The Force Awakens does this by releasing a lot of toys related to the film, they also collaborated with other businesses to market Star Wars. They also use cross media convergence to make the film available on different platforms, which many people like and appreciate. 

But, for a smaller film this may not be the case. This is because the film is not as well known anyway, so they need all the help from marketing they can get. This is so it makes the film more well known and encourages people who didn't know about it to go and see it in the cinema. An example of a smaller film who didn't use much synergy is Ex Machina. They used publicity stunts (Tinder) to promote their film, but that is pretty much it. They released no merchandise or soundtrack. This could be the reason to their box office result. Although it was high, they could have achieved much higher. But, they did use cross media convergence by releasing the film to iTunes, DVD etc. 

So, those two factors are not necessary, but help make a large difference to a film and do boost it and can make it successful. It makes audiences more aware of smaller films and helps them discover new films they wouldn't have otherwise heard of. Cross media convergence is also becoming more popular in this day and age as technology is expanding. This means that people enjoy to view films from the comfort of their home, rather than go out to a cinema.