Evaluation 3: What have you learned from audience feedback? – Conclusion

What have I learned from my audience feedback?

I have learned from my audience feedback that I have constructed an intended star image and an effective campaign.  My target audience has informed what went well, for example, the transitions between the narrative dance element and the performance element with shots of the band, as well as area’s for development. The Digi-pack, website and music video were all connected through the colour scheme, font and vintage era/ rustic era meaning it was clear to our target audience they all belonged to the promotion of the same band. If I was to make any future changes to the campaign I would edit the music video, making the transitions a lot smoother, and including far more shots of the band to reinforce the idea of a new upcoming band.

Taking note of the audience feedback I understand how the audience inform me the success of  the campaign is and indeed allowed me time to make adjustments to the campaign before it went to distribution.  Audience feedback is important market testing in post-production to see if I created the right star image and marketed this purposefully.  As Henry Jenkins informs us that we live in a ‘participatory culture’,  where fans and audiences are important in circulating meaning and the strength of media messages.

I also recognise that my audience has engaged with the meanings in my music video in different ways, bringing their own contexts to the reading of the star image – what Hall argues is reception theory.  I can understand how my audience can either reinforce or challenge intended meanings in the text.

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from audience feedback? – YouTube comments

Who is our target audience? 

Our initial target was young adults with a more mature taste in music, this is because 'Lion The Weak' have a very unique style that isn't enjoyed by everyone but is becoming more and more popular amongst the more alternative music listener. In this evaluation task we have to look at how the viewers of our video correlate to the original target audience. We can use YouTube statistics to help us find these correlations. 

We reviewed the comments of our YouTube video and found that there was only one external response to our video.

This is not a useful enough collection of feedback so we are going to forward the video on to as many friends and family as we can.

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from audience feedback? – Survey Monkey Responses

We received very limited responses to our survey, which obviously isn't helpful to our data collect. This provides us with information about our target audience. We have a very limited and niche audience who obviously:

1. Don't have a lot of time on their hands to fill out our 'Survey Monkey'

2. Are uninterested in filling out our 'Survey Monkey'

We did collect some minimal information about what this certain person thought about our music video, digi pack and website. 

• They thought our music video was entertaining and enjoyed our collaboration of actors and band. 
• They liked the storyline between the characters with the 'awkwardness of the relationship' being well established. 
• They found it clear that the artists were independent and upcoming in the industry. 

Evaluation 3: How did your audience gather information? – Presentation

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from audience feedback? – YouTube Stats

This screen shot presents us with an idea of how many views our video has received (despite the fact 136 is wrong, and therefore the rest of the statistics may also be incorrect).We now have 710 views on 'Wasted Words'.

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from audience feedback? – Focus group

Organising our Focus Group

We emailed possible participants for our focus group, we are going to give them questions around our video, digi-pak and webpage. 

Outcome of Focus group

We arranged 2 formal focus groups with 2 very different groups of people. Although the groups were both very similar demographically, they seemed to posses different opinions of our media products. For example, the first group of people we spoke gave quite constructive criticisms of our dig-pak. The majority of them mentioned that they would have preferred to see a picture of the band on the front of the album. Although they did agree that for the band we were working with, having the artwork like we did worked very well. The second focus group were incredibly positive about all three of our products, they did however point out that we were missing having the music video on the band's website which is what they would have liked. 

In conclusion it is very clear that the second focus group was alot more productive than the first one.n A lot of the constructive opinions reached by the focus groups were the challenges we found when producing our music video, digi-pak and Website. We found alot of difficulties around our idea with the video, we instantly felt that it would bore an audience, however we found that it didn't. The group of people that we questioned were the audience member we were trying to appeal our products to (Teenagers between 16-19).

Some quotes from our focus groups that I particularly found useful were:

"I really like how you've used the chair duet instead of some dance routine, its very unique" 

"I think some of the shots of the band were a bit to long, I wanted to see more of the actors" 

"By showing more of the band it gave a more organic feel"

"The dig-pak gives a sense of the band on a journey"

"Having the cover like this shows their style alot more than a photo-shoot style cover"

"I love the link between the digi-pak and the website"

"The lay-out of the website links with the style of the band"

THE FOCUS GROUP

We gathered some students to talk about our music video, digi pack and website and get their feedback- positive and negative.

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from audience feedback? – Email to our chosen target audience

    Email to chosen target audience. We aimed for an equal balance between men, women and ages.

Evaluation 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Task 2 

Conclusion

I have been effective in communicating the star image as a part of a campaign – considering the distribution of the product and the brand image.  Ultimately the brand image I wanted to promote was a new band that possessed highly 'organic' and fresh values that were against the gain amongst other 'Indie-Pop' bands and artists. This is important for any campaign or concept for example, in the campaign for example this could be compared to actual artists like The Maccabees, Wild Beasts and Alt-J.  Emily Teadrake from Polydor records argues that the pitch for any concept had to be consistent and marketable e.g. making of the Ellie Goulding music video was key to the success of her song 'Goodness Gracious'.

Second, I feel that I have given the campaign a unique selling point through the star image.  The star image I have promoted is a laid back yet innovative young band who are prepared to work their way from the bottom to reach the top. A unique selling point used in a  coherent campaign will provide different opportunities to market the star image.  An audience who is able to spread word of mouth about a publicity campaign can ensure success through the engagement with the  text as a form of online media – helping spread, circulate and distributing meaning amongst fans.

Finally, I have technically delivered a coherent looking campaign (e.g Artistic Digi-Pak and Website) through the use of image and online social media.  The music video promotes a release from the album release whilst the website acts as an effective online toll which helps distribute and promote meaning for a fan base.  The circulation and spread of meaning by the intended audience helps with co-option (Boyd) amongst the fans and aids me with the marketing and promotion of the album.