THE FILM INDUSTRY: MARKETING STAR WARS

Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied. [50]
(CIE 9607/02 Key Media Concepts Section B 2015)

Your exam essay might ask you to write about marketing films, so we prepare detailed case studies that are interesting to read and easy to remember. Here is Disney's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. We pick a Disney film as Disney is a prime example of the Hollywood 'Big Six'. This case study can be used to illustrate Dalecki's 4S megafranchise model (sequel, synergy, story, spectacle).

We read the article The Force Is Strong With 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' Marketing and learn the key points of the marketing strategy.

What is synergy?

Synergy refers to the horizontal integration model, films whose core value is their deployability across multiple media platforms, as well as their “sequelizability” and ability to be cross-promoted with other media texts. Top decision makers within contemporary media conglomerates understand that every piece of media under the same brand-umbrella promotes every other piece of media under that umbrella. (Dalecki, 2008)

How is Disney a good example of synergy?

As former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner put it, “The Disney Stores promote the consumer products which promote the [theme] parks which promote the television shows. The television shows promote the company. It’s constant ideas.” (Miller 1990). This can also be described as constant media synergy, wherein everything within a franchise promotes everything else. (Dalecki, 2008)

Read the article below by Julia Greenberg in Wired (2015) entitled

'How Disney is making sure that you will never be able to escape Star Wars". 

Print out the chart and learn the key headings: 

media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products, interactive.

"WHEN IT COMES to marketing, Disney has it almost too easy.

"Just consider the past few weeks. The entertainment giant launched a Pixar clip where the characters personifying emotions in Inside Out react to the Star Wars trailer. ("I love this trailer!" Joy says.) On Disney-owned ABC, Good Morning America’s anchors revealed new Star Wars toys and dressed up as Star Wars characters with their very own recreated trailer. ("This is awesomeeee!" Jesse Palmer shouts.) The company has also released Star Wars clips during evening programming on ABC and ESPN.

"For Disney, such cross-promotion—known in corporate-speak as synergy, where two or more divisions of a company increase value by working together—is business as usual. After all, the company owns not only one of the biggest film franchises ever but a major sports network and a major broadcast network, not to mention Pixar, which has made some of the most popular movies. With so many outlets available for promoting Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the question isn't "Where can I see more Star Wars?" but "Where can I not?"

Article by Julia Greenberg in Wired (2015)