Marketing

"Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices." To what extent do you agree with this statement within the media area you have studied?

In your answer, make sure you:

1) State what the marketing budget was for each film.

2) Use audience theory and state why marketing to the right target group is important.

3) Discuss how both of your films were marketed to the target audience - using plenty of evidence e.g. know how many trailers there were, how many poster etc state what platforms were used. THROUGHOUT this make sure you are stating why Hollywood has the advantage. 

4) Discuss whether or not you think marketing is as important as production - refer to how the budget for marketing is similar to the production budget and refer to the gross profits of your films. 

5) Discuss how viral marketing could level the playing field. 

 I will be answering this question in regards to the two films, Men in Black 3 and James Bond : Skyfall. Both films were made in 2012. 

The marketing budget for James Bond:Skyfall was around the 30 million mark,  while Men in Black 3 was ... Marketing to the right audience is key to getting success in profits. If not many people know about your film then they won't know to go to the cinema to see your film specifically. Even if you've marketed to the right audience, playing your film at the wrong time in the cinema can loose audience. If your film should be aimed at teen males, then it should be played at later times in cinemas. Teen males obviously go on their phones a lot, so if a  company wants to advertise a film, social media is a great way to market and advertise your film as it will get round to teens quickly. A good example of this is fast and furious. They put the trailer for one of there films on the main actors Facebook page. This spread the news around and it got the right target audience. Targeting your audience will allow you to understand what attracts   For Skyfall, i found a teaser trailer and a trailer on youtube. I also found a popular poster. Men in black 3 have 2 official trailers on youtube and a poster which clearly shows the the popular actors on it. This is a clever way as people may like to see films with Will Smith and not care what the story lines about. The same can be said with Skyfall and Daniel Craig. However, i feel that as they are both are sequels they will be both already be popular. Hollywood has lots more money then the British film industry. This why Hollywood can spend the extra money on marketing making there films more know, even if the film is worse then the British Film. On average Hollywood films are spending 40 million on marketing, while Britain are spending little compared. However it is Britians own fault as they are not latching onto the band wagon and making films that are very topical. British film tend to stick to the same genre. 

I feel that that marketing is as important as production because even if the films good you need people to know about it and see it. Nowadays, big hollywood blockbuster films are spending massive money on marketing with avatar spending 150 million on it. By companies spending money like that on marketing, it is allowing people to know about it the film before hand. However, i do not feel that companies need to spend that much money on marketing as social media is mainly free and can spread the word very quickly.