Digital Distribution Essay

January, 2012:

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

• Skyfall – Skyfall was a tentpole release distributed by columbia pictures and MGM (Sony). Columbia Pictures is part of the Big Six – have a lot of money and power to market Skyfall.
• Synergy – Visit Britain and Skyfall (created an ad for the film on the tourism website). Omega watch. Xperia phone ad. Billboards, posters, buses and trains. Stunt with Queen. Around $75,000,000 was spent on marketing Skyfall.
• Skyfall was the first Bond film to be screened on IMAX although it was not filmed with IMAX cameras. The film release coincided with the Bond films 50th anniversary.
• Tentpole release so was on multiple screens at the same time in big cinemas – not much competition.
• Cross media convergence – Adele song – music video includes essentially a trailer for the film – if you like the song and see the music video could be interested in film.
• Heinken backed the marketing of Skyfall with its digital activity on Google and social media marketing on Facebook. Symbiosis – Heineken and Skyfall advertising for each other.
• Inbetweeners Movie – The release date of the summer holidays (and DVD h at christmas) allowed many of the target audience of 15-25 year olds to go and see the film at the cinema in the school holidays or receive the DVD for christmas and watch it over the festive period. 4DVD released the DVD and Blu-Ray on December 12, 2011 in the UK.
• The most popular cinema screenings of The Inbetweeners Movie came from suburban areas such as Kent, Crawley and Romford. This links to the TV series that was set in suburbia.
• er real. The Blu-Ray release also features an extended cut of the film that restores approximately 4 minutes of material omitted from theatrical release, most notably an additional scene in which Will and Simon encounter a drunken Mr Gilbert on a Malia stag weekend. Asda released the film with a bonus disc consisting of video diaries from the cast. This attracted more people to buying the Blu-Ray even fi they saw the film in theatrical release.
• A soundtrack from the film was also released on iTunes and the cast of the film did interviews on different radio stations such as Absolute Radio and local radio stations to the places it was popular in (suburbia).
• The film was available to rent on Film4OD as the series was original broadcast on Channel 4 stations. Channel 4 have a package of channels and rights to the film so were able to advertise the film across all their channels.When looking to buy the film on Amazon a link was available to rent the film on LoveFilm.
• Field In England – Day and Date release – unique.

Essay:

The Inbetweeners Movie’s theatrical release was in the summer holidays of 2011 and the DVD was released around Christmas the same year. This was beneficial to the digital distribution of the film as it meant that many of the target audience of 15-25 year olds could go and see the film at the cinema in the school holidays or receive the DVD for christmas and watch it over the festive period. The DVD was also popular as it included lots of special features such as a ‘making-of’ documentary, footage from the films London Premiere, various deleted scenes, cast commentaries and a blooper real. The Blu-Ray release also features an extended cut of the film that restores approximately 4 minutes of material omitted from theatrical release. Asda released the film with a bonus disc consisting of video diaries from the cast. This attracted more people to buying the Blu-Ray even if they saw the film in theatrical release. This is another thing that obviously helped the digital distribution of the film as people would still buy the DVD or Blu-Ray even if they’d seen the film in the cinema because they included extra information that fans of the film and TV show would be interested in.

The most popular cinema screenings of The Inbetweeners Movie came from suburban areas such as Kent, Crawley and Romford. This links to the TV series that was set in suburbia. This also meant that some of the marketing for the film was targeted to these areas, for example, the cast of the film did interview on some of the local radio station to these suburban areas. A sound track of the film was also released on iTunes and was another way of generating profit from the films release. The film was available to rent on Film4OD as the series was originally broadcast on Channel 4 stations. Channel 4 have a package of channels and rights to the film so were able to advertise the film across all their channels and with their channels being popular it created great interest in the film and encouraged people to go see it or to buy the DVD, so this way of marketing helped the digital distribution. When looking to buy the film on Amazon a link was available to rent the film on LoveFilm, this provided customers with different ways of consuming the film but still meant that profit was being made from the film.

Skyfall is a tent pole release by Columbia pictures, one of the Big Six, and MGM, these are both companies owned by Sony. Sony have a large amount of money and power to successfully market the film. They were able to spend around $75 million on the marketing of Skyfall. They marketed the film in the traditional way, on buses, trains, billboards, etc. But they also had the money to have companies such as Omega (watches) and Xperia (phones) help with the marketing of the film. As the film is very British. the website called visit Britain hosted a feature for the film on there homepage. All of these things created a huge amount of interest for the film. Heineken beer and Columbia Picture created a synergy where they would advertise for eachother to help promote the film and this proved to be very successful. Sony showed cross media convergence in the marketing of Skyfall as Adele, one of the companies artists produced a song for the film which was incredibly popular and reached number one in the UK.

Skyfall was the first Bond film to be screened on IMAX although it was not filmed with IMAX cameras, so this allowed people who enjoy the cinema experience to consume the film on much better cinema screens and have a greater all round experience. The film release coincided with the Bond films 50th anniversary so was even more thrilling for fans of the James Bond film series. As the film was a tentpole release, it was on multiple screens at the same time in big cinemas, especially on the release date. This didn’t allow for much competition as other films didn’t really get the chance to show there films around the same time. I think that Skyfall was incredibly well marketed and provided multiple platforms in which the film could be consumed. This therefore meant that the digital distribution of the film was very successful.

In contrast to these films is a Field In England. This independent film was released in a very unique way. It used a day and date release strategy which means that it was released on all platforms at the same time. The marketing for this film was very important to the films success. As the film was the first to utilise this strategy, it caused people to talk about and for word to spread about its unique form. This therefore generating interest towards the film. The film was also heavily marketed on social media as most people heard about the film through platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The consumption of the film was also important. A Field In England was available to rent or buy on Film4OD and was shown on free to air TV through Channel 4’s stations. This meant that the film could be advertised across channel 4’s package of channels and with channel 4 being popular already, people could consume the film easily. Without the film being so widely and successfully marketed and without having so many platforms in which it could be consumed, the digital distribution of the film would not have been as successful.

I feel that the marketing and consumption of films is definitely affected by the digital distribution. If a film is not marketed well and is not easily available on multiple platforms it will not be very successful. You have to widely distribute a film digitally to generate enough interest and great large enough audiences for the film. Is the digital distribution and marketing is not successful and the film cannot be widely consumed than the film will never make enough profit.