Media Studies - Synergies Importance in Media

Question

Media corporations heavily use the practices of synergy in marketing their media products. If their media text/product cannot be marketed and promoted towards a large audience, profits will suffer and the product will simply fail. Media products must use marketing to effectively gain larger audiences, and one of these marketing methods is synergy. This essay specifically explores the importance of synergy in the media industry and why it is one of the most crucial tools in a media corporations toolkit, due to the ability to create extra funding for a company's production, widening their audience, and benefiting consumers and building a more loyal fanbase.

Firstly, an example of synergy in expanding a media texts audience would be how Fortnite, a third person shooter battle royale game produced and distributed by Epic Games Inc and was released in 2017, recently collaborated with Disney, and more specifically Marvel, in which Fortnite released in-game cosmetics that featured Marvel Superheroes like Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine, and more, as well as creating an in-game event of the crew fighting another marvel villain, Galactus. This collaboration allowed Marvel to expand its audiences by branching out and targeting a new market. Fortnite's audience is mainly towards the younger side, with kids ranging from the ages of 7-16 years old. Marvel and more specifically, the Avengers, are able to reach audiences that wouldn't usually watch their movies, as Marvel movies are generally targeted towards teenagers and young adults. Fortnite also benefits from this collaboration as in Avengers; Endgame, the newest avengers movie that was released in 2019, a character (Thor) was seen in his room playing Fortnite. This creates interest for the game and promotes it to anyone who watched the movie, which most likely led to lots of people gaining interest and downloading the game. Additionally, players of Fortnite are able to access more content and use the in-game cosmetics that were added in the collaboration by purchasing them through in-game purchases using real-life currency, which according to Katz and Blumlers usage and gratification theory would fall under personal identity, as by using the Marvel cosmetics, players may feel like they are just like the characters they see on the screen in the movies. Reportedly, the addition of the Marvel Cosmetics to Fortnite has led led to millions of purchases that amounted to over 4 Billion US dollars. All in all, Marvel and Fortnite's collaboration led to massive success in both profits and exposure for both companies, which leads to larger audiences watching Marvel movies, and playing the Fortnite video game.

Next, synergy can be used to by media corporations to build a media texts fanbases and make media consumers happy. An example of this would be how Weathering With You, a Japanese animated film released in 2019, produced by Comix Waves, collaborated with one of the most successful retailers/manufacturers of all time, the Japanese company Uniqlo. Comix Waves partnered with Uniqlo to release their own Weathering With You clothing line, that can be seen in Uniqlo stores around the world. The collaboration leads to fans being able to purchase and support the film franchise, and more importantly, according to Henry Jenkins' Theory of Fandom, consumers are able to practice enunciative productivity, in which they are able to share their love for the franchise/movie by wearing these clothes, and talking about it to other fans as well, which would also fall under social relationships in Katz and Bulmers usage and gratification theory, as consumers are able to talk to new friends and meet new people based on the fact that they realize they both like the same movie. This provides free promotion for Weathering With You as people in the streets may see others wearing the apparel and gain interest in the film and want to know what it's about, and may lead to them watching it in the future. This type of synergy also builds hype for the movie as designs may often feature images of scenes from the movie, leading to more consumers talking about the film and building suspense for its eventual release. Uniqlo the clothing brand also benefits as fans of Weathering With You all want to buy the new apparel, which leads to huge gains in Uniqlo's customer base leading to more sales, and thus more profits. Uniqlo is also able to reach a wider variety of audiences as people who don't usually shop at Uniqlo now will eagerly go just to buy a shirt from their favourite movie.

Synergy may also be used to gain funding for a media texts production. This can be seen in The James Bond film franchise where, in the latest Bond Film (No Time to Die) Sony Pictures collaborated with Heiniken Beer to release advertisements and promotion that benefited both companies. Sony recieved sponsorships and funding from many different companies, including Aston Martin, ROLEX, and more, however Heineken accounted for over 50% of the money received from all the films sponsors combined. In this relationship, Sony benefits by getting paid huge sums of money to promote Heiniken in their movie by using their products, which leads them to create additional funding for the movie and release a higher quality product, as well as being promoted to new audiences in Heiniken advertisements. Heiniken benefits  in this case by being able to use James Bonds' likeness to appeal to new audiences in their marketing campaigns, and gets more people to use their products, which leads to far greater profits. This falls in accordance with David Gauntlet's personal identity theory, in which it can be said that people who look up to James Bond as an idol/want to be like him will now consume Heiniken Beer, since thats what audiences see him consume in the movie. This allows them to build their personal identity to be more like their idol, James Bond.