'Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices.' To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?

Within the film industry the importance of marketing and distribution paired with good production practices are vastly recognised and appreciated. We can witness first-hand in the film industry how production and distribution can influence a film's success, and the link between which is more important can sometimes vary from film to film. We can see, however, that both are extremely important factors for companies to take into account when trying to create a popular film.

      An example of a large film company is Disney; Disney's marketing and distribution skills are incredibly vast and play a key role in contributing to the success of their films. Disney was founded in 1923 and since has produced over 158 feature films. The company grew into a popular household name when it released its first animated classics such as the Lion King and Robin Hood. These films became timeless and as the target audience is young, the stories were suitable for children across the world, Disney's 'Robin Hood' was translated into over sixteen different languages, a clear example of how wide Disney's distribution tactics have stretched.

     Disney also uses a wide variety of Horizontal and Vertical marketing to ensure wide distribution of its productions. By owning their own studios, record labels, shops, clothing brands, radio stations and TV channel, Disney have a wide scope to advertise with as they own these companies, they are able to distribute through them with ease. An example of this is Disney's High School Musical, which was premiered on the Disney Channel and had its own soundtrack released. Disney also use a variety of Viral Marketing to appeal to their audience with an online presence, by doing so they can keep their young target audience up to date with new releases and teasers and are keeping their own company up to date with the developments of technologies and trends. Disney released its own fan pages on social networking sites such as Facebook for 'Loyal Followers of the Red Queen' and many other aspects of the film. By creating fan groups for films, Disney allows for an even wider audience and can use these pages to spread awareness and introduce people to the films.

In juxtaposition to how Disney markets and distributes its films, Bedlam Productions use very different tactics in marketing and distribution. As a small independent film company founded in 2009, they still managed to blow audiences away with their drama film 'The King's Speech'. The film appeals to a smaller and more select target audience, and Bedlam took this into account by using marketing techniques that would reach people in their target audience range. The film was advertised on posters and in newspapers more so than films directed at younger target audiences.

      The King's Speech was shot in the same year as Bedlam Productions was founded, when considering the success of the film and the fact that it was not from a well-known company it leads us to wonder whether it is in fact the production practices and not the distribution which makes a film successful. Bedlam Productions teamed up with another independent film company, See-Saw Films, and distributed 'The King's Speech' through Momentum Pictures. Simon Egan, the producer of the King's Speech placed a great amount of emphasis on the importance of the script quality when trying to get a film distributed by a large company. This viewpoint brings into question the rift of quality of film over quantity, something which Disney and Bedlam can be juxtaposed with to great effect.

      Disney's 'Alice in Wonderland' is an example of a typical Disney film aimed to become hugely successful. With names of popular stars such as Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton the film already creates a wave of people who want to see it just due to the people involved in the film. The budget given was $200,000,000 and only two of the sets for the film were real as the rest was created completely with CGI. When comparing this to the 'King's Speech' with their low budget of $15,000,000 with help in funding from the UK Film Council, we can see how even with a small budget a film can become a huge success due to its quality and production practices. 'The King's Speech' used no CGI in its production, in fact blow-up people were used to fill a stadium to save on actor costs. We can see a clear rift between the power and wealth of the two companies, however, we can also see that this does not build a direct correlation between power and success of films as 'The King's Speech' was nominated for twelve Oscars, four of which it won, and 'Alice in Wonderland' won half this number with two Oscars.

      When regarding Disney as a whole we see that it has received over two hundred Oscar nominations, but has only won just over fifty of them, when comparing this to the 'The King's Speech' alone whilst taking into account how many films Disney has made in comparison to Bedlam Productions it becomes clear that even with a vast array of marketing and distribution chains at your disposal you cannot guarantee the response to the film. Indeed marketing and distribution are highly important in getting people to want to see the film, but if the film lacks in quality then the success will be short-lived. Quality films such as 'The King's Speech' are films that become timeless through their appeal. Films such as these are living proof that although marketing and distribution is important, it can lose all of its worth once the film has left cinemas as nobody will want to see the film again or buy the DVD to a film they dislike. I therefore conclude that good production practices hold more wealth over distribution and marketing techniques as they guarantee a lasting success for a film as opposed to a short-lived one.