The media area I will be referencing is ‘The Avengers’ film
franchise, released 26 April 2012 in the UK.
Digital technologies
has an important role in the marketing and consumption of film media products,
as it widens the availability of film media project products and effectively
creates awareness of the Product. By using digital technologies in marketing,
it increases the number of people who see the product, as ‘The Avengers’
greatly used it to create anticipation for the product. There were a total of
14 trailers, both teaser and full-length trailers which were all available for
download on iTunes, and by creating so many, which all advertised different
characters or parts of the narrative, it meant the audience would want to
consume their major product. For example, one teaser trailer focused on a few
characters including Ironman, the Hulk and Captain America, where as the
full-length trailers introduced us to all of the key protagonists, so the role
is contributed to, as different members of the audience would find a different
characters appealing. In addition to this, digital technologies play an
important role as part of marketing due to a a lot of ‘The Avengers’ marketing
strategy being online. There was a 30 minute live global Twitter chat to market
the film with the director and Samuel L.Jackson and Chris Evans present,
allowing fans to ask questions and find out information about the film, and by
using this digital technology for marketing, it suggests that more people would
become attracted to the product and would become interested, so would want to
consume the product. This is evidence of digital technology having a big role
in this media area.
Furthermore, digital technologies were also used for viral
marketing, as images of Robert Downey Jr in an Acufa, which is a car that fans
would instantly recognise and associate with ‘The Avengers’ was leaked online,
which meant fans could spread the pictures and publicity for the film was being
created due to this association of a well-known actor and a vehicle from the
films, so this is part of synergy, and digital technologies effectively helped
to market the product, so it is very important for technologies to be involved
in marketing.
Digital technologies are important in the consumption of the
product as well, as many members of audiences would use it in order to view the
product. As part of the exhibition of ‘The Avengers’, it was released in
September 2012 on DVD, Blu-ray, 3-D Blu-ray and was available for digital
download. This meant that that the audience members, mainly male and female
aged under 25 in these two quadrants of the four, would be able to view the
film in a way that appealed to them, as they could download it from iTunes, and
provide digital technologies they couldn’t do so to consume the film, so the
role is very important. In addition to this, Digital technology allows for apps
for phones and tablets to be created and
downloaded, as part of marketing the media product. This is extremely
beneficial for both institutions and audiences, and there were apps created for
‘The Avengers’ that could not have been made without digital technologies. The
app included a ‘Superhero Augmented Reality App’, in which users could play as
their favourite superhero from the film, and there was another called ‘Avengers
Alliance’, which was available to download from the App Store on iTunes. This
allowed the audience to consume the product in a different way and interact
‘The Avengers’ franchise, and as technology has developed, it meant a greater
audience was being targeted and the role of digital technologies in marketing
and consumption is extremely vital in generating awareness and create an
appeal.
On the other hand, it could be argued that the role of
digital technologies is not extremely significant. Merchandise is a form of marketing
that does not solely rely on digital technologies, and there was a lot of
merchandise for ‘The Avengers’, and as the media product was the highest
grossing film of 2012, it indicates that marketing and consumption can be
successful with digital technologies having a more minor role. For ‘The
Avengers’, individual character perfumes were created, which all differed in
fragrance, and character merchandise was released in ‘waves’. For example, Iron
Man and Captain America merchandise was released in the first wave, followed by
Thor and Hulk merchandise in the second wave, and Black Widow and Hawkeye
merchandise in the third. This merchandising did not involve digital
technologies, yet it was still extremely successful, so it suggests that
audiences will consume the media product differently by purchasing dolls and
bags with their favourite character on, and do not have to be influenced by
trailers and available apps. However, it could be argued that audiences would
only consume the media product and the profits with it due to viewing a film
trailer or participating in a global social networking event, as this is where
the information they know about the film had come from.
To conclude, I think that digital technologies have a big
role in marketing and consumption of films because it ultimately creates
awareness and hype for the product, and the success from merchandising and
other marketing techniques would greatly be down to the successful use of
digital technologies. Some people may argue that technology is not essential
but in order to appeal to the audience and publicise the film, the technology
is necessary, and ‘The Avengers’ supports this as the various digital
technologies used created excitement and anticipation for the film, effectively
leading to the success of the product.
This answer was awarded 50/50.
This answer was awarded 50/50.
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