Section B- Synergy

Film case study 

How is synergy used to attract audiences in your case study? 

For my case study, I have chosen 3 films in the Action Genre. The films are; The Avengers, The Green Hornet and Kick- Ass. All 3 products have elements of Action but one of them failed in the Box office. The budget was very low for The Green Hornet and so, it was not a successful film. The Avengers however, was a sensation because people were already excited to see it because of all the posters and teaser trailers that were released. People were also anxious at the fact that the superheroes in Avengers are well- known and audiences are fans of them. Kick- Ass was also a popular film because of it's humour and Action elements along with the Intertextuality of the Batman costume of one of the characters. The audience was able to recognise immediately what one of the characters would be like. 

In my case study, I have investigated the synergy of my core products that show similarities in colours, costumes, lighting etc. The codes and conventions in the poster for Avengers have been used to create synergy with the trailer and the official website as well. By using the same colours and costumes in all three platforms, it points out the superhero costumes so that each one can be identified. The 3 platforms also link in with each other by showing the audience how well the Action goes with the film. By showing us the weapons of the superheroes, we get a rough idea as to how the Action elements will be shown. Audiences are already quite familiar with the superheroes such as; Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk etc. and so they would become eager for this film. I have also discovered linked with Synergy that some parody posters and UGC (User Generated Content) has also been made. This also creates amusement for the audiences as they would want to know where the users had gotten this idea from and they would want to watch it.

The Avengers shows the characters individually in the teaser posters, trailers and even the website. The character Iron Man is played by Robert Downey Jr. who is very well- known as he has starred in the previous Iron Man films and so, his fans would also want to watch The Avengers because of his appearance in the film. By having Robert Downey Jr. play Iron Man in The Avengers also creates synergy between the previous Iron Man films and The Avengers posters and trailers. 

The producers of Kick Ass are also releasing Kick Ass 2 in August and they have already updated the Kick Ass 2 website which automatically gets fans of Kick Ass to become anxious in waiting for it's release. The costumes for both films. For The Greecn Hornet, it also uses synergy to create branding for the audience but because of the unsuccessful film, most people got put off of watching it and so it is not a very well- advertised film. The colours used in all three platforms in The Green Hornet contrast together creating quite a bit about what the film is about. By including the car in each platform the audience gets to know what this film is about and therefore creates interest. 

Overall, all 3 core products use synergy to create more attention towards the films. All core products are creating branding which in this case, if someone was to show a person anywhere around the world The Avengers without the Title of the film, they would automatically know who they are because of the advertising they have seen. However, most people would not be that aware of The Green Hornet because of it's low production value and so they would not know about this film. Kick Ass would also be known by many as a lot of online advertising has been done and audiences are aware of the new Kick Ass coming out soon.