LO3, Task 3: Distribution and Advertising

Introduction 

Hey guys its me again and I'm here with lesson 4 Distribution channels. I will be talking to you about how the film Titanic was promoted, advertised and distributed by 20th Century Fox. We have previously discussed that 20th Century Fox is a conglomerate, which means a huge company made up of smaller/other companies called subsidiaries, just in case you forgot!  20th Century Fox use vertical integration as they are a successful conglomerate so there subsidisers help distribute their media products for them. 

                      

Distribution 

The term distribution means getting products, in this case the film Titanic, to an audience in order to make profit. 20th Century Fox produced Titanic and as they are a conglomerate they use vertical integration, which means the ability to control the distribution and exchange for a media product through their subsidiaries. As the target audience for Titanic is mass/international it was distributed to many cinemas worldwide when it was first advertised by 20th Century Fox. Distribution for Titanic has been impacted by technological convergence; this key word means the state of the coming together of things to create one thing, multifunctional product. For example you can watch the film Titanic on an iPad as you can illegally download it (Ahdaf); however you can also use an iPad as a camera, microphone and music player. You can also download the film Titanic through the Apple store onto your device. This is the advantage of technological convergence as it means you don't need to by other devices, which makes it cheaper. The effect of convergence is web 2.0 as we can interact with people worldwide, which makes it easier. Titanic has also been distributed through Sky streamline box, Now TV, which you can find in the genre section of romance or simply just search for it in the tab box. Now TV is a form of converged technology as it acts as a streamline for films but you can also access the internet through it via YouTube and Facebook. As Sky and 20^th Century Fox are both subsidiaries of 21^st Century Fox it will have made it cheaper to put Titanic on Sky’s Now TV due to the integration. Another way Titanic has been distributed is by DVD and Blu-ray which you can play on a DVD player, or blue-Ray can be played on PlayStation 3, 4 and Xbox 360. This helps get the film to a mass audience. Titanic budget was estimated $200 million and made a profit of $1.84 billion in terms of revenue; however then released a 3D Titanic on the 4^th April 2012 which earn an additional $343.6 million which push the films worldwide total to $2.18 billion. Cinemas worldwide made a profit of $376.4 in ticket sales. The film Titanic got over 10 million views on YouTube for the official film, which shows us that distribution and marketing was successful.

Advertising 

Advertising and promoting a film is ways in which you make it appeal to your target audience, before its release date. Ways in which a film can be advertise is on adverts, including adverts advertised in cinemas. This way, whilst watching TV film trailers are shown so that you don't miss them. A good way cinemas promote new film is depending on the genre of film you are about to watch in the cinema, for example if you are at the cinema about to watch a romance new films that fall into that specific genre will be advertised on that screen as it is advertised to a specific target audience, helping it to get views. As Titanic was released before 2011 when promoted in cinemas it will have been processed by a film reel which is an example of analogue media which is old media. Titanic will have been promoted in all most all cinemas worldwide as it’s targeted at an international audience. Ticket sales in cinemas worldwide collected $376.4 million in terms of revenue. Another example of how Titanic advertised the film was by posters, which is another example of old media. Here is an image of the first poster they created for the film Titanic. The whole image including typography and colour scheme is very masculine and connotes action and danger, which appeals to a male audience; however this isn’t a reinforcing the genre and storyline of Titanic as it is a romance film. Whereas the current poster for Titanic is well more suited for the actual film as we see the two main holding each other with passion and affection, as well the front of the ship is featured where Jack and Rose fall in love to appeal to a female audience. The billboards/ posters will have been distributed in huge cities such as New York, London and Paris, as well in shopping centres and buses so that a mass audience will be attracted and appealed by it; this helps to promote the film. As 20^th century fox is a subsidiary of 21^st Century Fox they both have lots of subsidiaries which would have helped distribute the film Titanic to a mass audience which is an example of cross media ownership. A positive review made on Titanic is by Roger Elbert giving titanic a star rating of 4 out of 5. This helps to advertise the film Titanic as the audience are seeing through web 2.0 positive and high rating of the film by other people making it appeal to others. Web 2.0 also helps to advertise on more platforms gaining the film Titanic a wider audience, as it is now on YouTube, which is another way to watch films. 

 

So I hope that has helped you learn in depth about how successful the distribution and marketing of Titanic was. Join me in my next lesson of Legal and Ethical issues of the making of Titanic.