What have we learned from our audience

feedback?Mason Wills

On our paper questionnaire…

If you watched the trailer would it intrigue you?

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I gave out a paper questionnaire to 10 people based on the radio trailer created for our documentary, Is the CD Dead? • The first question I asked was ‘If you heard the trailer would it interest you?’. 80%

said they would and the remaining 20% said no. I followed up with ‘why?’ replies were mainly because they like music or its different/unique the respondents against wanting to watch it said they don’t have a particular interest in music or CD’s.

• Then I questioned if the audio was smooth. I was extremely pleased to see that all of the respondents thought that the audio sounded smooth. Audio is vital in a radio trailer and if it sounds poor it can give the impression that your brand (inc. documentary) aren’t very professional and produce lower quality products.

• I asked for their opinions on the narrator with a closed question, the options being: Great, Good, Not Bad or Terrible. Again, really positive feedback as we had a 50/50 split of being good and great. This is positive and with the narrator playing such an important role in the documentary in terms of being entertaining and confident this is really good to hear.

Does the audio sound smooth?

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On our paper questionnaire…

If you watched the trailer would it intrigue you?

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• It’s definitely important to know if there was sufficient information delivered on where and when the documentary was available. According to the respondents 100% thought that this was delivered successfully. By us ensuring this it maximises our viewers and will broaden our brand.

• I wanted to see if it was obvious who the target audience was as it would show if we’ve structured the radio trailer to aim it at our chosen audience. As you can see on the pie chart on the right the majority voted for young adults. The actual age range is between 16-25. Though young adults do fall into this the 16/17 year olds are missed out which tells me we may have missed ways in which we can make it more suitable to that age group.

• It’s key to know that the audience understand what we are trying to promote. Upon me asking this 90% replied saying they thought it was. Despite this, the respondents tells me that 10% of listeners don’t know what we’re promoting which could lose out on viewers. It tells me to try and be clearer on how we talk about what’s to come in the documentary and what is being shown.

Does the audio sound smooth?

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Did we provide enough...05

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Was it clear what the topic was about?

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On our paper questionnaire…

• The most important question, would you watch the documentary after hearing this? 80% said yes which is a high majority indicating the radio trailer was a success. Hopefully by taking into account the improvements to be made a good portion of the missing 20% would also want to watch it.

• I asked finally how the audience would rate our topic from 1-5 (5 being good and 1 being bad). The majority felt it was a 5 and the secondary vote was a 4. This is good as it shows from this questionnaire our audience show a really strong interest in our topic and think highly of it. There are some people that will inevitably not like your topic which may be the case for the 3 people who voted 1-3 but it’s good to see the majority think highly of it.

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• ‘Overall, what improvements could be made?’ Respondents said: Use more facts/quotes (3), more information (2), different music (3), less information (1), nothing (2). This question shows a mix of answers which is useful as it shows we need to improve on adding more facts/quotes, include more information and possibly change the music. Audience feedback is important as we had reasoning for some of these choices but it shows that the audience didn’t respond how we thought which is good to know.

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On our paper questionnaire…Conclusion

After looking at all the feedback it has been really positive considering I asked 10 people, there are bound to be 1 or 2 people not keen on your topic which there were. There was a handful who showed real enthusiasm with the topic which signifies we picked a good topic to talk about. The audio was smooth, the narrator and topic were well received and from the radio trailer a lot of people would watch it. I found it extremely useful to have a range of improvements which could be made as by responding to these it can help the trailer and topic become more of an interest to the listener and therefore lead to more viewers and a stronger brand identity. I predominantly asked the targeted age group as well as asking a few others slightly outside of this group, by it being so well-received is even better as these are the people we will be aiming our documentary at. Audience feedback is key to perfecting both your main and ancillary products in order to gain a bigger fan base and audience.

From our online survey we could see…

Upon asking this closed question we can clearly see that 100% of the respondents thought the main image stood out. This is what we was aiming for in order to catch the readers attention.

3/3 people responded with ‘yes’ when asked if they thought our double-page spread as a whole was eye-catching. This will hopeful grasp the readers attention when going through the magazine (Radio Times)

Our colour scheme was a combination of black, white and red. There was two positive opinions on this. Opposing this was someone who thought it was bad. It’s difficult to appeal to everyone but due to us having a majority of positive opinions and it being clear this was reassuring. In future I would ask ‘why?’ so I can learn how to possibly change it to appeal to those with negative opinions also.

From our online survey we could see…

Personally, I thought the topic of the documentary was clear and all of the respondents thought so too. This tells me that it was also clear to our audience.

100% of the respondents replied with them thinking that the title and sub-heading does encourages you to read on. This is important as these are the two of the main factors of grabbing the readers attention.

Again, all positive feedback on the images and the grab quote. Due to these being key elements it was important that these would interest the reader and encourage them to read on.

From our online survey we could see…

2/3 respondents thought that it was likely for our double-page spread would be seen in our chosen TV Listings magazine, Radio Times. The other respondent thought that it somewhat seems as if it would. This tells me that we may need to rethink if this is the most appropriate TV Listings magazine.

This question was to see if our double-page spread meets a lot of codes and conventions that others do and if it actually looked how it was supposed to, to an audience. We got really positive feedback on this which tells me that a lot of features we incorporated were good.

There was a mixture of responses, the majority thought the layout was in the top tier (4 and 5) of the spectrum. The remaining respondent voted it a 2. Again, in the future I would ask the question ‘why?’ to know how to improve so it can appeal to a wider audience.

From our online survey we could see…

2 replies told me that the respondents like the text. They thought it was clear and also the colour scheme. The 3rd respondent replied with ‘nothing’, however I’m not sure if that’s referring to things that are good, bad or as a whole. This makes it hard for me to see whether I need to improve.

ConclusionAfter seeing all the replies from the respondents I can see its been mostly positive feedback. This tells me that a lot of what we’ve included in the TV Listings double-page spread, we did well and to a good standard. There were some feedback on how we could improve such as the layout and potentially a better colour scheme. It’s frustrating that I didn’t include more ‘why?’ questions, like in questions 3 and 9 for example. By doing this I would have a more clear idea on what the respondents didn’t like and could then work on these areas to try and make the double-page spread appeal to more people. Overall, I am quite pleased from the feedback I was given for the TV Listings double-page spread and reassures me that we made a lot of right creative decisions.

What I gathered from the focus group was…Q1. Did you think the introduction to our documentary was engaging? If so why?“The focus group responded informing us that they thought it was engaging as the narrator was confident and the use of vox-pops of their specific age made it appealing to them.” The introduction is a key part in engaging the viewer so due to the positive feedback, I’m confident that what we did was done well.

Q2. Did we include enough background footage? “Yes and believed it was filmed well. The cutaway shots in the interviews made them more interesting.” Due to the fast pace of the music industry we wanted to reflect this through our fast-pace editing, knowing that we had enough background footage and the cutaway shots were good tells us we succeeded.

What I gathered from the focus group was…Q3. Do you think that the titles of the documentary came across as interesting?“They thought they did. Although they stream music all the time it’s not something people think about but the titles made them wonder and think about the topic.” Like our TV Listings magazine, the titles are eye-catching and can resonate with the viewer so from the feedback saying they was interesting and got them thinking about the topic is reassuring and tells me that area is fine.Q4. Was the documentary informative? If so why? “It was, the pie chart (in the form of a CD) was good as it visually showed them how the industry was separated in terms of CDs, streaming etc.” Though we wanted to viewer to be entertained, our sole purpose was to inform the reader and share some knowledge on our subject and the focus group tells us that we did that, which is a huge positive.Q5. What was the best part of the documentary?“Expert interviews. There was a range of them from different perspectives. Change in music was good as it changed in different parts reflecting the mood.” I didn’t expect the expert interviews to be so positively viewed and the music was meant to set the mood and wasn’t meant to stand out too much. It’s good to hear the audience picked up on the music and enjoyed it.

What I gathered from the focus group was…Q6. Do you think that the music played through the documentary fitted the topic?“It was good and upbeat” We aimed for this style of music as although documentaries are serious and so is our topic, we wanted the music to have a brighter mood and to be less serious in a way. It’s good to know that the audience like our selection of music.Q7. Did the documentary seem realistic as if it could’ve been a real documentary?“Yes, because of the fast-paced editing. It kept us interested, the footage was filmed really good” To know that our documentary seemed as if it could’ve been an actual documentary is really great feedback as it tells us that the viewer was interested and we used/challenged the right amount of codes and conventions to make it seem as if it could’ve been real. Q8. What is your feedback on the sound levels?“They seemed all right, some of the vox-pops were a bit quiet. The expert interviews and narrator was really clear.” I’ve learnt that we perhaps should’ve took more notice in the editing stages to avoid the differentiation in the sound levels. It’s as equally important to have the vox-pops sounding clear as most other elements in the documentary, as this can be the most relatable character for the audience and could most interest them.

What I gathered from the focus group was…Q9. Was the text clear and engaging?“The text was clear, it was also interesting as it wasn’t just plain” The text needs to be clear to deliver information and the audience thought it was. We tried to stray away from it being too basic and serious so the feedback that our text wasn’t plain was good. Q10. Overall, do you think the CD is dead?“One thought that it is however, another believed that it isn’t as they still go out and buy CDs. They think that it’s not dead but dying as there are still people that buy them” I was surprised to have a mixed opinion as I initially thought that people of our target age range and specifically 17-18 year olds would regard it as dead. From them having different views allows our topic to be debated and talked about.ConclusionThe feedback on the documentary was extremely positive which is good to know as it shows a lot of what we done was done right and appeals to our audience. The only improvement that I learned from this was to raise the sound levels of some of the vox-pops which isn’t a difficult task to fix. We only had 2 people between 17 and 18, in the future I would try and get a larger group and slightly spread out the age range whilst still staying within the limits of our chosen target audience.

Overall…After looking back at all the audience feedback received for my main (documentary) and ancillary (radio trailer and TV Listings double-page spread) products it’s made me more confident on what me and my group have produced. For all three products the feedback was really positive. The ancillary products show me that the audience are likely to watch the documentary after seeing or hearing one of these. There were some criticisms with both these products at points. These improvements can be met quite easily. Our main product, the documentary showed to be of really good quality as described via the answers given in our focus group. The only improvement to be made in that is to higher the sound levels for some of the vox-pops which, like the ancillary products criticisms, are easy do-able. I recognize that audience feedback is of extreme high importance as it tells you what your particular audience want to see, rather than what you think they might. An example of this was with our radio trailer, we thought by having less facts and statistics it would resonate more with our younger audience as they might appreciate opinions more than a bunch of numbers or facts. From the paper questionnaire I can see that a portion of them wanted to see more facts. By not carrying out audience research it limits who will like the product and for some of the ancillary products may mean less viewers of your main product. So, audience feedback can show you what to expect of your target audience thus preparing you to meet their wants and needs easier.