Cross-media convergence is a vital process in the marketing of media product because it can help to attract people of other media into a films target audience that may otherwise not given it a second’s thought. For example, Lucas Films asked Stan Lee (creator of Marvel) to publish star wars comics prior to the release of the original Star Wars. This affected the Star Wars audience as it brought in an entire group of people to its target audience, that group being comic book readers and Marvel fans. Having released the comics before the release of the Star Wars movie it had gained a lot of awareness and interest from the comic book community, the audience for Star Wars whilst not solely Comic lover, they are definitely a stand out group in the fan base and define Star Wars audiences. Had Star Wars not used cross-media convergence and released a series of Comics with Marvel then the audience might have been very different to what it is today. Nowadays audiences are hard to target due to the size of the film industry, which means more competition. If films marketers wanted to have it released in comics like Star Wars had done, then it may prove insignificant as comic giants like Marvel and DC now release their own movies high budget, blockbuster movies.

A reason why cross-media convergence is so important when marketing a media product is it can help increase people’s interest in the film. A good example is the release of games related to the Star Wars franchise before the release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. This includes the highly anticipated Battlefront (2015) by EA, an online multiplayer first person shooter in which you fight the storm troopers and can play as Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader etc. The inclusion of such big characters is significant as they are the image of Star Wars and help give that connection between the game and film. As Skywalker and Vader are such iconic names having them in the game also helps to attract audiences’ attention.  This game was well marketed and a lot of gamers were looking forward to buying it, therefore due to the games link to the film they became more interested in The Force Awakens. The game “Battlefront” sold over 12 million copies of the game and so it reached a wide audience and will have gained a lot of interest in the movie. This also works the other way round as big fans of the franchise would be anticipating the film, then because the Battlefront game was released just before the films premiere those movie-goers would want to buy the game to be even more immersed in the universe. This is synergistic as both the game and film are benefiting from media convergence with their audience rising and therefore increasing ticket and game sales. Although the game could affect the film negatively if it is bad. Star Wars Battlefront was very well marketed and had a lot of hype although when released most gamers felt it was a letdown. This is due to the lack of maps and customisation in the game which didn’t allow fans to become very immersed. This could give those gamers a negative view about star wars and so they might not want to go see the movie. In this scenario cross media convergence is bad.

The Star Wars Franchise has also had 2 spin-off TV series: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, which were aimed at a young child audience. Both of shows were animated by Lucas arts, with ‘The Clone Wars’ being created by Lucas himself. This cross-media convergence was important for the Star Wars Franchise, as it helped revive the universe and introduce it to many children who may never had heard of it. This was incredibly useful for The Force Awakens, which released a few years later, as the child audiences were already aware of Star Wars. Had the cross-media convergence into TV shows not been used, marketing for the film may have been more difficult as young audiences may not have been as aware of the franchise.

Another film that is a good example of media convergence is Sherlock Holmes (2009), which was marketed so well that awareness and interest was 30% higher than usual at the time. The film is an example of how media convergence can revive stories, concepts and films. Before the release of the Sherlock Holmes film there was a released online game which allowed you to follow crimes and solve them as though you were Sherlock. This much like the Battlefront game helps to immerse audiences, however this is also showing people that the old Sherlock Holmes which was related to rainy Sunday afternoons is now more modern and fun.