Case Study: Black Panther

 Representation and Audience Engagement:

• Part of the Marvel Franchise (17th movie in the MCU)
• Marvel - a subsidiary company of Walt Disney Studios (one of the largest conglomerates in the world)
• Marvel is vertically and horizontally integrated, allowing them to do their own distribution and marketing
  
  
• Marvel took advantage of being vertically integrated with a larger company with more resources, so they were able to use Disney to distribute this film
• By distributing through Disney, allowed for them to have access to their larger budgets, teams, experience, and the fact that they are global
• Disney always aims to create 360° marketing campaigns for their films to ensure all audiences are familiar with their films
  
  
• In leading up to the release of Black Panther, they released a huge number of marketing materials including posters, trailers, social media pages, release of merchandise, actors going on TV shows and appearing in magazines, as well as working with a number of companies to produce synergetic products related to the film, so that audiences across the world would encounter the film's branding and have an awareness of the film and its ideas and characters, and to also create an increased profit
  
  
• Disney worked with Hasbro on synergetic products to create toys/action figures for the film. This was a great way of engaging younger audiences, such as children and families
• They also worked with Lexus (car manufacturer) which released two limited edition cars that were tied to the Black Panther campaign, so every time the cars were marketed, so was the film. This was a great way of targeting slightly older male audiences interested in technology who might also be the target demographic for the film
  
  
• Kendrick Lamar was asked to release a soundtrack for the film in conjunction with Marvel and Disney. Lamar has quite a young black urban male target audience so by targeting the pre-sold fanbase from him, it helped bring his audience on board to the film
• Disney produced several trailers for the film, which was released in cinemas, on Tv and online
• The trailer was broadcast in the ad break of the Superbowl in America, one of the most expensive advertising slots in the world, this was excellent at gaining an immense amount of publicity, and targeting global mass audiences
• The film was released in Black History Month, meaning that the release was marketed as a 'cultural event' to celebrate black culture
  
  
• Some people across the world started to crowdfund online to make sure that young black children were able to go to the cinema and see this film because people felt it was important for young black children to be able to see a film where there was a cast of predominantly black actors because it happens so rarely in the American film industry
• These crowdfunding sites gathered a lot of publicity, so while it wasn't an official marketing strategy technique by Disney, it added this unofficial marketing for the film because it was mentioned in newspapers and online news quite a lot
  
  
• Disney also worked in conjunction a synergistic partnership with New York Fashion Week, creating a fashion show using clothes inspired by the Wakandan clothes in the film. It was called 'Welcome to Wakanda'
• Because of the huge amount of press and publicity surrounding NYFW (it's one of the biggest fashion events in the world attended by people globally
• It's also a great way of targeting traditionally female audiences who were often ignored by superhero movie producers
  
  
• YouTube was used as an effective global marketing strategy, allowing audiences to like, comment and share the trailer
• Because YT is a global platform, it allowed for audiences to do some of the marketing themselves just by sharing it
• Disney also used Twitter to market the film using hashtags, posts, teasers etc.
• Black Panther became the most tweeted about film on Twitter in 2018
• Live streams on social media platforms for Q&A sessions with the cast and crew, creating anticipation for the film worldwide, and encouraging fans to get involved
• Actors taking part as guests on TV shows and other Tv programmes, and is a great way of marketing the film with older audiences.
• The actors and crew appeared at ComicCon, a globally recognised event for fans of big franchises in film, gaming, TV etc. Famous conventions like this are a great way for targeting Super fans of a franchise or shared univers, ensuring they spread the word
• Snapchat had a filter for Black Panther that helped target the younger audience
  
  
• Even though Walt Disney bought out Marvel Studios, Marvel retained a lot of creative control over their films. A lot of the creative decisions was actually left to Marvel. Even though Walt Disney is part of the ownership, Marvel Studios still has a lot of power and independence when it comes to making their films
• Marvel is a diversified company, making comics, films, graphic novels, animations, TV etc.
• Because of this they have a lot of experience at making products. It also means they have a pre-sold fan base of their products. People who like their other media texts will most likely go see whatever they release next
• Sometimes Marvel will sell the rights to their characters to raise money for funding their projects
  
  
• Many of Marvel's products are part of giant franchises with prequels and sequels and shared universes. This helps reduce risk and increase profit and is a reflection of Hesmondhalgh's ideas about companies striving for maximised profits
  
  

Reasons for Black Panther being a low risk film to make:

• shared universe/existing franchise
• pre-sold audiences
• global conglomerate involvement
• famous actors
• popular genre
• detailed marketing campaign
  
  

Elements of risk/niche nature:

• lesser known Marvel character
• predominantly black cast
• high cost to make

• Marvel potentially took these risks to appeal to modern youthful audiences
• Maybe Marvel and Disney chose to make the film to 'cash in' on the current social and cultural context of people wanting more diversity in the media
• This could be seen as trying to get good publicity by showing how diverse they are
• Could be seen as tokenism
• Could just be to get more diversity
  
  
• Commonly, films that offer lead roles for black actors are social realist, and tend to be based around crime and poverty
• This makes the film stand out more as it paints black people in a more positive light, offering a variety of roles to black actors and actresses, and are quite different to the roles available to black actors in the past
• These diverse and positive representations make it stand out and appeal to more audiences
  
  
• Perhaps Black Panther reflects the current social and current desires for stronger female characters in movies. This is challenging gender stereotypes seen in the mainstream media, but has tackled it in a way that has brought positive change
• Black Panther could be seen as part of Disney's strategy to improve its reputation for the way it treats ethnicity and gender in film
  
  
• The range of posters produced with different characters on them helps to target a diverse range of audiences
• A different poster was created to market the film in China to reflect the country's different attitudes towards race. This poster actually covered up Chadwick Boseman's face by having his mask on. This could be seen as an example of a film company self-censoring their marketing materials to target specific global audiences.