Understanding opportunities and limitations of television idents

In this report, I will demonstrate my understanding of both opportunities and limitations of the creative and technical considerations that must be followed when producing a television advert. The report will be structured around two main areas which are:

1. The creative aspects of television idents2. The technical aspects of television idents

Corporate identityWhilst creating a corporate identity from an ident, meaning the overall image for a certain company or business. It is usually very visual through the use of branding and will often

include the corporate company colours, logo, title and typography. This is done because the colours of the company are what’s recognised the most. For example, channel 4 has a colourful ‘4’ as their logo and we resemble those colours with that certain channel as it is very recognisable. In the recent years, having a corporate identity has become a lot more important to have for a company. This is due to the amount of television channels that are available now, back in 1939 there was only 2

available channels to watch compared to now when there is hundreds. Having this is a great opportunity because once a company has grown to be very well known, they are then able to get across a certain message or product without having to say anything in the ident itself. It is also an opportunity by creating the corporate identity, the company can go on to changing their medium, for example Channel 4 having the multicolour logo can use all of those colours for different things, website, radio, advertisements and still be able to get recognised with the same colours. If the audience is content with the products and services they are provided with, it is more possible to stay and grow with the organisation. However the limitations of having a corporate identity is that it is very time consuming. Making a brand well known by a logo, colour or title will take time. It takes a long time for people to understand and really get to know something and getting to know a brands identity, for example Channel 4 and what kind of channel it is, will take a lot of time.

Branding of content This is the idea of a channel being known for the programmes that it broadcasts. A good example of this would be channel 4’s E4 channel. They brand this channel really well and one the main ways they do this is through their use of colour. The colour purple is used throughout the channel being on their website, posters, advertisements, channels and idents. The print adverts and idents which E4 use, also have the ongoing purple colour scheme. They all feature random objects which is so the younger target audience find it more enjoyable and funny. It also gives them a preview as to what types of shows E4 broadcast: Made in Chelsea, Misfits, My Mad Fat Diary, The Aliens, Tattoo fixers, Bad Robots and many more. As you can see they are mostly in the comedy genre and the branding fits in really well with the types of shows they air. Channel 4 have certain guidelines to follow in each of their projects to make sure their branding of content is easily recognisable and people know

what channel it is through visuals. An opportunity of branding within on-screen graphic representation is that it promotes the channel content as well as the brand or corporate identity. Another opportunity is making a channel stand out so people are aware of what they see as soon as they see it, E4 being purple for example. A limitation of branding a content is that it is very expensive to change. To change or modify a brand is difficult and expensive. This is due to the planning and managerial skills that are needed. To do this it requires sound public relations, branding, communication, productions, marketing and management. Whilst changing a brand, they may lose valuable customers which is a big limitation.

Creating the right tone As well as identifying a channel, an ident is a chance to provide audience with information about that channel. It can reflect easily the type of programmes that are shown on it. Making sure an ident sets the right tone for the channel it is on is very important. A good example of a channel which does this is BBC. A well-known ident is the Hippo’s swimming round in a circle, represents that BBC has a lot of wildlife documentary channels within it. It is also important that the tone is set for an appropriate age group of the channel. Cbeebies and CBBC have different idents that are appropriate for the younger age groups they aim for compared to the more mature channels such as BBC.  The correct tone is an opportunity for a corporate or brand identity to be successful and appeal to its target audience. A lively tone could be conveyed through the use of bright colours, upbeat audio and busy content. This implies a younger, livelier audience, which reflects the tone. After the recent re-branding of ITV. The use of blue they use is a corporate colour which creates the tone of business and profession. The turquoise connotates nature, a new beginning and growth which is exactly what ITV have done, introduced a new beginning to the ITV viewers. Creating a good tone to the audience through an ident is an opportunity for the audience to understand what your channel is like through a few seconds. A limitation of creating a tone is that it can be expensive. If you want to create a good tone which represents your channel very well, there will need a lot of hard work and thoughts to go into this and is a lot to take into consideration and the professional expertise will be costly too.

Target audienceAppealing to a target audience is another thing you need to consider. All idents are aimed at certain demographics, such as age and gender. However, some on-screen graphics are of places rather than people, which brings in the idea of psychographics. On-screen graphics give you the opportunity to appeal to a target audience in various ways. An opportunity for a channel to portray a target audience through an ident is knowing the exact audience so there for you can create the ident using colours, sounds, fonts that will reflect that audience. Channel 4’s target audience is 16-24 year olds in the UK. These are the age which watch channel 4 the most so the channel works regarding this information. Now they know that, they can create an ident to attract to this age range. As they are both male and females they can now work towards the colours (making it suitable for both genders) being very colourful and having many colours involved at the same time. They can then adhere everything they need to consider towards that audience and work towards it. A limitation of this is that every

ident needs to fit with the target audience. If this is not the case, it will not fit in with the brand identity of the channel and will look odd compared to everything else within that particular channel.

Appealing to a target audienceA television channel’s ident gives a really good opportunity for them to connect with an audience. They do this through the creation of a corporate identity meaning the display of typography, branding of content, creation of time and appealing to a target audience and encouragement of brand loyalty. When creating an ident, the target audience is always taken into consideration before deciding on the colours, design, time etc. they all help to represent the brand’s identity and communicate it to the audience to appeal to the audiences social identity. (being an explorer, aspirer, succeeded,, reformer, or mainstream) for example many of channel 4’s idents are a very similar format (shapes align to form the channel logo) however, this type of ident appeals to channel 4s target audience being aged

16-25 as where the ident is set, could be shot in a familiar location for people who live in similar areas. It also has a dull feel to it, similar to the distinctive British weather we are all acquainted with. On the other hand, Cbeebies and CBBC have a different type of idents which are more appropriate for the age groups they cater for. A limitation for this is it is very difficult to convey a brand, their aims, values, purpose and services in a

short video clip in between a programme and also entertain a whole audience at the same time and is something you may need to take into consideration.

Encouragement of brand loyaltyFor a business to be successful, it is very important for it to have brand loyalty within it. Loyal customers like to stick with what they know and what they are comfortable with. By having this in your brand, it encourages people to stay loyal to your particular channel. An ident helps to endorse the brand of a channel by letting the audience familiarise themselves with the logo and the style of the channel. This is then an opportunity with having a visual reminder of the channel and imprints the brand into the minds of the audience and is then more likely to watch the channel again. There is normally a consistent theme across the channels which people can recognise. It is then another opportunity for people to spread the word of the brand and make more people aware. Although having brand loyalty is good, you also have some limitations at the same time. You can lack variety when you are loyal to one brand, in this case one TV channel. This is because brand loyal customers will not buy from their brands competitors which then leads to them only experiencing what one brand has to offer instead of taking the opportunity to see what other channels have to offer also.

TypographyThis is the technique of arranging text in an ident. Having typography that looks good in an ident makes the ident look a lot more effective. When there is text on the Television, it is then an opportunity to portray information across to the audience through text on the screen. One major limitation of typography in idents could be that the fonts the company decides to use, might not be clear enough to read depending on the font. Looking at channel 4’s guidelines, they are very strict in what type of fonts and sizes can be displayed in a certain way. In order for them to display on national television you must follow these strict guidelines.

ColourAnother creative aspect of an ident and is one of the most important ones is colour. Colour makes the ident look so much better and more exciting the more colourful it is. Colour can represent a brand identity and corporate identity very well and is a key factor of recognising a brand. It may even be more effective than a logo. Colour is a brilliant way for people to link a certain channel with a colour. A good example of this is E4. E4 is everything purple. The logo, the typography, the background, everything is recognised to be purple which then the audience can remember E4 to be purple. Channel 4 also has guidelines for everyone to follow. This is because they want the colours to be remembered for this channel. A limitation of colour is that you have to make sure that the logo is visible for the colour blind or impaired sighted. This is an issue for certain colours when displayed onto television, it appears discoloured. A lot of idents stick to primary colours as they look a lot better on TV and are also a lot less distracting. Another limitation of having colour is that a lot of channels have a certain colour which they are associated with, for example E4 purple, CBBC, green, Cbeebies yellow which means there is less choice when choosing a colour for a new ident as you want to be original and stand out. Also having bright colours in an ident will never work as it would be a lot harder to see on the screen.

Size/lengthThe sizing of the ident depends on the purpose. Information idents are longer to fit more

information in and if it’s too short it will then look like you are rushing information and it won’t look as effective. In an entertainment ident, if it is too long, it will get boring to watch however, if it’s too short there won’t be enough time to entertain. The length of an ident is very important as you need the right amount of information inside. Some channels are very strict with the sizing of the logos which are shown on the television. Channel 4 especially. They have very specific sizes which are given through a guideline online which anyone has access too which is an opportunity for it to look a lot more professional and a lot easier to make as the measurements are already given too you. These are sizes for different television sizes and states: ‘The size of the logo is fixed according to each format.

It should never appear at any other size. All measurements are in millimetres.’ A limitation of having limited space display, as if you could use your space and size to your advantage you can create an ident displayed for a short amount of time and position everything so its visible and a lot clearer rather than if you had a limited amount of space.

Technical opportunities and limitationsThere is also the technical side you need to consider when creating an ident. These are the things that is more towards the technical side of things rather than creative. Things like aspect ratios, bitrate and time. These are the things I am going to discuss the opportunities and limitations of them below.

Aspect RatiosAn aspect ratio is the dimensions of TV and the screens. They are referred to two numbers being separated by a colon. This simply means the first numbers represent the width of the screen. And the second being the height. The screen aspect ratio has an effect on the final design due to the designer will be producing the ident for a specific shape. There are several different aspect ratios available consumers and all across the media industry. TV has an aspect ratio of 4:3 whilst film has one of 16.9. The average TV screen in Britain is around 16.9 size. Graphics are made on a computer screen which will affect the output ratio of the graphics when broadcasted on television. This is due to computers not having the same aspect ratio as TV. This may lead to the idents appearing stretched and deformed. Another limitation would be that having this ratio to follow, it then restricts the designer to design the ident how they want. They will have a size that they have to create within that and may have to change the design in general to fit these. Channel 4’s text in the ident must be within 3% of the border otherwise people with different sized TV wouldn’t be able to see all of what’s on the screen.

BitrateBitrate control resembles the video quality and file size. A higher bitrate will make higher image quality. The bitrate for blu-ray video is in the range of 20 mbs whereas the standard DVD is usually 6 mbs. Which shows us the difference in quality for Blu-Ray than the standard

DVD player. It is important for your ident to have a high bitrate in order for you to have high quality and gives the audience an opportunity to watch something in high quality with no pixelated footage. However, if your bitrate for your video is low, the audience will see a lot less quality and may be a limitation and put people off it.

TimeOfcom have very strict rules for British broadcasters and the amount of airtime that can be dedicated to advertising. Nowadays, the limit is 7minutes per hour at normal times, and 8 minutes an hour between 7pm and 11pm. Guidelines are produced in order for these rules to be followed. Channel 4 has guidelines which allocate you slots to fit their needs. The average time they give you is 25 seconds during the day. And at night it maximises to 30-40 seconds. This gives your ident the opportunity to be shown to the public and get it out there and for it to create a corporate or brand identity. But however you are limited to the amount of time you have to show these things in a short amount of time, meaning you may need to cut back some parts of the ident itself.

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