How has one media conglomerate used synergy successfully?
What is synergy ?
Synergy is the promotion and sale of a product throughout the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate, e.g. films,soundtracks or video games.
Film
On october 2012 the media conglomerate Disney have purchased the rights to the megafranchise Star Wars for $4.05 billion and announced that they are planning to produce 3 new films, the first of which is planned for release in 2015.
The Star wars megafranchise is a space opera that was first released in 1977 and became a pop culture phenonom and was the first franchise to kickstart the Hollywood megafranchise model of box office sequels and successful cross media synergy. The film franchise is known for the 3rd highest grossing film series, generating a total box office revenue of $4.49 billion. However the 2nd highest grossing film franchise is the James Bond series grossing around $6,159,388,878 in box office revenue worldwide whereas the up to date the highest grossing film franchise is currently the Harry Potter franchise grossing $7,706,147,978 worldwide.
Games
The star wars franchise is known not only for its box office film series but also for its other successful merchandise such as an array of Star wars licensed video games with over 100 titles under the Star Wars license each with their own sub franchises e,g the Star Wars Battlefront franchise. Although the video game franchise of Star Wars Battlefront has sold well with the second game in the series selling over 500,000 copies on the psp platform, I feel what drives the sales more about these Star Wars video games is the Star Wars brand which sells these games. One may argue this is because these video games are licensed under a big and well known brand with a large fan base and audience, therefore regardless of the quality of the game those who enjoy Star Wars are more inclined to purchase these video games as they serve as sort of an extention to their Star Wars viewing experience. This benefits media conglomerates as in some ways the production of these games are quicker as all they have to do if lift assets such as sound directly from the films and place them in the games if they wish. Furthermore there is less risk when producing these games as these companies know that the Star Wars name alone will draw in mass audiences of Star Wars fans and Children who play these games who as a result of this exposure to Star Wars will start interacting more with the Star Wars brand. Additionally, there is also the possibility of drawing in another mass audience of "Gamers" as if these Star Wars video games produce good "word of mouth" this may draw in the "Gamer demographic" who like the children may interact more with the Star Wars franchise as a result of this exposure.
Attractions
Furthermore the Star wars franchise has also branched into many tourist and theme park attractions such as for example before disney's aquishion of the megafranchise lucasarts and Disney went into partnership in 1986 for the production of a motion simulator attraction in disenyland paris based on the Star Wars franchise called Star Tours. Additionally in Disney's Hollywood studios ( a theme park part of the Walt Disney world resort) a festival based on the Star Wars franchise called Star Wars weekends is hosted which includes an vast amount of attractions to involve audiences in for example Jedi Training Academy; a live show where children are selected to learn the practices of the fictional Jedi Knights and the Force in order to become Padawan learners. Audiences can also participate in an event called Carbon Freeze Me; an interactive attraction where audiences can have their face scanned and reproduced in a prism of carbonite, which can be purchased later.
These attractions benefit the film franchise of Star wars by meeting a larger audience and also bringing more attraction to the disney franchise which in turn promotes other franchise under its ownership. This is done as Star wars fans will come to these attractions to consume Star Wars based media and, however this demographic may also be exposed to some of the more traditional disney media texts during their visit and the same works the other way round with Disney fans wanting to consume Disney products but being exposed to mass imagery of Star Wars. This can be evidenced by the cross media text image above of Disney's Mickey Mouse and Star Wars Darth Vader fighting each other. This cross synergy allows both products to be successfully promoted which in turn will promote other products within the franchise umbrella. Both of which franchises are now own by Disney so potentially the Media conglomerate Disney has used synergy to promote their franchises to a mass audience and therefore possibly increase the consumption of these products.
Soundtracks
The soundtrack for the film franchise was produced by Composer John Williams, the first score to Star wars episode 4 was released in 1977, episode V's in 1980, VI's in 1983, I in 1999, episode II in 2002, episode III in 2005 and finally in 2008 the soundtrack for Star wars the clone wars was released. The soundtracks have won many prestigious awards such as the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1977 and has spawned a number of concerts which feature Star Wars music for example Star Wars: In Concert. From exploring the official Star Wars main site Star Wars.com I have found out that the site does not directly sale it's Star Wars merchandises and products instead offering a link to popular online store Amazon.com to sell its products; this included the sale of its soundtracks. Meaning that the vendor vendor is not owned by the same conglomerate that currently owns the Star Wars franchise. Additionally from looking on the Disney store website I have found that the Disney store does not currently sale any Star Wars products what's so ever. The use of a soundtrack may benefit the film franchise and media conglomerate of Disney as the good "word of mouth" that was produced about the score prior to the release of the soundtrack would have made the music in the Star Wars film desirable on its own and thus have allowed Disney to easily sell said product and promote other products under the Star Wars name. However, the fact that Disney themselves do not distribute their soundtrack but rather Amazon causes Disney to loose out on some potential revenue as Disney may have to pay Amazon for the space of distributing their product in contrast to companies such as Sony which have the means of distributing their products along the production line.
Toys
The Star Wars film franchise has also spawned a number of toys and action figures produced by top toy manufacturers such as Hasbro producers of the popular Transformers toys and the Lego group producers of the popular line of Lego construction Blocks. Such products prove to be beneficial tot he film franchise and Disney as a conglomerate as it easy promotion of products under the Star Wars brand and the development of a larger audience by capturing those who necessarily Star Wars fans but consume Lego products or just toys in general. Which as a result may increase the films sales as children who are first exposed to Star Wars products such as the toy range may take their families to consume the Star Wars film series via cinema or DVD.
Moreover to produce these action figure and Toys the rights would have to be licensed to these companies generating revenue for Disney. This in turn has manged to produce successful toy lines such as the lego star wars toy line which has also managed to cross over media text as well and has produced short films such as Lego Star Wars: The Quest for R2-D2 and the commercially successful Lego star wars videogames which has managed to sell over 20 million copies. This as an effect produces a larger audience for the Star Wars film franchise and has also allowed Disney to make more sales for its Star Wars product, with each successful product promoting the other product to an audience that is yet to be exposed to the Star Wars brand.
Conclusion.
From looking at various Star Wars branded and licensed products it appears that the media conglomerate Disney has manged to use synergy successfully to promote other products within the Star Wars Brand umbrella and also other products which are also owned by Disney for example the Star wars weekend promotion containing Mickey Mouse Graphics which promote the Mickey Mouse franchise. The success of this cross media synergy format lies by generating vast amounts of Star wars products on different media platforms which all promote and advertise each other.All these promotions allow the Star wars and other Disney brands reach a larger audience and thus increase the sales of these products and brands respectively.
The Star wars megafranchise is a space opera that was first released in 1977 and became a pop culture phenonom and was the first franchise to kickstart the Hollywood megafranchise model of box office sequels and successful cross media synergy. The film franchise is known for the 3rd highest grossing film series, generating a total box office revenue of $4.49 billion. However the 2nd highest grossing film franchise is the James Bond series grossing around $6,159,388,878 in box office revenue worldwide whereas the up to date the highest grossing film franchise is currently the Harry Potter franchise grossing $7,706,147,978 worldwide.
Games
Attractions
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| Star wars weekend promotion |
These attractions benefit the film franchise of Star wars by meeting a larger audience and also bringing more attraction to the disney franchise which in turn promotes other franchise under its ownership. This is done as Star wars fans will come to these attractions to consume Star Wars based media and, however this demographic may also be exposed to some of the more traditional disney media texts during their visit and the same works the other way round with Disney fans wanting to consume Disney products but being exposed to mass imagery of Star Wars. This can be evidenced by the cross media text image above of Disney's Mickey Mouse and Star Wars Darth Vader fighting each other. This cross synergy allows both products to be successfully promoted which in turn will promote other products within the franchise umbrella. Both of which franchises are now own by Disney so potentially the Media conglomerate Disney has used synergy to promote their franchises to a mass audience and therefore possibly increase the consumption of these products.
Soundtracks
Toys
The Star Wars film franchise has also spawned a number of toys and action figures produced by top toy manufacturers such as Hasbro producers of the popular Transformers toys and the Lego group producers of the popular line of Lego construction Blocks. Such products prove to be beneficial tot he film franchise and Disney as a conglomerate as it easy promotion of products under the Star Wars brand and the development of a larger audience by capturing those who necessarily Star Wars fans but consume Lego products or just toys in general. Which as a result may increase the films sales as children who are first exposed to Star Wars products such as the toy range may take their families to consume the Star Wars film series via cinema or DVD.
Conclusion.
From looking at various Star Wars branded and licensed products it appears that the media conglomerate Disney has manged to use synergy successfully to promote other products within the Star Wars Brand umbrella and also other products which are also owned by Disney for example the Star wars weekend promotion containing Mickey Mouse Graphics which promote the Mickey Mouse franchise. The success of this cross media synergy format lies by generating vast amounts of Star wars products on different media platforms which all promote and advertise each other.All these promotions allow the Star wars and other Disney brands reach a larger audience and thus increase the sales of these products and brands respectively.
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