Essay

Evaluate the role of digital technologies in the marketing and consumption of products in the media area you have studied. (film)

In this essay I will be writing about how film companies such as Working Title and Warp Films market their films and how their films are watched by the general public. A digital technology is basically anything involving a computer based appliance.

One aspect that these two film companies look into is digital marketing. Digital technology use is a large factor of everyones life nowadays, with almost everyone having access to digital technology. Examples of digital marketing would be advertisement and promotion through social media, websites etc... Working Title and Warp Films take different approaches in the way that they market their films. Generally Working Title are about making money. They spend a lot of the making, marketing and promoting of the film, in order to make large profits. Whereas Warp Films aren't so much about making money. These figures below show a clear distinction between how much is spent on their films. Four lions was infact a huge success for Warp Films but we can still see its far off Everest. Everest was marketed by Working Title in a large scale. It's trailer was televised and was used as an advertisement before YouTube videos regularly. Working title evidently spent a lot on the marketing of this film due to the large gross worldwide. Generally high amounts of money spent on marketing, will result in high amount of profit. Four Lions marketed their film on a much minor scale. The online and Mobile marketing campaign was much more simpler for four lions and directed ant a certain audience. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter (they did not use every social networking site but still used quite a few) and trailers. They did not have such a big online presence as Everest did. 

Everest (Working Title) : Box Office                                  Four Lions (Warp Films) : Box Office                  

Budget:                                                                                Budget:                               
$55,000,000 (estimated)                                                      £2,500,000 (estimated)

Gross:                                                                                  Gross:
$202,394,678 (Worldwide)                                                  £2,686,096 (UK)    
                                                                                             $301,527 (USA) 
                                                                                                  

Another large aspect that these two film companies focus on is how their films are consumpted (viewed by the public). For example, the cinema, TV, subscription based (netflix, amazon prime etc...). Warp Films are a much smaller company and usually don't make it to the cinema. But a lot of their films occur on subscription based applications and websites such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. Whereas Working Title on the over hand, they fill the cinemas with their films and get a much larger audience. After the film has been on at the cinema for a while, it will then come out on DVD, television and subscription based companies. Working Title gain a much larger audience due to their large efforts within marketing and promoting the film.