Michael Becker's A2 Media Blog

How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary texts?

To assess how effective how products work together it is important to understand how these products relate to one another and why it is important for them to do so. A film distribution company does the distribution of a movie. They would have to make the same products as I have in my media product. I used many professional made products to complete the design of my products, as it was important for me to establish the codes and conventions of a professional product, so my products could be identified as such by the target audience. The products I made to reflect the same made by film distributors were a film poster, magazine cover featuring the film, and a theatrical trailer for the film. In the real media world, the distributor would have to reach a wide range of people to attract them to the movie. With this in mind, they would have a lot more resources and use a lot more techniques to attract people to the movie. The three techniques listed are the biggest ones and they are in a wide range of places so they can be seen by almost anyone, even if they do not buy a magazine, they still see the cover and might increase the circulation of the movie.

Depending on the target demographic, film distributors can use a wide array of promotional techniques to attract their target demographic. This can be done in many different ways depending on the target demographic. For my horror movie, I think the use of a viral video promotion or an interactive experience would have been very useful in attracting the audience. What I mean by this is the use of a promotional technique could be used to attract my target audience of young adults. Examples of this where they’ve been used in the real world can be seen in The SAW Roller-coaster at Thorpepark and the viral video called “Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise” by the movie Carrie to promote the film.

At Thorpepark, there is a partnership between the park and the film series “SAW”. This resulted in a ride with the theme of the movie. It offered an experience relating to the films in order to scare the rider. This worked really well as the relationship between thrill-seekers and horror fans is very close so the target demographic can be advertised. This can also advertise to people who haven’t heard of the movie series but still enjoy the ride, resulting in more exposure for the film series.

The next promotional technique, which has recently developed with increased use of social media and development of web 2.0, is viral marketing campaigns. These promotional videos spread round the web like wild fire, acting as a form of advertisement and entertainment for the viewer. The best example of this is the viral video for the movie “Carrie”. The nature of the video makes it cool, unique, and perfect to share with friends and family, making it wide reaching in appeal. The video is also good for targeting the target demographic of young adults, as younger people tend to use social media, where these types of videos are shared, more than the average person.

One of the most important aspects of a media campaign is to unify the products. This is done by using recognisable imagery, actors, and colours to create similar products across the campaign so people begin to associate those colours and images with the film being advertised. For example, during the release of “Scream 4” the products all had similar imagery (Ghostface), colours (Black, white, & Red), and actors present in different ways. This creates a flowing media campaign, which can use the similar imagery to create a certain idea in people’s mind of the product that they will be reminded of every time they see a related product or imagery.

Another useful aspect for promotion, depending on the result of the evaluation, is the use of reviews in advertisements. People tend to judge a movie based on the consensus of critics, as they tend to know what they are talking about when it comes to movies. This release to the public can be a positive or negative depending on how they review the movie. These reviews are often seen implemented into TV adverts as people tend to see a flash of positive review in a trailer as a positive sign to the quality of the movie if they weren’t sure to see the movie or not. These reviews are often accumulated online and most people check the average score before watching a movie, as they do not want to waste their time with a bad movie.

Moving onto my video explaining how my own products did this.