1. How Effective is the
Combination of your Main
Product and Ancillary Texts?

2. Target Audience
One way in which we attempted to make the combination of our products effective was
through the consideration of the target audience. As our documentary highlights the
dangers of teen drinking, our primary audience is teenagers. By choosing the topic of
underage drinking we were automatically aware of who our primary target audience was
(under 18s). We then researched this target audience further, which was not difficult being in
that audience ourselves. We created various audience profiles, and we were able to shape
our products around this audience. The images show some of the audience profiles we
produced. However, we also had to consider that this program may also appeal to adults,
especially parents that may want to further educate themselves on the dangers presented
in our primary task. With this in consideration we felt that we needed to keep a
sophisticated feel to all of the tasks in order to increase the overall effectiveness as it meant
that more people would be interested in watching the documentary. With this is mind, we
decided on BBC Three as the channel that we would theoretically air our documentary on.

3. We decided on this as BBC Three’s target audience is very similar to that of our primary
and ancillary tasks. The BBC official website states that ‘The channel needs to be
disciplined about focusing on the young - its centre of gravity will be 16-34 year-olds:
people who are young in spirit and mind-set.’ This shows that the main audience for the
documentary would be teenagers but it would also need to appeal to adults. I think that
by making sure that all three tasks are aimed at the same audience we had a clear
direction in which we wanted our products to go and therefore created an effective
combination between them. Another factor in this decision was that we were already
aware of BBC Three’s popularity among teenagers (our primary audience) by watching
the channel ourselves as well as knowing many people that also do so. Having aired
shows such as ‘Sun, sex and suspicious parents’ and documentaries such as ‘Binge
Drinking: My Big Decision’ ,BBC Three was also a realistic choice having shown similar
programming to our documentary. This would add to the effectiveness of the
combination of products as we knew it would be viewed by our target audience.

4. The design of our double page spread task adds to how effective
the combination of all three tasks is. For example, the background
image of the double page spread is a shot of a nightclub that is
also used in the documentary task. This helps to create continuity
between the two tasks and adds to the overall effectiveness of
the combination. This was also achieved through the use of an
image taken from an interview in the documentary and also
through the text used in the double page spread. As displayed in
the images, the text used on both tasks is the same font and
colour, again helping to create continuity and a familiarity
between the tasks.
Also, we decided that the main image of the double page spread
should be something related to the topic of teen drinking (i.e. a
nightclub) but that we should not use a lot of images of teenagers.
This way, we do not limit the audience of the article to just
teenagers but the overall topic of the article is clear through the
large title.
The pull quote on the article is also taken from an interview used
in the documentary. This helps cement the subject of the double
page spread and means that if people were to read the article
and then watch the documentary, they would easily be able to
draw comparisons between the two. This also adds to the overall
effectiveness of the combination as it means that people would be
more likely to take in important information such as this which is
one of the main aims of the tasks.

5. Radio Trail - Documentary
The content of our radio trail also adds to how effective the
overall combination of our products are. Again, we managed to
create continuity between the three products through the radio
trail. We added in extracts from interviews in the documentary.
For example we included the question ‘What is the legal age to
drink alcohol’ and the responses to that question. We also
included some information provided by the voiceover in the
documentary which talks about how alcohol abuse can lead to
health problems such as liver failure. I think that this adds to the
effectiveness not only through continuity between the products
but by engaging the audience with interesting information. As
the ancillary tasks are meant to advertise the main product,
adding interesting information would make people more likely
to want to watch the documentary. I also think that we used the
appropriate amount of extracts from the documentary as we
felt it was important not to give too much of the documentary’s
content away in the trailer.
In addition to this, by adding the time and channel that the
documentary will be broadcast, it is clear what the radio trail is
advertising and provides the audience with when they will be
able to watch the product. We also decided that the radio trail
would theoretically be broadcast on BBC Radio 1.

6. The reasons for this being that it reaches a national audience and is one of
the most popular radio stations in the country with around 11 million
listeners per week. Also, with our documentary being aired on BBC Three it
would make sense for the BBC to advertise it’s own products. Finally, the
remit for BBC Radio 1 (taken from bbc.co.uk) is as follows ; ‘Radio 1 is to
entertain and engage a broad range of young listeners... Its target audience
is 15-29 year olds’. The target audience of Radio 1 is very similar to the target
audience of our documentary. This means that the people that our product is
targeted at will be able to hear about our product on a large scale. Showing
how the combination of the radio trail and the documentary would be very
effective.

7. Conclusion
Overall, I think that the combination of our primary and ancillary tasks
is very effective. The ancillary tasks both display continuity and
solidarity with the primary task by using the same images, text and
extracts and information used in the documentary
Also, I think that it is clear on all three products that our target audience
is primarily young people. The choice of radio station and channel on
which we would air our products is evidence of this as their primary
audiences are very similar to ours.