Synergy

Synergy is the act of multiple organisations or substances coming together to be more powerful and make a stronger effect than they did individually.


There are several different examples of synergy within the film industry :

• Film and video games e.g. Warner Bros. and EA worked together to create video games for all of the Harry Potter movies, thus, mutually promoting each other.

• Film and food e.g. Warner Bros. and Burger King created a burger called the 'Dark Whopper' and advertisements with the slogan 'bring out your dark side' which advertised both the film and the burger. WB also merged with Mars, giving buyers of a family pack of Mars chocolate the chance to win tickets to the movie.

• Film and toys e.g. McDonalds' Happy Meal contains varying toys of characters from recent movies, encouraging children to get Happy Meals but also to watch the movies.

• Film and clothes e.g. To help with marketing, Warner Bros. joined with French Connection to create limited edition T-shirts. This allowed fans to have tees of one of their favourite movies and unconsciously promote the movie and French Connection just by wearing them in public.

• Film and comics e.g. Marvel and D.C. comics (among others) have had many of their superheros (Superman, Batman, Iron Man, Thor, Wolverine, Spiderman etc.) transformed into living characters in film. Fans of the comics want to watch the movies, and fans of the movies want to read the comics, creating a win/win situation.

Within the film industry, there is also the alliance of production companies. For example Pixar is a subsidiary company (partly owned) by Disney. This isn't an entirely equal partnership: while Pixar is a great help to Disney it is not indispensable, whereas Pixar is close to nothing without Disney.