Art

The "Art of Maximizing Your Time" is a tricky topic and one that gets the best of all us artists. how many times have you.... oh look a bird...... what was I saying? Oh yes, I am talking about maximization of time and resources and not procrastinating, or in fancy economic terms, opportunity costs. As a high school student, I know that this skill is one that I need to master once I get into college but it is one of the great skills that eludes me. I get home from club meetings, four tests, a quiz or two and sports practice, sit on the couch for a minute or two to relax and then find that there is little chance that I will get up. The problem is that there is so much stimuli in the modern age, between TV, social media and video games, there is always something to keep me occupied in the vast space of generation X and the empty cybernetic void that consumes all of our lives. Once I finally start working again, I stay up late at night to study, which makes me tired the next day, which makes me have to catch up at night, which causes me to be even more tired the next day. It is a vicious unbreakable cycle that all high school students must endure, but we all live through these four years and it makes us stronger and more prepared for college, hopefully....now about that bird.....

Marketing and Marvel

Recently, Marvel Comics had a conference discussing its movies and fate of its cinematic universe. Marvel shocked the audience not only by announcing all of its movies in the phase two and phase three part of the Universe, but by dividing the third Avengers film into two separate movies.  Marvel is also making movies off of lesser-known Marvel properties such as the Inhumans and, in the cases of Captain Marvel and Black Panther, not having the hero be a white male.

Marvel has always been good with its reveals, choosing to make each big movie announcement at a large conference event with a lot of hype.  For instance, at a recent event, Marvel provided free Wi-Fi so that the people attending could tell everyone about its announcements via social media, thereby giving themselves free publicity. Marvel further decided to disclose 10 new upcoming movies, some of which are based upon comic book story lines, which people thought could never be adapted to the big screen.  In addition to all of this, Marvel cleverly adds a teaser for an upcoming movie at the end of their newly released movies, which generates even more publicity and hype for the next movie. In the past few years Marvel has made a concerted effort to make itself a bigger presence at the various Comic Cons than DC Comics, by hosting more events, panels and give –always, thereby making Marvel synonymous with fun, entertainment and excitement.

Marvel, based upon their advertising strategies, is “streets ahead” of DC. Marvel realizes that the best and cheapest type of advertising is the kind that they do not have to pay for.  Marvel created the hype and has the fans spread word electronically.  This clever advertising ploy allows Marvel to save money, which then allows it to use that money to create better quality products. Further, by having TV shows and Movies on Netflix, ABC and on line, Marvel Cinematic Universe is more accessible and popular than ever.  DC, on the other hand, now has to play catch up to Marvel and is forced to copy their strategy of having solo films lead up to a massive team up event. Although Marvel has given up some of their biggest property by selling movie rights to companies like Fox and Sony, I think it works out for the best.  Now the Universe will be more fleshed out and we will be able to view different corners of the lesser-known parts of Marvel as opposed to than only seeing the more mainstream heroes.