LO1: Task 3 - Technological Convergence, Advertising and Distribution

1. Inception used social media profiles (Facebook and Twitter), along with those of the cast and crew, to promote the film and appear to a wide audience. By promoting their posters and trailers via these accounts, as well as informing the audience of important information such as the release date, it successfully advertised the film to the target audience. As this audience is also part of the demographic that is most likely to use social media (young - 13-30 ABC1) and so this was effective, especially as the film isn't part of a franchise, and so relied more so on advertising to gain a fan base before release. Unconventional methods of advertising were also used, such as a game on the website that revealed another poster, books which explained concepts on the film (attractive to the sci fi fan demographic that the film targeted), codes and images in print (magazines and newspapers) which related to social media campaigns etc. This made the campaign more effective by using the 'black box' theory, as all methods used could be accessed with a mobile device (internet, news/magazine app, social media etc.). This meant that the audience could quickly go from advert to advert and use social media to interact with it, making an effective advertising campaign.

2. VOD services such as Netflix mean films such as Inception can be viewed whenever the viewer wants. As a result, the audience is no longer reliant on scheduled programming, and as a result causes the 'death of the schedule' (Sonia Livingstone 1999). An audience no longer works around a program, for example making sure to be home to watch a TV show, instead they can choose to watch the show whenever, meaning no precaution has to be made. This is positive for films and TV shows as it means the audience isn't restricted by time, resulting in a larger audience viewing their product than before.

3. Due to technological convergence, the way in which an audience views and accesses an AVP has changed. Due to the black box (mobile devices), people can now access products regardless of location, as they can use their mobile device anywhere, which in conjunction with VOD services such as Netflix have resulted in the death of the schedule (Sonia Livingstone), as any product can be accessed anywhere. Also, due to the fact that mobile devices have internet and people can also access the media on other platforms, its possible to simulcast (for example, watching a on a phone while also watching it on TV), meaning there is more of a focus on using AVPs to build personal identity (McQuail 1972), as people can access it anywhere.