Advertising and promotion notes - LO3 Task 4

Adverising and Promotion: Marketing the film to create maximum awareness to a specific target audience.
- Billboards/poster - Mass Audience
- TV - Mass Audience
- Radio
- Merchandise
- YouTube/ websie banners
- Synergy 
- Events
- Social Media
- Sponsership
- Interviews
- Magazines and Newspapers.

Technological Convegence:
David Gauntlett (2002)- The rise of web 2.0.
("The change in the internet being static, one way form of communication to a two way interactive medium") - static/one-way, only consume. interactive/two-way, prosumer (producer- consumer).
A prosumer can rate the movie, share information about movies and comment about the movies.

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.

 

LO2 Task 3 Script

Introduction:

Hi and welcome to the next episode of education wise I'm going to be talking to you about the audience of the film 'The Simpsons Movie', as discussed by Len Ang, she said that media producers imagine an audience or entity before actually making the product and that these imaginations are getting more diverse as do the audiences. John Hartley says that "Institutions are obliged not only to speak about an audience, but crucially, for them to talk to one as well; they need not only to represent audiences but to enter into relation with them" which means that they need to understand their audience so that they can effectively target them to make a great product for them. The target audience for The Simpsons Movie are the majority male and the median age of 18 because it may be a cartoon but it does feature some adult humour that kids may not notice but teenagers do, they also may fit into the National Readerships Survey Life style class C and fit into the ABC1 class of C1 to D.

Gender:

The gender of the target audience is mainly male but also a little bit female and the reason is because of a few scenes and characters in The Simpsons Film. Homer is the main protagonist in the film; he makes the mistakes in the film and is shown to be quite selfish but his character soon changes because of the problems in the film. Men may relate to him as the humorous side of men as Homer is quite immature in the film. Then there is the serious side of men represented by the antagonist president of EPA who is trying to destroy Springfield because of environmental reasons and so is trying to be responsible which all men try and do at one age. Bart is another male and he represents the younger male audience of the film and how they may see him as a role model, but not a good one, he takes lots risks and tries to annoy Homer. Then there are the female characters that, unlike the male protagonists, are the mature ones and are seen as quite smarter than the males. Marge is the house wife in the Simpsons Movie and TV series and so takes care of the family; this means that she has quite a lot of responsibility as do actual house wife's and if families will see this there's mostly going to be actual housewife's who see it and so they would definitely relate to Marge. Finally, Lisa is the 2nd youngest of the family but also the smartest, she resembles a young female who watches the film as she is the one that would most likely want to make her parents proud as does Lisa and like in the actual TV series and film she looks up to the mother as a role model.

Age:

Next is age and the median age I said was 18 and I say this because of the adult humour in the film, but that isn't to say that it can be for the younger audience. The first example is the oldest person in the film is the old wise lady and she teaches Homer to realise that everything isn't about him and that he should be considerate of other people and so is perfectly represented as a wise lady as it shows that she has become experienced in her life. Next, is Homer and Marge's age which is around 40 years old and this would relate to the parents watching the film with their kids as they are the ones who could afford the ticket or by the DVD. Next is Bart whose 10 years old and he isn't very mature or responsible, he is more childish than his younger sister, and represents the most juvenile kid in the family and is more likely to be a brat. Then there is Lisa who is 8 year old and she is the smartest in the family, because she's one of the youngest she tries to impress her parents as she is most likely not being noticed especially when Bart is causing trouble and being noticed all the time. Bart and Lisa are both examples of an ideal self for the audience they represent as young boys would want to be like Bart and knowing how to skateboard like a professional, and be like Lisa and be intelligent and know a lot of things, his can lead to a young girl wanting to be intelligent, which leads to getting a good job and lifestyle.

Life Style:

NRS is the National Readership Survey and they provide estimations of the number of people who interact with media like TV, radio, Newspapers and Movies. The NRS life's style rating of the Simpsons Movie is C which means that they are classed as Settled Suburban, meaning that they are family people who have decent jobs, such as plumbing and services like Police and fire fighters. This can relate to the films protagonists as they're a family, the first example of this is Homer as he has the job of being a nuclear safety officer which he earns about $20,000 a year with, this is a bit low for someone his age which is more of a 20 year old's salary. Unlike Homer, Marge is a housewife and so is unemployed which makes her classified as a 'Have-not' because she has no job and may not even have any qualifications. Both Lisa and Bart are kids and so are classified as have-nots as both of them are still in education and still have a few years before they have qualifications. This could obviously relate to the target audience of the film, who are kids the around the same age of the Lisa and Bart, and the kids may also relate to the characters as they are into the same things as them, stereotypically, the male kids will be interested in sports, hanging out with friends and video games, just as Bart is too whilst maybe the girls are into dolls and also hanging out with friends, and Lisa is also represented as a mature figure which the girls in the audience may want to look up to. In 1972 Denis McQuail said "There are four reasons that people consume media products or pleasures they gain from them" firstly the media has surveillance which lets you learn something new especially on the news for example. Next is escapism and this is when a film is submersing, which immerses you into the diegesis and if it's done well then it will get you wanting more of the product, you may keep being submerged in the film and also TV show as it's an animation and will most likely always have something happening and so you always entertained and always interested. Then there is the building of personal identity which is when the audience relates to the location and characters or actors, it could be that you relate to the characters because it’s your 'ideal self' as explained by Carl Rodgers, which means that it’s what you imagine our self as and sometimes what your ideal partner is. Finally, the building of personal relationships outside the diegesis, this is when the film gets people bonding and talking because they're talking about the films lore and scenes. The film was released with a lot of merchandise, for example electronic plushies of the main characters and these were sold at around £20 at the time and this isn't cheap, but it also isn't really expensive either. It's an average of £23,000 salary in their class C jobs; this means the merchandise is a bit below their spending power, which they earn about £7 an hour, meaning they get about £56 pound per shift, so they can afford it.

Spending Power:

Spending power is the money left after all the debs and necessities have been paid. The NRS social grade or ABC1 for the audience of The Simpsons Movie is most likely C1 and ranges to D, C1 is lower middle class, C2 skilled working class and D is working class. All of these classes spending power could easily or barely pay for the cinema ticket, a genuine ticket for the film when it first came out was about £5 so its hardily going to be expensive as these class of people would have some spending power around £20-30. With the extra spending power, they have they can also use it on pleasures like video game related things and day trips out, these are usually the things Americans would stereotypically do as America is full of places families can go, like zoos, amusement parks and cinemas. There's also the case that the target audience, which again is children aged around 8 to early teens, and going back to what they would typically do, which is related to what the characters Bart and Lisa do in the film, the male children would most likely be into sports, hanging out with friends and video games this could go for both teen males and younger male kids, whilst the female children would probably be into playing with dolls and also hanging out with their friends, whilst teen girls will more likely be buying make-up, clothes and accessories. So in the male and female case, hanging out with friends would typically cost about at most £10, this is for like buying food and drinks, and if they're going to the cinema it may even cost at most £20, this can be easily afforded, if this is on maybe a weekly basis as they could save up money over the week, if they get pocket money. In the male case, lets say for sports they do skateboarding, which Bart does. Getting a skateboard is around £20 pound, for one that is mass produced and sold at a local sports shop, but for a more professional one it would cost at the very least £40, and seen as they are quite young and only doing this for fun they may go for a the cheaper option, but as they become a teenager they may want to get the more professional one, this may be harder to afford with the spending power they have, as they will be most likely using their parents spending power, unless they have a job.Video games on the other hand, when brand new they cost around £40, this could easily be afforded with their spending power if they save up for a while. In the female case, a female in her early teens, may buy clothes, make-up and accessories to keep up with current trends, this isn't the kind of character Lisa is represented as, but it is a stereotype in the real world, which Lisa may take up when she is in her early teens as she is only eight years old. This would cost about £20-30 a month, if they do buy these monthly, and that is affordable with the spending power.  

Okay this was Taighlor McNally and this was about the audiences of films and how they can differ between different films, I will see you in the next episode, bye!

LO2 Task 3 Script plan

Introduction:
1. State what I've been asked to do for this video.
2. What did Ien Ang and John Hartley discuss? Why is this important for media producers. Give reasons (M/D)
3. Who  is the target audience of your film (support with audience profile and imaginary entity you made) (P)

Gender: 

1. 5 examples from your chosen film that represents the dominant gender of the audience for your film and why.

Age:

      1. 5 examples from your chosen film that represents the median age of the audience for your film  and why.

LO1 Task 2 Tutor Feedback

LO2 Task 3 Audience Profile

LO2 Task 3- Audience

Demographic means a study of a population like an audience.
Categories we can classify an audience, like age, gender, location, spending power/class (disposable income/ leisure pound, what you have left after all the necessities have been paid such as bills), education, ethnicity and life style.