Essay 2 - exemplar extract

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.