task 6 audience information
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Task 6Audience Information,
This provides evidence for Unit 3: P1,M1,D1Unit 2:P1,M1,D1 and Unit 30: P1,M1,D1
• In the advertising industry audiences are carefully studied so that advertisers can understand exactly how to sell to them. Show the examiner you understand how and why advertising agencies study audiences
Task 6– Audience InformationThis provides evidence for Unit 3: P1,M1,D1Unit 2:P1,M1,D1 and Unit 30: P1,M1,D
This provides evidence for Unit 3: P1,M1,D1Unit 2:P1,M1,D1 and Unit 30: P1,M1,D• 1) Start off by explaining why it is useful for advertisers to study audiences
• 2) Now explain how audiences are divided and labelled in the following ways:
• Standard Occupational Classification (sometimes called Social Grade by advertising companies)
• Psychographics (a common attitude) • Geodemographics (where they live) • Age • Gender
This provides evidence for Unit 3: P1,M1,D1Unit 2:P1,M1,D1 and Unit 30: P1,M1,D3) Now explain why it is useful /important to be able to identify certain sections of the audiences when carrying out market research. For example, why is it useful to be able to divide your market research by psychographics?
This provides evidence for Unit 3: P1,M1,D1Unit 2:P1,M1,D1 and Unit 30: P1,M1,D• 4) Write a detailed account of how information about audiences is
gathered by advertising companies. Explain carefully: • the roles of BARB and one other television research agencies(include
some screen grabs of the types of information they gather). • what an Audience Measurement Panel is and what the pros and cons
are. • For each item explain clearly what they are and why they are useful.
E.g. What is an audience measurement panel? Why might it be useful?
1) Start off by explaining why it is useful for advertisers to study audiences
• 'Audience' is a very important concept throughout media studies.
• All media texts are made with an audience in mind, i.e. a group of people who will receive it and make some sort of sense out of it.
• Generally, but not always, the producers make some money out of that audience.
• Therefore it is important to understand what happens when an audience "meets" a media text.
Audience Research (a reminder).
• There are four basic types of audience research: • Descriptive research — describes your audience and their characteristics; for
example, who are your current audiences, where do they live, how old are they? • Analytical research — seeks to understand ‘how’ and ‘why’. What motivates
audiences? For example, why did they buy every other Ryan Gosling DVD but not the last one?
• Predictive research — considers ‘what if’ situations; for example, what will happen if we change the name of our company?
• Tracking research — long-term research that monitors changes taking place over time; for example, how has the pattern for subscription season ticket sales changed over the past three years?
www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 87 April 2023
Step 1. Describe and define the target audience
Target audience
Plan
Research
Analyse
Apply
Knowing who you would like your audience to be is vital
– You may have more than one distinct audience with different needs
Defining your target audience doesn’t need to be a difficult exercise
– Picture an ideal audience member…
– Their occupation, gender, interests, technological expertise…
– …Start thinking about categories for audience segmentation
Perhaps your target audience might be a group such as……
– Students in full-time education
– Retired people
– People who travel abroad on their holidays.
Why conduct audience research?•
Audience research is undertaken at the initial stages of a communication campaign to understand the intended audience’s needs, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours.
• Audience analysis enables the television advertiser to determine the types of incentives and barriers that the audience perceive to exist with the product.
• Audience research reveals the target audience’s viewing habits. It divides an audience into groups with similar information needs and preferences. It can select the best television programme to reach an audience.
Media Producers also consider very carefully how that audience might react to, or engage with, their text.• The following are all factors in analyzing or predicting this reaction.
AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
• This describes how an audience interacts with a media text. Different people react in different ways to the same text (advertisement).
• Not everyone will find the same advert amusing.
• Will an eighty year old woman react to your television advert in the same way a sixteen year old boy will?
• Is it possible to appeal across generations?• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqWig2WARb0
AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS
• These are the advance ideas an audience may have about a media text / product.
• This particularly applies to a series of television adverts – “Go Compare” or “Specsaver”.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lTBMnVyyqY
• Sometimes advertisers challenge expectations – “Iceland” adverts.• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-tqsB-9ldk • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIhm2gFhZKA
The new Iceland Advert. Re-branding.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIhm2gFhZKA • Link
Constructing an Audience
• When a television advert is being planned, perhaps the most important question the producers consider is “What is the target audience?"
• If no one is going to watch the advert and buy the product it is all a waste of time.
• Audience research is a major part of any media company's work. They use questionnaires, focus groups, and comparisons to existing media texts, and spend a great deal of time and money finding out who potential customers are and how they can ‘appeal’ to them.
3) Why it is useful /important to be able to identify certain sections of the audiences when carrying out market research? For example, why is it useful to be able to divide your market research by psychographics?
• It's a serious business. TV Advertisers need to know their target audience. In particular:
• income bracket/status• age• gender• race• location
AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION
• This is the way in which audiences feel themselves connected to a particular advert, in that they feel it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHFKE6PD_6U • E.g. Does an audience identify with a panel member on X factor?
Does this make that person an ideal ‘celebrity’ for a TV advert? Cheryl Cole?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaJ9fwI1fC4
AUDIENCE PLACEMENT
• This is the range of strategies media producers use to directly target a particular audience and make them feel that the media text is specially 'for them'.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMcB66pJilE
• When is the best time of day to advertise this product?• Which television programme is it best to target?
AUDIENCE RESEARCH
• Measuring an audience is very important to all media institutions. Research is done at all stages of production of a media text, and, once produced, audience will be continually monitored.
One common way of describing audiences is to use a letter code to show their income bracket:
• A. Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors and other highly salaried professionals• B. Middle management, teachers, many 'creatives' e.g. graphic designers etc.• C. Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff etc• D. Skilled workers, tradespersons (white collar)• E. Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers (blue collar)• F. Unemployed, students, pensioners, casual workers
Psychographics
• This is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. Because this area of research focuses on:
• Interests, • Activities• Opinions, Hence psychographic factors are also called IAO variables
Geodemographics
• Geodemographic segmentation is based on two simple principles:
1. People who live in the same neighbourhood are more likely to have similar characteristics than are two people chosen at random.
2. Neighbourhoods can be categorized in terms of the characteristics of the population which they contain. Any two neighbourhoods can be placed in the same category, i.e., they contain similar types of people, even though they are widely separated.
Audience demographics (statistical data)• Once they know: income bracket/status, age, gender, race, location
etc. of their potential audience media producers can begin to shape their text to appeal to a target audience with known reading/viewing/listening habits.
Where to place your advert.
• Once you have produced your TV Advert, it is important to make sure your target audience see it.
• You want as many relevant people as possible to see your advert. Therefore, it is important you know ‘who’ and ‘how many’ people watch different television programmes.
• The more viewers a programme has, the more expensive it is to buy an advertising slot.
• NB Advertisers particularly like programmes that young people with disposable income watch.
Measuring the number of viewers and listeners is a complex business.
• Generally, an audience research agency (e.g. BARB) will select a sample of the population and monitor their viewing and listening habits over the space of 7 days (The Panel).
• The data gained is then extrapolated to cover the whole population, based on the percentage sample. It is by no means an accurate science. The numbers obtained are known as the viewing figures or ratings.
BARB?
• What does BARB stand for?• BARB is an acronym for Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. • What is BARB?• BARB was set up in 1981 to provide the industry standard television
audience measurement service for broadcasters and the advertising industry. BARB is owned by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BSkyB and the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and is a not for profit company limited by guarantee.
BARB
• Currently, BARB have approximately 5,100 homes (equating to approximately 11,500 individuals)1 participating in the panel.
• The box records exactly what programmes they watch, and the panellists indicate who is in the room watching by pressing a button on a remote control handset.
• The data are collected overnight and published as overnight ratings at around 9.30 the following morning for use by TV stations and the advertising industry.
BARB
• The following week, final figures are released which are a combination of the overnight figures with "timeshift" figures (people recording a programme and watching it within a week).
• This means that with a total UK population of 58,789,194, according to the 2001 census, each viewer with a BARB reporting box represents over 5,000 people.
What age groups are reported by BARB?
• All individuals aged 4+ are measured and reported by BARB. Within this, a user may look at any age group they wish.
BARB What is the minimum amount of viewing that can contribute to ratings?
• The viewing is reported by clock minute. Each clock minute is attributed to the channel that is viewed the longest within the clock minute subject to there being at least 30 seconds of viewing.
BARB How is the audience for a programme calculated?
• Programme audiences are calculated by averaging the audience of all minutes covered by the programme transmission, from the start-time to the end-time of the programme. This calculation excludes any embedded commercial breaks and promotions.
BARB How is the audience for a commercial calculated?
• The audience for a commercial is the audience for the clock minute in which the commercial starts.
BARB What happens if you playback programmes from PVRs like Sky+? Is this included?
• Yes, non-live viewing from PVRs like Sky+ and other recording devices such as DVDRs are measured and included in the viewing figures as time shift viewing.
• If a programme has been viewed on the same day as the original broadcast the viewing will be included in the overnight files as VOSDAL data.
• Otherwise, if it has been viewed in the 7 days after the original broadcast it will be included in the consolidated data.
How do I get BARB data?
• For BARB users who have subscribed there is the option of purchasing the appropriate data set.
• Data Set 1: Daily panel viewing file. (This minute-by-minute file contains anonymous details of panel members' viewing.)
• Data Set 2: Daily consolidated 5 minute or 15 minute files and programmes. • Data Set 3: Daily consolidated commercial spots and breaks. • Overnights: 5 minute file of viewing data that is produced the next day, from the
previous day's transmission. • Sponsorship File: Weekly file of viewing data for sponsorship events. • Lifestyle Insights (Additional Panel Classification) File: Additional information about
panel members' lifestyles and habits, used in conjunction with the Data Set.
I do not have a BARB licence so how can I access BARB data?
• Summary share, reach and programme data are available on the website within the viewing data section.
• Aside from this, for a non BARB licence holder a small amount of data may be purchased via an end user licence - limited usage.
The importance of BARB
• BARB numbers are extremely important to commercial television stations that rely on advertising.
• The advertising agency will pay the television station a certain amount of money based on the number of people watching a show. The BARB numbers are used to work this out. Higher BARB numbers usually mean more advertising revenue for the television station.
Smaller Stations
• As the TV advertising system is geared round BARB ratings all but the very smallest channels subscribe to BARB.
• This leads to some interesting situations on the smaller channels.
• Since there are many television stations, and many hours in the day, there can be situations where BARB will record zero viewers for certain programmes. Such programmes struggle to get advertising.
The Panel
• Each person in the panel represents a number of people in’ the universe’. The universe is the total number of people in a particular country / area (E.g. London).
• If the Universe is 10 million, and the panel is 10,000 people, then (without weighting) each person represents (10 million / 10,000), or 1,000 people.
The Panel - Membership
• The market requires that the panel is “weighted” to reflect the universe for age and gender (so as not to penalize or benefit unfairly media vehicles with specific age or gender skews)
A Reminder.
• These are our tasks.
• Use the power point to help you.
• Where possible do your own research.
This provides evidence for Unit 3: P1,M1,D1Unit 2:P1,M1,D1 and Unit 30: P1,M1,D• 1) Start off by explaining why it is useful for advertisers to study audiences
• 2) Now explain how audiences are divided and labelled in the following ways:
• Standard Occupational Classification (sometimes called Social Grade by advertising companies)
• Psychographics (a common attitude) • Geodemographics (where they live) • Age • Gender
This provides evidence for Unit 3: P1,M1,D1Unit 2:P1,M1,D1 and Unit 30: P1,M1,D• 4) Write a detailed account of how information about audiences is
gathered by advertising companies. Explain carefully: • the roles of BARB and one other television research agencies(include
some screen grabs of the types of information they gather). • what an Audience Measurement Panel is and what the pros and cons
are. • For each item explain clearly what they are and why they are useful.
E.g. What is an audience measurement panel? Why might it be useful?