Media Synergy (Case Study)

 

FORTNITE x MARSHMELLO

Fortnite is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017 and Marshmello, is an American electronic music producer and DJ that has released songs that have been certified multi-platinum in several countries and appeared in the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100. Fortnite has maintained a consistent monthly active playerbase of around 80 million, with 2021 being a peak year at 83.3 million MAPs. This synergy allowed for Marshmello to perform a virtual concert in the game for players to enjoy. 

Marshmello Benefits	Fortnite Benefits
Exposure to a younger target market	Exposure to a new market
He was able to sell merchandise (hoodies, t-shirts, etc.)	Large increase in profit through in-game purchases (skins)
Increased popularity	Increase user base

Synergy in media can also benefit the audience or consumers as according to the uses & gratification theory, the audience can use this synergy to satisfy social relationships and personal identity.

When Marshmello took the stage inside of Fortnite earlier this month, it wasn’t just a glimpse of the future — it was also the biggest moment in Fortnite’s history. According to developer Epic Games, 10.7 million people attended the concert, which tops the previous largest in-game event; back in November, 8.3 million people witnessed the destruction of a strange purple cube.

“Fortnite recently had two record highs for peak concurrent players,” the developer told The Verge in a statement. “On February 2nd, Fortnite had its best event day ever with 10.7 million players showing up for the Marshmello concert. Additionally, this past weekend on Saturday, February 16th, the game saw its best non-event day ever with 7.6 million players in the game concurrently.” - via The Verge

SIDEMEN CHARITY MATCH

The Sidemen is a British YouTube group consisting of seven different Internet personalities. The group produce videos of various challenges, sketches, and video game commentaries across their YouTube channels, which have a combined total of over 138 million subscribers as of October 2022. They have hosted a football match where all the proceeds are donated to charity, this is considered as media synergy as they have worked together with other YouTubers to make this event possible. They hosted this event together with different charities. Furthermore, the entire event was powered by YouTube Shorts which aided in airing the match. This allows for an all-round benefit for all the platforms.

Creator Benefits	Charity Benefits	YouTube Benefits
Content opportunities	More profit	More concurrent users
More exposure to other creator’s audience	Better relationships with large creators	Expanded market base