Target Audience Feedback

Target Audience Feedback

I think that audience feedback is extremely important to a production so that you are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of your work. By understanding this it gives you the opportunity to improve your media product so that it is of a higher quality and therefore more appealing to the target audience. It also allows a media producer to gain a wider knowledge into expectations of the audiences of a particular product which therefore allows you to produce your product to fully appeal to your target audience. In addition to this by having a wider knowledge of audience expectations it may make you more aware of what is deemed conventional within society, in turn allowing you to improve upon your production by increasing its conventionality.

Once we had finished our final music video we wanted to gain feedback from our target audience as to whether we had successfully created a conventional music video to the indie genre. Therefore as a group we decided to screen our final music video product on the mainstream social website YouTube. We chose to use YouTube to showcase our music video on as we knew that we would receive a high level of feedback due to the popularity of this particular social website with consumers. We also believed that by using YouTube we would be able to specifically showcase our music video to our target audience of females aged 16-25 year olds. This would in turn allow us to fully understand whether we had successfully created a conventional music video that is appealing to our specific target audience.

By gaining feedback from an extremely popular social website such as YouTube we are guaranteed to receive feedback that is based on honest opinions as consumers tend not to hold back their thoughts. This would therefore benefit our production as we will be fully aware of how consumers view our finished product, especially our target audience. From analysing the feedback we gained we were able to assess how successful our music video was as a whole based on our own and also consumer opinions. Gaining feedback from YouTube would also greatly benefit the music industry as the social website is widely used within the promotion of artists and their music. It would allow us as a group to assess whether our music video reflects our abilities as media producers within the music industry. This would be based on how successfully we met our brief and created a conventional music video. From showcasing our music video on YouTube to consumers we received both positive and negative feedback which informed us of how well we executed our brief. The first positive comment we received was from Bethanie Smith, aged 16. She stated ‘when watching an indie music video I expect to see the artist perform with an instrument, which is typical for the genre. I think you have created a video that links to the supporting products as they are coherent in regards to the components you have combined together, such as the artists’ indie style image with her messy hair and red lipstick. I also think that the locations you have used throughout your music video link to the song Noserings and Shoestrings because it mentions a skate park in the lyrics, well done.’ This comment made me feel as though as a group we had successfully created a conventional music video to the indie genre that is appealing to our target audience. This is because Bethanie stated that all our products were coherent with the components we combined together, including a number of indie style elements. This therefore makes me feel as though we successfully included the correct conventional aspect into our music video to make it visually appealing to our audience. A further positive comment we received was from Karen Jarvis, aged 19. Karen stated ‘I think your framing of shots are good because the artist is central which is important when promoting her’. As a media producer this makes me feel as though I have a great enough knowledge to understand what shots to include at different points in my music video to create the greatest impact on my target audience. Therefore Karen’s statement confirms that our decision as a group to include central performance shots of our artist has benefited the success of our music video as our target audience are given the opportunity to build a relationship with our artist. In addition to his we received further positive feedback from Penelope Miller, aged 21. Penelope stated ‘I really enjoyed your music video, mainly because the storyline links to the lyrics the artist is seen singing in the performance shots. I think that young people can relate to this storyline of a broken relationship and can therefore build a relationship with the artist. I also find your digipak effective because it really shows the artist in a positive light, so the artist can act as role model and potentially persuade people to express themselves with the guitar shots you have included to.’ This comment from Penelope made me feel as though we had created a music video that allows our target audience to become engaged with the narrative as they can somewhat relate to it. This was an intention of ours from the start as we believed it would benefit the success of our music video as a whole. In addition to this the comment Penelope made about our digipak makes me feel as though we have successfully formed an artist that our target audience can relate to which is likely to entice them to listen to her music and treat her as a potential role model.

In addition to the positive feedback we also received some negative feedback which I purely treated as constructive criticism and therefore took the comments on board. The first negative comment was from Samantha Hedge, aged 25. Samantha stated ‘Although I enjoyed your music video and was introduced to a new artist of my favourite music genre, I wanted to see more of the artist performing because it looked believable and not like the bad lip-syncing videos you often see.’ Upon receiving this particular comment I took it aboard in a more positive light. This is because however Samantha believed we should of increased the level of performance in our music video she said that what we had included looked believable. It therefore allowed me to become aware that we had successfully executed the performance elements that were present in our music. However I do somewhat agree with Samantha's advice to increase the level of performance as that is what is typical of the indie genre and therefore would be expected of the target audience of our music video. A second negative comment we received was also from Samantha Hedge, aged 25. She stated ‘I think the narrative was effective because it links to the lyrics, however I would have liked to see the argument scene at the end earlier on and seen the consequences of her boyfriends’ actions much sooner for dramatic effect to feel sympathy for the artist.’ This comment makes me feel as though we created a music video that our target audience were easily able to relate to as she states she wants to feel sympathy fro the artist. This therefore informs me that she was able to build a relationship with the artist and therefore I view this as a somewhat positive comment. However I took on board the aspect of altering the narrative as it may of made our music video more appealing and engaging for our target audience. A further negative comment we received was from Karen Jarvis, aged 19. She stated ‘I believe that the quality of your camera is not as highly defined as you would expect to see in a professional music video. Also, although I think your digipak follows conventions of the indie genre, I believe your magazine advert does not. This is because I don’t see how the brick wall is relevant as I have seen it used in more grime/hip-hop genres.’ I extremely agree with the comment Karen made regarding the quality of our music video which is due to us not having access to such high quality cameras. Therefore if we had the opportunity to do a task similar to this in the future I would try my hardest to gain access to high definition cameras, to improve the overall quality of our music video. In addition to this I somewhat agree and disagree with Karens’ comment regarding our magazine advert. I agree that our magazine advert could be improved upon to be more conventional to the indie genre, however I believe that the brick wall background is conventional to the indie genre and is highly recognisable by consumers who are fans of this genre.

The brief I was given was to create a music video of up to 5 minutes to a song of my choice which could be of any music genre within a group of 3-4 other people. I followed the aims of the brief I was given and therefore created a successful music video. The music video I created was under the maximum of 5 minutes and therefore the length of my music video was appropriate for the task I had to complete. When creating the music video I worked alongside Daisy Morecroft, Ella Sutherland and Millie Cooper, and we all equally shared out responsibilities regarding the production of the music video. In addition to this we chose a song that was of the indie genre and therefore created a music video that developed this genre as we believed this would be the most appealing to the target audience. Overall I believe that the music video we created was extremely successful as it developed the indie genre in a way that appealed to the target audience and therefore allowed them to engage with the artist.