Question 6

6. What is the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing?

Cross media convergence is when a mixture of media sources are combined together in one project. Synergy is when two things together have a bigger impact on something than an individual thing.
Production:
Grand Theft AutoIV includes music in its game play. Players can have the option to listen to the radio, where they are able to listen to popular music
Marketing:
Cross media convergence is important as it can sell a product more easily as it would seem more desirable, an example of a product with it is the Xbox 360 as this plays video games and DVDs so the target market can be wider because there are more aspects that could interest people.
Distribution:
More distributors will be interested in buying the product, as due to the cross media convergence, there is an increased target market, there is more demand for the product.

Production:
In production synergy plays an important part because one media project can then influence another media project for example Tomb Raider was released as a video game then years later because of the success of the series a film was released and together sales would become larger.
Distribution:
If the original product was a success, an item based on that product will be more likely to be wanted by customers. Therefore distributors will want to sell this product to keep up with product demand.
Marketing:
Synergy is important when it comes to marketing as the follow up product can involve aspects from its original media product to create hype. For example, if someone has seen a film for example Alice in Wonderland the film came out, then whilst the hype for the film was still around Nintendo released a game, using footage of the film to promote it.