1. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
When producing a media product it is ideal that said product has an audience to which it appeals to
and thus as a result of this, during the early stages of my media production knowing roughly which
genre of music I wanted to work in for the future I developed an audience profile of a demographic.
This profile was developed via quantitative and qualitative research methods and based my findings
on Young and Rubicam theory on the 4C's and the seven type of people that exist within our world.
Around this time, my preferred genre to which I wanted to work with was electronic music and the
sub genre's within it. One particular group's audience I decided to investigate were Daft Punk fans
since one could argue that they are a mass audience when it comes to electronic music as evidenced
by Daft Punk's mainstream success.
http://christopherankamedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/building-audience-profile.html
To conduct this research I developed a questionnaire via survey monkey and posted a link to it
exclusively on the Daft Punk fan website to target this audience effectively and specifically.
Initially I assumed that a typical Daft Punk fan would be possibly around 15-24 years old and would
be interested in science fiction and fantasy, based on Daft Punk's robot/sci-fi visual motif's and as
well as having an interest in technology as a result of daft punks robot motif. Other assumptions of
this demographic also included watching films, attending gigs, clubs or festivals, video games,
cartoons, comic books, anime and Manga based on daft punk's use of the anime visual style as well
as many video games like graphics in their music videos and productions. I also predicted that this
audience are prosumers in some form based on Daft Punks artistic style.
These assumptions at the time I believed would allow me in the future to construct a music video
that would appeal to these demographic and similar ones. If going down this electronic music route
of music video, I could simply utilise what this group already likes outside of Daft Punk and feature it
in my video in some shape or form to appeal to them.
My feedback from the questionnaire was very close towards my initial assumption with a few
differences such as the fact said demographic weren't as enthusiastic about attending gigs or
musical events as I had hoped. In fact said demographic also lacked that much of an interest in
Manga, anime or cartoons and in fact preferred comedy over sci-fi however sci-fi still appealed to
said audience.
In addition to this I had learnt from asking them about their website habits that majority of said
audience were possibly social network savvy but weren't the type of prosumer I had assumed, with
only 50% of my chosen demographic saying that they do or are enthusiastic about producing their
own content. This was mainly around just music and video not just other content previously
assumed such as their own written articles.
From this audience feedback, I had learnt that in order to possibly appeal to this audience I would
have to include some sort of trope of intertextual reference to either comic books, video games or
sci-fi and have some sort of comic tone throughout.
I had also learnt from asking my audience what is it about Daft Punk they liked I had found that one
thing that appealed to them was "the whimsy and mystery of the robot personas and it's a lot if fun
to buy into the fantasy of it." This quote and the many that were similar to it lead to the
development of the Robot character within my media product to provide a similar sense of whimsy
and mystery to said audience.
2. In addition, from my questionnaire I had also allowed myself to create a demographic profile of this
audience. Based on their age of mainly consisting of 15 -24 year olds I came to the conclusion that
my audience either belonged to the E class of social class due to the high possibility that they are
students in higher education or perhaps they belonged to a class higher than C2. This assumption
that my potential audience could be placed in a class higher than C2 was due to the fact that many
of those answered when asked if they produced their own content answered with some enthusiasm
meaning that they were some sort of "creative" putting them in class B. Additionally, many of the
responses I had during the survey reflected feelings that according to the 4Cs are those that belong
to someone considered as a reformer. According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs a reformer needs
to have achieved a certain amount of things prior before they can achieve what they desire which is
enlightenment. These things would include a stable home environment and thus one could
stereotypically claim that a Reformer would have to be higher than class D in order to achieve this
goal of enlightenment.
Moreover, exploring Daft Punks audience gave me a variety of audience to appeal to due to the
nature of the artists themselves being quite mainstream in popularity thus meaning I would be
appealing to a "mainstream audience" and having to utilise all the stereotypes of a mainstream
audience to appeal to them. This, as well as the fact that Daft Punk's abstract work could possibly
appeal to an arthouse audience, this allowed me to think about using more abstract styles in my
own media product to appeal to this possible arthouse audience. This somewhat resulted in some of
the stranger ideas being put forth in my video such as stop motion bread moving up and down since
the idea was that it is abstract enough to engage Daft Punk's arthouse audience but also the
similarity in my chosen track to daft punk would engage the mainstream daft punk fan. The abstract
stuff would shock the mainstream audience but engage them more in my product.
One fault with this research I did find was that I missed out a crucial question when investigating
audience that was one based on gender in order for me to better understand who it is I am exactly
targeting and perhaps if appropriate include or challenge gender stereotypes to better appeal to this
demographic.
I attempted to rectify this in the next survey I produced via similar methods to better understand my
audiences music consumption habits however I find that this research is somewhat less reliable than
others since I only managed to attract 16 of the original 29 audience group.
The next survey I produced via survey monkey, focused on the viewing habits of my potential
audience. Through my new survey, I wished to learnt my audience's favourite type of genre other
than electronic music; their preferred medium to listen/consume music, their favourite type of
music video and favourite music video, as well as the effect a music video may have on their
consumption habits of a particular song.
Moreover this survey allowed me to investigate what others thought was the most appropriate type
of music video to an electronic type song, as well as at this point in time finding out who my chosen
artist reminded them off and if they would consume his music if made available to them.
http://christopherankamedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/exploring-target-audience-quantitative.html
The purpose of some of these questions was to confirm whether my chosen artist was marketable
towards my newfound potential audience as well as to understand what type of music video best fits
my chosen track but also what style of music video best engages this audience. From my research
into this audience, I had found that 50% of those asked if they would consume my chosen artists
work said yes or expressed some enthusiasm towards the track. As a result of this, this somewhat
added some reinforcement to the idea of Daft Punk fans being a potential audience for my music
video and artist. However, this also made me think about exploring a secondary audience to ensure
3. my artist and my music video achieve a larger and stronger audience share if it were made into a
professional media product. This is where the question asked "What type of artist does this song
remind you of?" came in handy. By understanding what established artists my chosen artist
reminded them off I could direct my music video towards these established artists target
demographic as well as adapt my 3 media products to suit the style of these similar artists to appeal
to their target demographic as well. The type of responses I received were qualitative, offering me a
range of artists my audience felt were similar to that of my own chosen one. Following this I
narrowed the data I received to two artists I felt best had similarities to Tropiika - my chosen artist in
terms of sound and mood.
http://christopherankamedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/exploring-target-audience.html
This eventually lead me towards the artist Breakbot and the record label Ed Banger Records which I
best felt its audience and style would best fit the aesthetic I was exploring more with my own music
video and ancillary products. This was because firstly Ed Banger Records exclusively promoted
electronic type music to audiences, therefore if there was any label that would best suit my artist it
would be this one since he could find a dedicated electronic music fan base. Moreover, from
analysing Ed Banger's promotional materials as well as Breakbot I came to the conclusion that there
target demographic were arthouse fans based on their illustrative and abstract style of promotion.
Around this time in my planning due to my previous research into Daft Punk fans, I myself have
already planned for abstract styles such as mysterious robot character and stop motion animation.
Hence, this similarity in visual styles gave me the push to consider also aiming my media product
towards Ed Banger Records audience even using the Ed banger record label on my Digipak and print
ad to reflect this direction.
Linking back to my survey monkey research when asked my target audience about there favourite
type of music video a majority of the 50% asked stated that narrative was there favourite type of
video whereas when asked what best suits electronic type music in terms of music video genre the
majority 69% voted concept based. This I would like to say resulted in me pushing for more narrative
based themes in my already planned concept based music video to capture my potential audience
whilst keeping the type of music video appropriate to the song.
Moreover, the question asked "What is your favourite music video" provided me with identifiable
trend to follow, i.e. when asked this question I had noticed that many of the videos that were given
all had some sort of fantastical element to it.
SCREEN CAP OF LIST
With this in mind this allowed me to come to the assumption that this audience were attracted to a
sense of escapism and thus gave some reinforcement to the idea of an abstract concept based
video.
Another significant piece of information gained from this survey was my audience's consumption
habits in terms of what platform they best listen and buy music on. The top voted option was
download 43.75% and the second was streaming gaining 31.25% of votes. With these two options in
mind on my print ad, although somewhat conventional I featured a link towards a popular digital
distributor iTunes in order to capture my target demographic effectively. I additionally featured a QR
code towards a stream of my artists track and the music video in order to appeal to those who voted
for the streaming option of the survey.
4. Rough cut screening
After producing a rough version of my music video I held a rough screening of the music video made
up of mainly 15- 24 year olds - my main age target demographic in order to receive audience
feedback closest towards my ideal potential demographic of Daft Punk fans and those of Ed Banger
records audience. During the rough-cut screening I also devised another survey to fill out in order to
better understand what appealed to this age group and what could be improved. In addition to this I
produced another online survey via survey monkey and posted the link to the survey attached to an
online version of my rough cut on the same Daft Punk forum with the hopes of capturing the same
or similar audience I had already explored previously to see if my media product appealed to them.
Unfortunately, I received no replies from this online source and thus I had to rely on information
from a less than reliable source since said source weren't exactly my target demographic in terms of
music consumption.
http://christopherankamedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/burnin-fever-rough-cut-video-and.html
The survey I distributed during the rough screening was produced via word meaning I had to
traditionally work out the results of the survey. 11 questions in total were aimed at gaining some
insight into the problems of my current build of the music video touching on areas in which I felt
were uncertain in their quality within my video.
The type of questions asked although focusing on yes and no, also allowed the space for the
participant to expand their answers. This allowed me to get direct reason as to why this was the case
in their choice.
This proved to be effective as it allowed the participant to share some insight into how I could
improve. However, due to time constraints in the screening process the level of detail in these open
questions I felt were quite limited, many of which skipped these sections, and simiply used the yes
or no option.
From this survey, I had positive feedback, which let me learn that my chosen direction of visuals
suited the type of track chosen, however one respondent did comment that the visuals were "rather
random" at times, in addition to this when asked if the "narrative was clear in the video" majority
said no. As a result of this feedback this made me push more of the concept themes in my music
video's final product by using more sampled footage to convey more of a random tone. This was the
case since many of those who answered, "Is the Narrative clear in the video?" also went on to say
that the products quality however wasn't lessened by the fact.
Digipak and magazine ad survey
Just like my previous music video survey, I produced another survey, which was aimed at receiving
the responses from an audience of 15 - 24 year olds on the quality of textual and visual presentation
of my magazine ad and Digipak as well as to understand which publication would best suit my
magazine ad. Just like my last survey, this one worked mainly on a yes or no format and allowed
those to elaborate on their reasons why however the questions weren't as open ended to allow for
such detailed answers since I thought due to time constraints this will not be possible.
http://christopherankamedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/final-digipak-design.html
In further detail these questions usually dealt with issues I felt I had with the two ancillary products
such as the subtitle text underneath my magazine ad, the clarity of the image featured on the ad and
how similar it was to the Digipak. Other issues raised included If the QR code worked and how well
5. it worked in terms of synergy, as well as if the subtitle text on the magazine ad gave enough
information on the product it was promoting.
In terms of the Digipak itself, issues that were explored on my survey included the clarity of the track
list, if the theme was consistent on the Digipak, how similar it was to music video, if the internal text
on the CD was appropriate for the Digipak and if said text was readable as well as if the layout of the
Digipak read well or not?
Looking back if given more time, I believe that I should've readjusted my research method with my
Digipak and magazine ad and once again attempt to contact an audience of daft punk fans or fans of
House music (Ed banger Records audience). This would be in order to better understand how
marketable my artist would be them "my potential audience" and gain better judgement on where
they could see my magazine ad being placed since they are consumers of this music, they would
know for themselves where they go to find out about new artists in the electronic genres.
Another criticism I have of my research method during this period was the fact that when presenting
my Digipak and print ad with my survey next to it the Digipak I presented wasn't the final to scale
version. This caused some unreliability with the results I got on questions such as clarity of text since
the more to scale version will have larger text to solve any text problems, which they were.
My results from my survey were once again positive with people stating that the QR code on the
magazine ad worked and provided strong synergistic qualities between music video and print
production. As previously mentioned there were problems with the text of my Digipak due to scale
and this was a criticism pointed out by some. Said criticisms I received sadly couldn't be acted on at
the time. The criticism was that the Burnin Fever' album subtitle wasn't clear enough and I should
attempt to make changes to it. Unfortunately at the time before showing this version of the Digipak I
had ordered a larger to scale copy however this larger to scale copy I feel rectified this mistake.
Finally, from producing this survey I had gained an insight as to what publication would possibly be
the most appropriate to house my print ad in order to effectively attract my chosen audience. The
main magazine that was suggested was Mixmag as well as any other Dance music focused magazine.
This lead me to investigate other Dance magazines such as Dj Mag a British magazine dedicated to
EDM music (which is a similar genre to my chosen artists) and Dj's as well as possibly consider
overseas dance magazine Debug magazine which gets distributed in Europe allowing me to reach a
relatable audience for a British artist.
Conclusion
Overall although flawed the research I gained during this process was quite valuable. Responses
from the survey allowed me to identify a potential target audience that I could market my products
to. It also allowed me to gain some insight into my potential target audiences’ media consumption
habits, in particular to who their favourite artists were, their testes in music and what appeals to
them. The information and feedback obtained from the potential target audience were used to
shape areas of my music video and eventually resulted in me pushing more for a concept-based
route based on audience feedback. The feedback from audiences provided insight into what they
felt was good about my music video; it also provided me with information on areas that I could
further develop such as the initially blank areas of my music video which were later filled with
sample footage to push the concept theme forward. The target audience feedback also enabled me
to confirm areas I thought initially though were weak on my magazine and Digipak as well as give me
some insight as to what appropriate publication my magazine ad would feature in.