Monday, May 30, 2011

4: Addressing Audiences

Creating Products for Specific Audiences


Types of Media Products

• TV
• Radio
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Books
• Websites

Elements of Media Products

• Selection of content – selection of elements

Selection of Content

• Words
• Images
• Sound
• Sequences
Colours (colour grading)
• Fonts


Group Work
 

Media Product Element Comments of Use
Television Commercial (e.g.: MSV Life) Voice Over To describe the service, and attract more attention
Film (e.g.: Avatar) Graphics and animation To emphasize further the visuals
Radio adverts (e.g.: Vodafone) Music To make them more appealing
Magazines (e.g.: Gwida, Antenna) & Newspapers (e.g.: The Times) Articles Publishing the public opinion and freedom of speech

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR 'STRADA STRETTA' ADVERT

Gender:    Male ____                    Female _____
Age:   ____       
Occupation:    Student    ____                       Worker  ____

1.      In your opinion, is the advert of a good quality?



Yes ___                 No____


2.      In general, what did you understand from the advert?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________


3.      From 1 to 10, how effective do you think it is? (10 being the highest)
Why?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

4.      Do you think the message interacted clearly with the audience?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________


5.      In your opinion, do you think it has a specific target audience?

_____________________________________________________________

6.      A. Would you read ‘Strada Stretta; It-Triq li Darba Xeghlet il-Belt’ after watching this advert?

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Yes___                                        No____

B. Why?

_____________________________________________________________

7.      What impact does the editing of this advert leave on the audience?


Positive Impact___                                  Negative Impact___


8.      A. Would you require to change or criticize something from the advert?

Yes___                                    No   ____

B. If yes, what would it be?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Thank you very much for your time to fill in this questionnaire. Much appreciated!

STRADA STRETTA - ONE MINUTE ADVERT

 
THIS IS THE LINK FOR THE ADVERT ON YOUTUBE.
 
HERE COMES THE QUESTIONNAIRE!!

Defining Audiences

Media Producers
·         They produce Media Products
·         They know how their target audience uses their media products and what their likes are

Media Products
·         Is affected by the way the Media Producers think about their audiences
·         The make it their job to know what their audiences like and wants (Audience Research)
·         They give them what they want

Articles, books, music, films, PowerPoint Presentation, posters, adverts, DVD, magazines (Advanced Photoshop), Tutorial (Youtube)

Conclusion
·         There is someone who carefully chooses what we see, hear, buy and consume
·         Every Media Product we own has been carefully shaped to suit our tastes

Why?
Because the Media Industry is a money-making business and like every business organization is to make money by carefully targeting their audience.

Defining Audiences
Who is the Audience?
·         A group of people who is targeted by the media
·         How does the media knows the likes and dislikes of such a diverse group of people?
Market Research
·         Research is a very important process
·         All media products have been carefully planned & researched  to try to make them as successful as possible
Why?
Because the Media Industries are money-making business
Groups of Audiences
·         How do you think Media Industries group their Target Audiences?
·         Data gathered through research can be broken down into Demographic grouping (=the way people can be grouped together).
Demographic Groupings
The Media Industry uses the categories to distinguish between different groups of people:
·         Socio –Economic Status
·         Interests & Lifestyle
·         Gender
·         Age-Group
·         Location
Socio-Economic Status
·         Also known as Social Class
·         Past – working class – manual workers
·         Today – More women are working – More upward mobility – Due to more education and more jobs in the service sector – Middle Class
Socio-Economic Status in the Media
·         Kalamita
·         Bondiplus
·         MTV
·         Mezzo
Interests & Lifestyle
·         Lifestyle = the way people live and how they spend their time
·         Closely related to occupations due to income
Examples in the Media:
Yachting Magazine:
·         The audience might also be interested in collecting antiques, eating out, property, etc
·         So the advertisers also take in consideration their interests

Audience Feedback

-          We already know that media producers make use of audience research.
-          Now would like to get some feedback back from the audience.
 - Questionnaires, Comments, focus groups (feedback)
- Focus Groups - made up of representations of the target audience.
- Audience Panels – members of panels provide feedback on a regular basis.
- Trialling and Testing – samples of the audience give feedback on short ‘pilot’ extracts of what the complete product will be like.

Reviews
-          Ordinary members of the target audience / professional reviewers who write reviews of the product for newspapers.
-          Sometimes provide the cruellest feedback of all.
Complaints
-          Can be received directly from members of the audience
-          May complain to an official body (eg: Ofcom for broadcasting , ASA fro advertising, Press Complaints Commission for newspapers and magazines)

Audiences:
-          Audience Information
-          Sources of Infromation
-          Audience Classification
Audience Information
-          Focus Groups
-          Questionaires
-          Research Agencies
-          Audience Measurement Panels/ Ratings
Focus Groups
-          Usually 8-10 people
-          Have understructured questions
-          Discussion
-          Qualitative data
-          Answers the hows and whys
Questionnaires
-          Advantages: can be collected from a large group of people; standardised questions; easy to analyse closed-ended questions
-          Disadvantages: open-ended can generate large amounts of data and take a long time to process; some questions may be left unanswered
Research Agencies
-          E.g.: Misco – it is an independent professional company providing marketing research, training and development, business consultancy and people selection
-          Other Research agencies – private
Audience Measurement:
-          What we call ratings- through surveys etc
-          Measures how many people are in an audience
o   E.g: television viewership
o   E.g: newspaper / magazine readership
o   E.g: web traffic on websites
TVM Leads Broadcasting Survey ( Tue, 2nd Feb 2010 11:48 CET)
Check: Timesofmalta.com

Sources Of Information
-          Rate Cards
-          Advertisers’ Information Packs
-          Research Agencies