Audience and Institutions Essay

1. Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied. [50]

In the area of film, marketing has relative importance, but that is not to say it can make or
break a movie in terms of its success. The success of a film depends on many factors, one of
which is marketing strategies, but it is not the most important. However, marketing does play
a large role in how well known a film could be, and its popularity. To explain, many movies go
on to become much more successful than they would have been if they had been marketed
differently. Certain strategies like cross-promotion play a big role in how well known a movie
is; For instance, the popularity of Minions drastically increased because of how it was
advertised on many different platforms.
To elaborate, the Minion’s franchise stemmed from the success of its original movie-
Despicable Me. The production company NBC took the idea of Minions, and through specific
marketing strategies, created it into its own brand which led to a Minions movie. Minions were
marketed in many ways like the creation of merchandise like plush toys, cross-promotion
including TV advertisements with well-known companies, minions being used as McDonald's
kids' toys. It can easily be seen that all of this marketing paid off, since Minions went

on to gross over $1.5 billion, compared to Despicable Me 2 which grossed around $900
million. Moreover, through marketing strategies, NBC was able to take a specific
part/character of a movie and turn it into its own brand which went on to become more
successful than the original movie it was a part of. 
Additionally, we can assess the importance of marketing in film through other movie’s
popularity along with how well they were marketed. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy
Vol. 2, grossed almost $900 million. The success of this movie could be because of the
marketing strategies used, or that it was a sequel so it already had a buzz, or even that Chris
Pratt was the main character. In cases like these, it is clear that marketing plays a large part in
the popularity of the movie since it was cross-promoted with many large companies like Lego,
Go-Gurt, Geico, etc., but that does not mean it is the reason for its success. This can be
proven through the fact that many movies may have through marketing strategies to create
buzz, but they still do not do well in theatres. For example, the movie UglyDolls was marketed
extensively: it was advertised in popular stores, during largely-watched TV events, and it even
promoted its characters on National Pancake Day. However, after all of this marketing, the
movie still did not succeed and was considered a flop based on its low earning, netting less
than $9 million. In this case, we can see a movie that was marketed properly but did not do
well in theatres. Based on these cases, it can be said that marketing is important to a movie's
success, but it is not the only contributing factor.
Moreover, some movies are successful only because of the content in the movie. Nowadays,
so many movies are streamed online, and that is the only way some people will watch a
movie. In instances like these, it could be said that marketing barely plays a role in the
popularity or success of a film. To explain, from what I can see, online streaming sites like,
Netflix, are the main source for many people to watch movies, meaning that going to a movie
theater is less popular. Therefore, some movies like ones released on Netflix would require
very little marketing. This is because it is already so accessible, most people will just watch a
movie because it's “free” and easy. Personally, I choose to watch a movie on Netflix by
browsing through the options, and then most of the time I end up choosing a movie I have
never heard of. For example, the movie, To All the Boys I Loved Before, turned out to be very
popular because of reasons completely separate to marketing. The movie was released on
Netflix and became so popular because viewers genuinely enjoyed the movie.
Overall, through the success of many blockbuster movies, we can see that marketing plays an
important role in film, but it is not the most important factor. This is proven through certain
movies that became so well known because of clever marketing strategies, and the high
income of movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 because of extensive cross-promotion.
However, we can see that marketing is not the only contributing factor because of movies like
UglyDolls that were marketed well, but turned out to be a flop. Lastly, to relate marketing in
films to current trends, it can also be seen that marketing has little relevance on certain types
of films released online through streaming websites like Netflix. For these reasons, marketing
is important to film, but other contributing factors are prevalent as well.