To what extent does digital distribution affect the marketing and consumption of media products in the media are you have studied?

To what extent does digital distribution affect the marketing and consumption of media products in the media are you have studied?

Digital distribution affects the marketing and consumption of media products in the film industry in modern day due to the continuing development of digital media allowing more people to watch films in the comfort of their own home, becoming more dependent on the internet and taking less trips to the cinema. This mean that the film industry must take this into heavy consideration before promoting and more so distributing a film and so many online or televised methods are now used during the marketing and consumption of the said media products.

A prime example of this shows the marketing strategy of ‘Batman: The Dark Knight’ they set up a viral campaign like no other. Starting at Comic-con and online the uber fans were given a virtual game in which leaked into real life events all relative to the upcoming film, creating hype around the product way before its release. Creating a trail of clues and concepts this left fans chasing for more and more information with hidden symbols and codes, even to the extent of putting mobile phones in a randomly selected cake store as a part of the trail. This whole idea sparked massive online debate supported by the teaser trailers and even put out a hidden ‘Jokers Edit’ trailer unofficially for fans to find. This whole marketing campaign caused the biggest success Time Warner has had to date making over 1.1 billion dollars on box office and in the home media after its $185,000,000 production budget. Any major film studio will have a marketing strategy with an online element, such as a few teaser trailer and official trailers, but only few will reach viral victory, The Dark Knight being one of so.

Another example of this being the marketing strategy of ‘Cloverfield’ cleverly releasing untitled footage of new York city in a horrific state, leaving people intrigued as to whether this is real or why on earth this was made. And filmed from a hand-held perspective adds elements of belief and the clip virally blew up bringing them major attention, perfect for smaller scale budget of $25,000,000 which in fact made the company $175,000,000 dollars profit after the production budget.

The same effects, usually come from well known already established media products, known as cash cows, such as batman, they are able to invest into the film knowing it will perform well. Due to its popularity the franchise is still kept alive with fans, creating SWEDES, drip-fed images, memes, Fan films, Fan blogs, reaction videos and unofficial trailers this continues spark without Warner bros or DC Comics having to do anything, all bringing attention to the original media product. For example the three most recent films relative to the franchise are Batman vs Superman, Suicide squad and the Lego Batman Movie. All receiving major critique however yet making $1.7 billion all together in terms of profit, very close to the top performing trilogy of Time Warner being the most recent rendition of the Batman trilogy making $1.9 billion.

In terms of consumption The Dark Knight would have been released in different formats such as 2D, 3D and IMAX which was an experience that cannot be topped by digital distribution, but then furthermore sold to online distributors such as Sky Movies, Now TV, Netflix etc. a couple of month after its release into theatres. Post – Theatre consumers also have the option to purchase the film in different formats such as SD, HD, Blu-ray and more recently 4k HD, so as to give them an immersive experience from their home, scaling in quality with price, so as to reach an extremely wide audience.

This arrangement sees that those who did not want to pay a fairly weighty price for a cinema ticket, although would have been the most immersive experience, can wait for the disc release, acting as a permanent investment for a lower price or even watch the film via an online streaming service such as Netflix or Now TV for a small monthly subscription. Often films that people are unsure of feel safer to purchase the DVD or watch it online, rather than spending all the money of a theatre experience they may be disappointed with.

These ranges of options to view the film give the media product more availability of success. However the film industry may not always look upon this digital distribution as positive due to the many websites allowing viewers to watch the product for free illegally. Which means the film company lose part of its potential profit, although this is not usually a problem for well-known tent pole films, it can be a major problem for lower budget films who rely on success to keep their company alive.

Overall, digital distribution affects the marketing and consumption of films rather significantly, as the internet is becoming increasingly more popular and accessible as the years go on, a cinema experience is becoming less of a demand due to the continuing development of technology.