Audience Research - Case Study 1
This document includes our initial audience research for 'Home', and our research into a case study about 'Tortoise in Love' - we included evidence of contacting the Director of the film and asking him a few questions about his target audience for the film and his intentions.
Audience Research
Who? Teenagers and young
adults.
Age? 16-25 year olds because they can relate to the characters
more than an older generation as the music video revolves around a young
couple, and young love. Youths/young people tend to be stereotypically hopeful
towards young romances due to the common ideology portrayed in most movies that
to have a romantic relationship at a young age is the “norm”.
Other types of media consumption? Other types of media that our
audience consume are movies, magazines, social media, radio and television
programs/ television adverts. Access to
a variety of media forms is important because it gives them a larger insight
into society. Young people often use a variety of media specifically to gratify
their musical desires. For example, internet sites such as YouTube promote
music from all around the world through formats such as music videos, lyric
videos, vlogs and artist interviews. In the first quarter of
2015, more than 80 percent of global internet users had visited
YouTube in the last month. Applications such as Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Apple Music and
SoundCloud are frequently used on an international scale to promote and
distribute music by giving people contracts and deals where they can listen to
as much music as they want for a certain price, e.g. Apple Music is £9.99 a
month. The majority of these apps also provide the music video for the songs
being listened to so that they have the option on how they consume their music
– either just audibly or with visuals as well.
Who do they identify themselves with? Artists, music producers,
music video directors, and music labels. Music is associated to its artist. For
example, Taylor Swift’s single ‘Out of the Woods’ was produced by Taylor Swift,
Jack Antoff, and Max Martin, and the music video was directed by Joseph Kahn. Our music video is identified with Yasmin and I because we are the
directors, Gabrielle Aplin as she performed the song and wrote it with Nick
Atkinson, and Mike Spencer because he produced the single and original music video. The song is also associated with the Academy
Award-nominated dramatic film Brooklyn,
as the track was featured in the main film trailer. Music
artists also identify themselves with their record labels, for example
Gabrielle Aplin is with, and has had contracts with, Parlophone, Warner Bros. Records, EMI, and Never Fade Records.
How much do they consume? In 2015, overall music consumption
tracked by Nielsen Music grew 15.2 percent to 549.4 million track equivalent
albums and streaming equivalent albums. These are metrics that convert digital
purchases and streaming activity into albums for purposes of comparing consumer
activity over time. It is apparent that as the years have progressed
music has been consumed more through online sources such as YouTube and Streaming
sites, like Spotify and SoundCloud. According
to Nielsen’s Music 360 2014 study, 75% of Americans say they actively choose to
listen to music, which is more than they claim to actively choose to watch TV.
When it comes to how we’re listening, the story is largely a digital one.
Americans streamed 164 billion on-demand tracks across audio and video
platforms in 2014, up from 106 billion in 2013. Not only did the number of
streams in 2014 exceed the number a year earlier, but the pace of weekly
streams hit new heights. For example, the week ending Nov. 9, 2014,
marked the first time that total streams for one week surpassed 4 billion.
Through these statistics it is evident that the majority of music is now
consumed online, which enforced the idea that Music Videos have increased in
popularity.
Who do they consume it with? It is evident that as technology is advancing, more
people are consuming music in different ways. The advantage of speakers, such
as a ‘Bose’ speaker, is that people can share their music with family and
friends easier through music projection. Also, just by sending a link to a
music video on YouTube, through social media or via text message, individuals
can easily share and consume music with a variety of people. However, in
contrast the widespread use of earphones can encourage someone to listen to
music independently.
When sharing music young people are especially good at this
as they are usually more familiar with internet usage. They often share links
with friends to songs on Facebook, show each other YouTube videos, and promote
songs through word of mouth. They also use applications such as Deezer, Tidal,
Apple Music, Spotify and SoundCloud.
The effect it is having on them and the effect they have on it? Different
music genres appeal to different people, different age groups, and satisfy
various gratifications. For example, people often listen to calming and
sorrowful songs, usually with a more acoustic vibe, to relate to when they are
feeling down - they will often consume this alone. Songs that fit this category
would be ‘Dancing On My Own’ by Calum Scott, and ‘When I Was Your Man’ by
‘Bruno Mars’. A happier song would be ‘Rise’ by Katy Perry as it is empowering.
In addition, a rave song often heard at parties, and played more by youths, as
they are aired on radio stations such as Radio 1 which have a mainly younger
audience, is ‘One Dance’ by Drake as it has an upbeat synthesised rhythm and a
bassline that is simple to move to. Rave songs are simple to interpret which
means that a wider variety of people can enjoy them and listen to them at
parties and in social situations. Music videos can also be influential to
people’s style – they may dress similarly to artists as they think it is cool,
this is often how new fashion trends arise. Music videos can also change
people’s perspective about the song – or their views on something, as it can
give them a different outlook on the lyrics or beat to how they originally
interpreted it, this makes music more interesting. The variety of radio
stations and music downloads cater for all music genres – for example, Classic
FM plays classical music whereas Radio 1 plays recent chart tracks; the
contrast in radio stations shows how music has evolved over time and how older
and niche music still makes enough revenue to continue playing when competing
with modern pieces as all music is more accessible through most media formats,
e.g. radio, TV, music apps such as iTunes and Spotify, the internet and social
media.
Case Study Research
– Tortoise in Love
What Themes and Ideas are portrayed? Themes and ideas that are
presented in ‘Tortoise in Love’ are romance, hope, and relationships. The genre
of the film is a British romantic comedy. The idea at Britain is small and rural
is emphasised through the fact that the protagonist Tom is helped by his local
community when wooing Anya.
How did the promote their text to their audience? They went on
radio shows, such as Heart FM and BBC Oxford News. They also promoted the film through
TV interviews, and they held a premiere at West End Odeon in London - it was
broadcast live on the BBC’s One Show to over 4 million people. There were
articles placed on the online versions of SoGlos, The Cornish Guardian, The
Oxford Mail, The Buckingham Advertiser, Lynn News, and The North Somerset Times
amongst others.
What platforms did they use? Social media platform such as
Facebook pages and Twitter feeds were created to help promote the ‘Tortoise in
Love’ more widely so that a larger audience range would be aware of the
upcoming feature film.
Yasmin and I emailed the director of this film and received a reply: -
Final Part of
Audience Research
Identify your core audience – Our core audience are teenagers.
As we have a story involving growing up into teen years, we feel that the age
group of 12-18 is most suitable for our music video as they can engage with the
story more.
Identify your broader audience – Our broader audience would
involve adults. Even though the narrative involves young children growing into
teenagers, adults could engage with a similar memory of their youth and it
could trigger a sense of nostalgia for the wider audience.
Collect feedback from your audience that will affect your text using
- Surveys/polls/questionnaires
The overall outcome of our poll was that the most preferred type
of music videos are those that are performance based. The second favourite was
narrative and the last was concept based. Although our music video will be narrative,
we will take on board the fact that people chose the performance because of the
emotion and expression it adds to the music and ensure that we can enforce that
same emotion into our video. This has therefore influenced our production as we
will work to produce a video that can provide the same emotion the audience get
in a performance, through an engaging story.
Decide who this will effect/change your ancillary texts and if they are
the right platforms for your target audience.
Our narrative production is aimed at teenagers and young
adults, as they can relate to the young characters well, and so our ancillary
texts will also be aimed at this target audience. The magazine article we will
create is an effective choice because many teenagers – especially and
stereotypically females – read magazines, therefore they will come across a
review of ‘Home’. In addition, the album cover is a significant ancillary text
as it will promote our music video well and to both genders because the vast
majority of young adults listen to and buy/source music. Both of these
platforms will promote our music video to not only our target audience, but to
a wider market.
