LO3 Task 4 Distribution Script (Updated)

Introduction:

Hi, I'm Taighlor McNally and welcome to the 4th instalment of Education Wise, today we're going to be learning about the distribution side of the media industry.

Distribution Channels:

Distribution means how a product is given to the audience and how something is advertised and promoted. Distribution of films has been hugely impacted by technological convergence over the years due to technology getting more mobile and easy to access. "The Simpsons Movie" can be watched on many platforms, especially after a few years since its release it should be able to be seen on nearly all convergences such as; Cinema, DVD, Blu-Ray, via streaming and TV. This is all because of 20th Century Fox's intended audience, which is mass and mainstream meaning that its global and international. Watching a film online can be done by many internet streaming websites such as Netflix, Putlocker, Amazon Prime and YouTube, then there are websites which let you download the film, such as, Google Play and iTunes, then you can also illegally download films if you haven't paid for it because then you don't have the rights to it. The only downside to downloading instead of streaming is the fact it takes up memory space on a device if so. Then you can watch films on TV when they are premiered, with 20th Century Fox this would be easy for them to put The Simpsons Movie on Sky because, like 20th Century Fox, it’s a subsidiary of Fox and so this helps them cross promote the movie. The Simpsons Movie was released for every one of the platforms. Technology convergence is when technologies come together to provide new services to the audience, just like the internet it has changed overtime, around ten years ago the web was in the version 1.0 and the only people who really used it were business's and scholars who were educated to work them and was only mainly used for distributing information and academic reasons. Today we are using Web 2.0 and is completely more accessible to everyone and is more interactive with uses like videos, shopping, communicating and storing files online. With films, there was two methods, analogue and digital, analogue is like web 1.0, it only included VHS and cinema which was way more expensive than now. Today we use the digital method and this includes online viewing, DVD, Blu-Ray and still including cinema. With cinema today, instead of using conventional film reels, Digital Screen Network made it possible, which the films are put on a hard drive which can now be streamed and organised to be displayed on the digital projectors onto all the different screens at the same time instead of having individual film reels for each screen which is more expensive. The Simpsons Movie is one of the highest grossing films of its category which is animated TV adaption, grossing a total of a one hundred and five hundred twenty-seven million, seventy-one thousand and twenty-two dollars, 34.7% of this profit was in America which was played at 3,926 cinemas, this is because the intended audience is America. Therefore having a range of distribution channels enabled more access and choice for the audience, also profit for 20th Century Fox.

Advertising and promotion:
The Simpsons Movie's target audience was its domestic country, America. It had a lot of marketing, especially events and merchandise, with 13 different marketing techniques, with a few being web 2.0 based. Firstly, they were selling "The Simpsons Movie" posters with every character from the show, this was probably the cheapest marketing they used. 

Next, one of the many website based promotions to come, is the "Create your own Avatar tool" which let you create your own avatar based on the Simpsons cartoon style, this made it very interactive to the audience. 

Then there is another website promotion for the social media website "Myspace" which was quite popular and new in 2007, when the movie was being promoted which was called "Simpsonize Your World". It let you change the theme of your Myspace account to a Simpson’s theme, which you could then enter your account into a competition to win prizes like an Xbox 360 with a Simpson's skin, which again was new at the time. This is synergy between 20th Century Fox and MySpace, which like I explained in a  previous video, is when two separate companies, or even subsidiaries of the same company, work together to create a product and because of this, they can promote their film, but at small cost, creating a greater profit from the outcome of extra people knowing about it than if they didn't work together and didn't get those extra people, and this goes for the rest of the synergies involved in the promotion of the film.

Next is Burger Kings website which let you 'simpsonize' yourself by just using a picture, and with there being nearly 7,500 restaurants, it’s definitely isn’t unpopular and so this helped towards the cause of promoting and because it’s on the internet it was easy to access, which again Synergy is created between 20th Century Fox and Burger King to have a larger profit in their outcome.

The final website that was promoting The Simpsons Movie at the time was 'JetBlue Airways' which advertised the characters describing their favourite destination in America, this helped promote the company and the film at the same time and because multiple audiences from across America came to book tickets, it surely got a huge promotion in that case, another synergy with 20th Century Fox to help promote the movie. .

 The next marketing technique is competitions and this helps raise awareness of the film by giving people the chance to win things related to the film, lots of people can do this, and if it includes you having to phone in they may charge you and the money will go towards the profit. An example of a competition for the film was when they had all the different towns in America called Springfield enter a competition where people could view these videos and vote which were their favourite, whichever one won would Premiere the movie, in the end Vermont won with 109,582 votes.

Next is another way they promoted the film, and this was an event, it especially worked because they worked with a popular American commerce company called 7-11 (7-Eleven) and this probably helped the film out a lot due to families going to the shop would see it and then maybe be convinced to go see it. The shop replaced its recognisable logo with the similar looking logo of the shop "Kwik-E-Mart" from the Simpsons series. They replace many of their items with stereotypical things from the show like Homer's Doughnuts.

Finally, The Simpsons Movie's final promotion was merchandise, and this is when they partnered with 'Vans' the shoe manufacturer, where specifically designed sneakers that were Simpsons themed were produced. This helped promote to people who were buying them because they are widely bought across the country.

So in the end, all this promotions was quite successful as they targeted their domestic country as this was their target audience, because the Simpsons represent American families and so the audience can relate to them. So aiming to work with popular American companies helped them a lot as many Americans would consume these companies’ products and so would have caused a lot of promotion.

  

So thank you for listening to Education wise and we will see you in the next video.