Marketing essay (synergy and cross-media convergence)

To what extent has cross-media convergence and synergy played a part in the success of the media texts you have studied?

Cross-media convergence and synergy play a massive role in the overall success of a film. Cross-media convergence is the coming together of media companies to promote a media text that will benefit all parties involved. In a similar way; synergy also promotes a media product by the coming together of conglomerates who benefit from the exposure but it is rather a media product that is tangible like merchandise. Cross-media convergence is seen more heavily in regards to the big Hollywood films. This plays an important role in why the oligopoly; the Big 5 (Disney, Sony, Universal, Paramount, Warner Brothers) are able to dominate the film landscape. We are able to understand the effect of these strategies as we look at the large overall success of big Hollywood blockbusters and compare it to that of the less wealthy and smaller indie films.

Like mentioned before the oligopoly; the Big 5 dominate the film landscape through cross-media convergence and synergy. This is made easy for them through the use of their many subsidiaries. Subsidiaries are companies that are held by a holding company, also know as a parent company. Through these subsidiaries, these conglomerates can saturate their market through horizontal and vertical integration. An example of this is Disney. Disney being apart of the Big 5 is large conglomerate company which owned 25.5% of the market share, as of 2021. This makes it the most dominating media institution out there. This is due to their many acquisitions such as Marvel (bought in 2009 for $4 billion), Fox family (became known as abc family and freeform which was bought in 2001 for $2.9 billion), Capital Cities (the owner of abc which was the owner of espn; which was overall bought by Disney in 1995 for $19 billion) and Fox (bought in 2019 for $71.3 billion). These are some examples of Disney's horizontal integration. Another major example is Disney's acquisition of Pixar in 2006 which was bought for $7.4 billion. Pixar's animation studio allowed Disney to integrate further into the world of animation which produced some of the most successful animated films like the Toy Story movies (1995-2019), The Incredibles (2004) and Monsters Inc (2001). An example of their vertical integration are their theme parks. Their theme parks generate a revenue of $20.3 billion which is twice as much as their studio revenue. Their 12 parks spread worldwide are the most visited theme parks in the world. Disney World alone brings in more than 58 million people annually. Within these theme parks Disney produce extensive amounts of merchandise like clothes and toys that are based on characters and films they have the right to distribute. Merchandise isn't only an example of their vertical integration but of the synergy they use too. 

As mentioned before Disney acquired Marvel in 2009 which means they got the rights to many different characters like Black Panther (2018). Black Panther is a great example of Disney's synergy as see it wasn't just about the film but there was a comic book too as well as many toys. Disney partnered up with toy companies like LEGO and HASBRO to create Black Panther themed merchandise which further advertised the film reaching even younger ages. Cross-media convergence was also used like the production of video games and the feature of the Black Panther in movies like Captain America, as well as animated tv series. There was also a soundtrack collaboration with musician Kendrick Lamar who is signed with another conglomerate. This collab allows for an even wider target audience to be reached.

Overall, Disney's extensive use of cross-media convergence and synergy has become one of its greatest advantages in the world of marketing and promotion and the success of their films. As of 2018, Disney now occupies a whole three quarters of the Box Office, with the three highest grossing films in the USA in 2018 all belonging to Disney... Black Panther ($700 million on Box Office), Avengers: Infinity War ($679 million on Box Office) and Incredibles 2 ($609 million on Box Office). This shows how effective cross-media convergence and synergy can be.

The Dark Knight (2008) marketing campaign; 'why so serious?' is another great example of a film that benefited from cross-media convergence. The "Why So Serious?" campaign was designed as a 360° alternate reality experience/interactive game that played out over 15 months leading up to the release of The Dark Knight. Spilling out over a multitude of different platforms, this deep immersive campaign recruited the audience to become real citizens of Gotham City. The 'joker' (a character in the film) left his mark (red smile) on posters and money which built a fan base all over the world. This marketing campaign was so significant the Dark Knight reached $1.006 billion at box office. The campaign created so much anticipation and suspense for the film that it secured a solid fan base which ultimately secured revenue for the film. This campaign also links to Shirky's theory.

Shirky's theory also known as the 'end of audience' theory simply states that audiences are becoming less passive and more active; hence the idea of no audience. This can be seen in the Dark Knight campaign as the audience are actively interacting with the game and almost becoming apart of the film itself as they dress up as characters from the film. Shirky's theory can also be seen in more recent media products like that of interactive tv series that are produced by Netflix (an attempt to secure more subscribers as it is something 'new'). 

This theory comes about with the multiple technological advancements our generation is making. YouTube is also a big part of this as anyone can now make a film and distribute it this way; it may not be as successful as your big Hollywood films but still proves the point that anyone can be a filmmaker now. There are two ways to go about this concept: when a film/marketing campaign is interactive it can make the audience actually feel apart of the film and included in some of the decisions made for some of their favourite characters. This can encourage them to go watch the film but to also continue the success of the film way beyond it's theatrical window or initial release. This whole concept could also be viewed in the way that it is taking away from the art of cinema. It could push a few people away from even watching the film as they may feel the audience has become too involved and could lower the success of the film.

Although cross-media convergence and synergy are a major advantage to media institutions like the Big 5, smaller indie films can still succeed even without a big budget and the lack of synergy. What We Do In The Shadows (WWDITS) is a New Zealand indie film that was directed by Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi. The film had to be crowd funded due to the production costs being too high. The film was hugely successful in that it grossed $6.9 million worldwide and became the basis of two spin-off tv shows. Taika Waititi has even gone on to be an A-list celebrity; directing films like Thor Ragnarok and even starring in them himself. Although not using a typical convention of cross-media convergence like promoting the film with a video game, WWDITS owes majority of its success to its marketing. They primarily used the internet to advertise the film. They made a trade me account selling items from their 'vampire house', they had a facebook account where they would upload funny comments and posts posing as the vampires from the film and they even set up dating profiles as they teamed up with dating websites to advertise both the film and the website. Like I said; not the most common use of cross-media convergence but definitely still effective. They would also do an interview with anyone that asked and would show up to fan events dressed up in their costumes. This helped create a fan base as many enjoyed the character of these directors and wanted to support them. They even changed the Wellington sign in our capital city to say Vellington; replacing the W with a big red V. Through all these marketing decisions they could really reach a variety of audiences and establish a solid fan base which deemed very effective in the overall success of the film. It is also proves the point that cross-media convergence is an effective technique in the success of a film, despite what the budget is.

In comparison to the Big 5 where money is the primary goal; the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) which is owned by the government funds films that promote NZ stories/culture and also show off our beautiful landscape. Money isn't the main goal, rather getting our stories out there and tourism. Some of their more famous films have included Shadow of the Cloud (2020), The power of the Dog (2021) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2018). Their budget is made up of Government funding, Lottery Grants Board funding, income from films, interest and reserves. Their total current budget is around $26 million. An example of when the NZFC used cross-media convergence was the collaboration between Air NZ and The Hobbit film. An in-flight safety video was produced, which flaunted New Zealand's beautiful landscape but also featured many of the Hobbit characters. This collaboration was beneficial to New Zealand tourism, Air NZ and to the Hobbit films. As of June 2022 the video had over 13 million views on YouTube and 88k likes. It attracted 120,000 views every hour when it was first released. It also excelerated tourism to NZ which meant more people flying with Air NZ and therefore more people being introduced to the Hobbit and being intrigued to actually watch the film.

In conclusion, although indie filmmakers may have more of a chance now due to technological advancements in recent years, cross-media convergence and synergy are still a massive advantage to large media institutions like the Big 5 as they have the funds to afford more effective ways of the strategy. This being said cross-media convergence is still effective and doesn't have to entirely rely on budget to make a film successful.