Film and Audiences

How do Producers Target Audiences

Task 1

1. An audience is a single or group of people which may vary between gender and various age ranges. When a new product is offered or promoted to the general public, this would become your audience.

Examples of audiences can vary from theatre to musicals or radio and would be called listeners, whilst in the form of aft and literature you can group them as readers, audience vary depending on the type of products they are introduced to.

2. The reason audiences are important is, when a new product or technological advancement is designed and made, it is viewed or purchased by the audience or general public, if the audience don’t buy or participate in sales of these products no profits would be made, there would not be any need for feed back, or point in making any further products. A good example of a product would be a new cream developed which makes your skin feel softer and helps you look younger, the product would only work if the

the audience purchased it, and tried and tested it and also gave some feed back. Audiences are key people in deciding the fate of a product, film or technology. It’s the audiences feed back which gives reason to the success, failure and improve - ment’s in products.

3. The impact of new technology on an audience Is a very important factor, Its allowed audiences To receive and transmit data on a greater scale and speed. Technology such as the introduction of the World Wide Web has allowed the public to view media such as films, shows from within there living rooms, with the aid of a computer.

4. The division of audiences into smaller groups due to the variety of media outlets. EXAMPLE: Newspapers and magazines – you can now view the hard copy AND online version (sometimes free). The aim is to hit as many people as possible/sell more copies/generate a larger audience. But measuring that audience becomes hard! You may have some people that only look online, some that only read the hard copy, or some that do both.

5. Institution’s continue making money by offering either new products or implementing fresh new ideas into existing products. For example In the case of shows such as who wants to be a millionaire, celebrities are called upon the show as contenders to win. The show is renamed celebrity who wants to be a millionaire. All winnings are donated to charity of the celebrity’s choice. Other format’s of the show was who wants to be a millionaire USA. New products or better versions.

6. Audience types : With examples (Images below). • Mass: Audiences are those audiences which all share similar choices, or have likewise interests, a show or production which is has high viewing ratings due to the interest and appeal from that specific size of audience.

• Niche: A small group of people or a smaller audience who only show interest in that particular product. This type audience is based around unique products.

7. Audiences are categorised due to the fact that they comprise of various category’s such as age, sex, occupation and income. The audience is not all the same example : A bank manager may earn £60000 pounds yearly, whilst a shop worker may only earn £16000 pounds yearly. The bank manager may be a male whilst the shop worker might be a female. Also some services or products may suit females only, whilst others are for men, Then there’s products made for children only.

8. Demographics is the Studies of a population based on factors such as age, race, sex, economic status, level of education, income level and employment, among others. Demographics are used by governments, corporations and non-government organizations to learn more about a population's characteristics for many purposes, including policy development and economic market research. Demographic trends are also important, as the size of different demographic groups will change over time as a result of economic, cultural and political circumstances. (Below)is a table of the groups, classes and/or bands the audience can fit in to. And also some results of the population in (2012-13) each band grading. Image on below (Right).

Demographic classifications in the UK and the ABC1 grade an explanation.

• Demographic classifications in the UK refer to the social grade definitions, which are used to describe, measure and classify people of different social grade and income and earnings levels, for market research, social commentary, lifestyle statistics, and statistical research and analysis.

• The National Readership Survey (NRS) is a non-profit but commercial British survey concerned with monitoring, analyzing and providing estimates on the number and nature of people who read Britain’s newspapers and consumer magazines. It is funded by the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA), and Periodical Publishers Association (PPA).

• Statistics reveal that the past few years have seen a steady increase in the number of adults who fall in the A, B and C1 socio-economic group. This can be attributed to various factors such as the changes in the economic conditions, rise in educational opportunities and changing employment patterns across the globe. All these factors have resulted in a shift of focus from the traditional ‘blue collar’ jobs to those in the ‘knowledge professions.’

• The rise in the ABC1 social grade, and the subsequent increase in spending power, has had a strong impact across industries and markets in the UK. It would be interesting to analyze the change in spending patterns of the ABC1 category in the current economic scenario.

9. Psychographics is an Analysis of consumer lifestyles to create a detailed customer profile. Market researchers conduct psychographic research by asking consumers to agree or disagree with activities, interests, opinions statements. Results of this exercise are combined with geographic (place of work or residence) and demographic (age, education, occupation, etc.) characteristics to develop a more 'lifelike' portrait of the targeted consumer segment. Below is some tables and examples of how what grades audience sit under and an example of the differences in there profiles to demographics.

The image above gives a good example of the overview of psychographics it is a much riche and detailed or informative breakdown of the

individual. Psychographics gives a more in –

view on a audience members life, covering different topics to that of demographics.

10. Quantitative Audience Research - is research which uses numbers to collect data and carry out research, for example ‘8 out of 10 people said horror was their favourite genre’. Quantitative research uses a large sample because it is all to do with numbers, its much easier to question 1000’s of people with quantitative research than it is with qualitative research as you only need a yes or no answer.Quantitative research uses closed questions within a questionnaire such as yes or no answers. This is because they want to compare with numbers, such as how many people said yes etc.Quantitative research uses statistical graphs and charts to analyse the data that is gathered, this is because it uses numbers and therefore graphs/charts makes it easier to look at and analyse instead of looking at a bunch of numbers.11. Qualitative Audience Research -Qualitative research goes more into detail about peoples opinions, instead of saying how many people liked the horror genre it would say ‘8 out of 10 people said horror was their favourite genre because…’Qualitative research uses a smaller sample because its harder to question 1000’s of people as they will give you different answers based on their opinions. Therefore for example they will only sample around 10 people to gain their research.Qualitative research uses open questions within a questionnaire as they want to find out the peoples reasons and opinions for their answer, so they will ask questions such as ‘Why do you like the horror genre?’Qualitative research will identify the key themes within the data because its difficult to analyse the data received as every answer is different because its the individuals opinion, for example they will ask for the data subjects opinions and then link these together by saying ‘people said they like the horror genre because of the tension the most’.

11. Audiences are measured by how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Sometimes, the term is used as pertaining to practices which help broadcasters and advertisers determine who is listening rather than just how many people are listening. In some parts of the world, the resulting relative numbers are referred to as audience share, while in other places the broader term market share is used. This broader meaning is also called audience research. 12. NRS - National Readership Survey (NRS) is a non-profit but commercial British survey concerned with monitoring, analyzing and providing estimates on the number and nature of people who read Britain’s newspapers and consumer magazines. It is funded by the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA), and Periodical Publishers Association (PPA).

ABC - ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations), the industry body for media measurement.

BARB - The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) is the organisation that compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom. It was created in 1981 to replace a previous systems whereby ITV ratings were compiled by JICTAR (Joint Industry Committee for Television Audience Research), whilst the BBC did their own audience research. BARB is jointly owned by the BBC, the TP companies, Channel 4, Channel 5, BSkyB, and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. Participating viewers have a box on top of their TV sets which tracks the programmes they watch.

14. Companies need to know this information so that they can make sure they offer you the right services or products, an example of this profile information used would be in television. This also allows the companies to know when and at what time viewing is suitable and for what age group do they intend on entertaining.

When a product is developed or made again this profiling is essential, the product must meet its target audience . As a good example you wouldn’t wish to target sell a motor vehicle to a 14 year old, Only 18 year olds and above would be suitable.