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Evaluation Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I believe that our three products: the music video, album and website all use, develop and challenge the existing forms and conventions of real-life media products in the music industry. We have ensured that, whilst we have largely followed forms and conventions of existing media products in the music industry in order to create a realistic and high-quality product ourselves, we have been open to challenging and developing certain aspects to achieve a more effective appeal to our target audience.

Music Video:

General Forms & Conventions:
I have detailed a number of typical forms and conventions of existing music videos which I found to be of importance:
(Please press the + and - icons to zoom in and out, and use the mouse to drag)


Frith's Theory:
It was also useful to incorporate a number of theories when planning the basis of our music video. For example, I felt using Frith's theory of music video was extremely helpful, as we were able to distinguish the overall form which our music video would take early on in the project:

Our video has taken a conventional form for the pop genre, in that its content features a combination of both a conceptual storyline and performance - . The narrative portion may take up a small part - or all - of the video, and is often conceptual; whilst the performance aspect includes the artist singing, either before an audience or in a setup removed from the crowd. They may also play an instrument, though dance moves and gestures are far more common in the pop genre.

In our particular product, we balanced and intercut between the two aspects, though one development which I feel we made was to amalgamate the two aspects, with performance spilling over into our constructed narrative of the Dolls House. This in itself could be seen as satisfying the audience's gratifications for entertainment and escapism (Blumler & Katz), through aesthetic pleasure from the setup, and through GiGi entering the constructed narrative which, until she enters, remains metaphorical and separate from any performance setup.

Goodwin and Vernallis' theories:
(Please press the arrow icon to access full screen, and use the arrows to navigate the slides)

I have created an Emaze presentation detailing two of the most important theorists to our music video - Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis, and how we incorporated their theories:

Incorporating Performance & Conceptual Narrative:

The visual response to the music noted by Carol Vernallis ('The Kindest Cut - Functions and Meanings of Music Video Editing Theory'), and the relationship between the music and visuals which Andrew Goodwin describes ('Dancing in the Distraction Factory') was largely followed in our own music video. We decided to include content which Frith would categorise as "conceptual narrative" and "performance" in video, with a mixture of shots of GiGi singing, and the constructed Dolls House narrative:

Within performance-based music videos, there is very often a live performance or singing element to the video, in which the artist's actions, expressions and gestures will also often be exaggerated. Once of our reference points when planning our performance setup was Demi Lovato, and we took inspiration from how she incorporated dance moves and dramatic hand gestures - particularly in her video for 'Heart Attack':

We tried to incorporate similar exaggerated hand gestures & dance moves in our own video.

In our performance setup, we also aimed to highlight particular lines of the song to hone in on the overall message of the song which promotes feminism, independence and female empowerment. We did so by incorporating Goodwin's theory, and including a clear relationship between lyrics and visuals:

In terms of our conceptual narrative, we used conventions of other intertextual & Post-Modernist videos by drawing deliberate attention to the artificiality of our video (please see 'Post-Modernism & Intertextuality' below).

We have also incorporated and developed a number of other music video theories and have followed a number of typical pop genre conventions to not only create a plausible, professional media product, but also to appeal to as large an audience as possible (as it is the most popular UK music genre, accounting for 36% of all streams and sales in 2014). At the same time, we have tweaked what might be seen as a typical objectified role of a female artist in a pop music video, as we felt this would have far greater appeal to our target audience of young women.

-Genre Characteristics:

Andrew Goodwin states in "Dancing in the Distraction Factory" that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics, and we developed this through our use of hyper-reality in intermixing the conceptual Dolls House narrative with GiGi's performance and entrance into the constructed narrative. We also followed, developed or challenged a number of other typical pop genre conventions:

Use of Beauty/Hero Shots of our artist:
One of the conventions of all pop videos is to include beauty shots of the artist. These are also known as 'hero shots' or 'money shots', and are a requirement of the institutions and record labels associated with the artist, in order to clearly establish the artist's look and identity, and for the artist to build a relationship with their audience, which hopefully will result in encouraging the audience to buy the artist's products such as merchandise, music & tour tickets.

(Above) Some existing examples of beauty shots used by similar artists 
such as Meghan Trainor, Katy Perry and Demi Lovato.
(Below) Our own inclusions of beauty shots:

Use of Bright Colours & High Saturation:
Another convention of the pop genre which we demonstrated was our use of bright colours throughout the music video. We ensured that, through both high-key lighting during production, and enhanced saturation in post-production, that our video was as bright as possible, not just to be as eye-catching to the audience as possible, but also to encourage connotations of positivity. The clearest industry example of this is Meghan Trainor's videos, which we took inspiration from.

 Meghan Trainor's (above) use of high saturation & brightness, versus our own (below)

Representation of Our Artist:
One convention largely seen in pop videos which we challenged, however, was the arguably over-sexualised representation and objectification of women in music videos. We tweaked Laura Mulvey's 'Theory of the Male Gaze', which dictates that music videos are primarily shot from the point of view of a heterosexual male, thus shots of the female figure are commonplace in pop videos. We ensured that this was largely not the case in our video, and with the exception of some shots which perhaps accentuate GiGi's hips and legs, we made sure that we didn't overly sexualise her at all, as this is far more appealing to our primary audience of feminists & 15-24 year-old young women.

 

A good example which we used was Meghan Trainor's 'Dear Future Husband' (above left). Though it could be argued that some high-angle shots conform to the theory in showing off her figure, her clothing and gesture doesn't suggest any sort of objectification. In our own video (above right) there are similar shots which emphasise GiGi's legs and hips, however this is the closest our video comes to over-sexualising our artist, and the overall message is one of female empowerment and independence.


-Post-Modernism & Intertextuality:
Following on from the form, we can categorise our music video as a post-modernist, intertextual music video, through the number of references and individual setups which we included. During our original research into music videos we discovered that intertextuality can be inspired by a number of elements, including:
-films & television
-video games
-popular culture references
-eras or moments in history

Some videos are entirely intertextual. An example of this is 2Pac's 'California Love', which is largely based on 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome' and replicates chase scenes and the thunderdome fight scene:

The other example is Blur's video for their track 'The Universal', in which lead singer Damon Albarn's costume and makeup has been inspired by Alex DeLarge - the lead character in 'A Clockwork Orange'. The set has also been inspired by the 'Milk Bar' seen within the 1972 film:

We felt that it would be best to include a number of references to different periods in history which were of particular significance to women. These included a stereotypical housewife from the 1950s and a WWII Land Girls reference alongside other more literal setups which related to the lyrics, such as the puppet and Snow White. We achieved intertextuality through our extensive use of props throughout, and explicitly referenced other media products, such as the two posters to also add to our use of intertextual conventions.

A particularly helpful reference point when planning our use of intertextuality was P!nk, and her music videos for 'Raise Your Glass' and 'Stupid Girls', in which she both plays a number of roles (similar to our own video), and references the iconic feminist "We Can Do It" poster, which we also aimed to include in our music video:

We also aimed to create a video in which the artist plays a number of 'roles'. We also aimed to make a number of pro-female empowerment statements and use iconic feminist imagery such as the "We Can Do It Poster", which also features in 'Raise Your Glass'.

Another conventional aspect of intertextuality which we wanted to incorporate is the idea of parody. An example of this which we took inspiration from was Meghan Trainor's 'Dear Future Husband', in which she lampoons the idea of women's place being in the kitchen, with a pie in flames:

"I never learned to cook"

Likewise, we used our own video to mock the stereotypical domestic 1950s Housewife, with shots such as her with flour on her face being used to dispel the stereotypes of women belonging in a kitchen.

We also parodied the idea of a stereotypical 50s Housewife

Similarly, we included a shot inspired by Trainor's video for 'All About That Bass' in which she throws a Barbie doll aside. This mocks the concept of an unrealistic body image in Trainor's video, though our particular use of the shot is to highlight GiGi's defiance against being objectified or treated "like a toy".

 "No I won't be no stick figure, silicone Barbie doll"

-Editing:
Carol Vernallis states that music videos often feature disjuncture, and that it is extremely likely that the music video will break and/or disrupt typical continuity rules. Shots do not necessarily have to all tell a story, and the editing can be discontinuous, featuring jump cuts and breaks of the 30º and 180º rules.

An example of disjuncture in a real-life music video is Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off', in which rapid cuts and discontinuous editing are used to create a bewildering combination of dancing and performance, and to sustain the viewer's interest:

In our own video, we included a number of jump cuts, rapid cuts and extremes - such as cuts from long & extreme long shots to close-ups. This would direct the audience's attention to our product through the clear variation of shot types. At the same time, however, we did include continuity rules, such as match-on action and and shot-reaction shots - especially for the narrative - as this helped to clarify the events of the narrative.

Disjuncture in our final verse, and an example of an extreme cut from a wide to CU

Similarly, we thought it would be useful to use the skills which we developed in our AS Film Course to apply film theory to our narrative, in order to add plausibility.
Below I have detailed our use of Todorov's Narrative Theory in our conceptual narrative:

Website

In terms of the website, which was my main personal role during the post-production stage, we mainly followed conventions to achieve a product which we felt would appear plausible and which would easily be identified as the website of a female soloist from the pop genre.

I have outlined our website's main focuses, as well as detailing each aspect and convention which we followed, developed and challenged in the Prezi below.
(Please use the roller on the mouse to zoom in and out if need be & use the arrows to navigate through:)

(Please click to enlarge)
Some of my notes on the forms,
conventions and functions of
album covers/digipaks.

Digipak

For the digipak, we largely conformed to the typical conventions of other album covers, both in general and - especially - existing genre albums from the pop genre. We felt that had we not followed common layout conventions, our album may have looked unprofessional - thus included features such as the main focal image, record label & institutional information, and barcode.

I have created a slideshow to explore these conventions further:

There were also a number of inspirational albums which we followed, developed or challenged the conventions of. I have detailed some of these below (please click the image to enlarge):

Overall:

Looking back, I believe that our various media artefacts have largely followed conventions of existing products, to achieve genuine, professional-looking and plausible final products. However, we have also been prepared on several occasions to challenge the forms and conventions of existing products, in order to achieve a more effective reach and appeal to our target audience, or to add a unique element to our media products.

Evaluation Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Our aim was to create three products (the main product - music video, as well as the ancillary texts - the digipak and website) which worked effectively and synergistically with each other. Using Richard Dyer's Star Theory, we were able to deliberately construct an identity for GiGi to maximise her appeal to our various audience groups, which we then conveyed through a synergistic, cross-platform promotional marketing campaign which would not only keep a consistent, but also a recognisable brand image and identity for GiGi, our artist.

We recognised that the three products had to not only work together in synergy, but also promote the artist through means unique to that product. For instance, whilst the music video promotes the artist, their genre & - in our case - the message or ideas which they represent, the ancillary products can promote the artist stylistically, for instance through deliberate selections of promotional images, colours and font styles.


-Marketing Case Studies:

-Dua Lipa:
Dua Lipa is an upcoming British female solo artist whose work spans the indie pop & synthpop genres. In 2015, she was signed by Warner Bros. Records, having recorded covers of songs since the age of 14. I felt that it would be extremely useful and relevant to analyse her marketing campaign in particular, as there are parallels to our own aritst:
-Similarly to GiGi, she is a British female soloist
-She is releasing an eponymous debut album amongst her other promotional material:
-She is also a pop/synthpop singer
-She has a similar target audience age range to our primary TA group (15-24 years old)

-Demi Lovato:
I also felt it would be relevant to research the marketing campaign of an artist who we felt was similar to GiGi. As a result, I analysed Demi Lovato's marketing campaign for her 2013 self-titled studio album 'Demi', as well as the release of 4 singles from the album. I also aimed to examine her particular combination of media products:

-Our own marketing campaign for GiGi:

This overall marketing campaign - the combination of the three media products - must work together in synergy to be considered a successful, conventional campaign. This idea of synergy can encompass not only branding and visuals, but also the artist's identity. This can be seen in the two examples of Dua Lipa & Demi Lovato which I have analysed above. Its overarching aim is to appeal to our various target audience demographics and ultimately convince them to spend time and money buying into these products.

Each individual product is designed to promote different aspects of GiGi's marketing campaign, and in different ways. The music video - through its song & lyrics, narrative and other visuals - is designed to promote a single, the digipak promotes the album which the single typically belongs to, and the website serves as an interconnected, synergistic and symbiotic hub for the marketing campaign; incorporating social media links, promotional material for the other products, as well as a range of interactive features to promote our artist.

I have analysed our synergistic marketing campaign in the Emaze presentation below:



-Connectivity
Below, I have created a Padlet exploring our use of connectivity:
(Please use the scrollbars to navigate through my notes)

-Marketing Mix:
Having researched marketing theory, we discovered that successful campaigns reach and appeal to the target audience through a number of interconnected promotional strategies to eventually encourage them to part with their cash having been made aware of the artist and their product in a number or ways. As a result, we also applied the "4 Ps of marketing" to our campaign:

-Product:

-Customers have ultimately been convinced and want to but the album.

-Our products all offer gratification of the audience's diversion needs.

-The music offers entertainment gratification, whilst GiGi herself gratifies social inclusion gratifications, she and her music offer the audience a sense of shared identity.

-Price:

-Some items on the online store have been reduced to encourage sales.

-A deluxe album at £7.99 an £30.00 concert tickets offer appealing affordability compared with existing artists in the pop genre.

-Avid fans would be far less concerned over prices.

-Place

-The music video's positioning on YouTube ensures it is able to hit a worldwide audience.

-The proliferation of content on Web 2.0 means that the album is available for purchase quickly & easily via the website. This positioning online allows the younger age demographic to be appealed to far easier than if it were in-store.

-The website itself acts as a marketing hub, allowing the audience to consume plenty of interactive & promotional  opportunities

-Promotion:

-The target audience has been reached via a combination of traditional & modern, technological methods (e.g traditional=digipak; modern=cross-media converged, symbiotic website)

-The website's news page promotes GiGi & her beliefs (e.g Battersea visit; 10% of ticket sales donated).

-It also features a signing event at HMV Westfield. Live events such as these have also been used in conjunction with the website, social media platforms, video & digipak.

-Constructing GiGi's identity:

-Dyer's 'Star' Theory:
One of the theories which we aimed to take advantage of was Richard Dyer's 'Star' Theory. He stated that pop stars (different from "performers" in that they possess an identity) are simply constructions which - though they may be based in the real - are ultimately not authentic, and are manufactured by institutions with the purpose of generating income.

Please access the slideshow below to see my breakdown of the theory, and how we applied it:



-Star Identity:
I also constructed a Word Cloud to highlight what I feel GiGi represents through our construction of her Star Identity: (You are able to scroll over to highlight the words).

I have deliberately chosen to focus on two words in particular. 'Feminist' and 'Independent' are the two elements of the Word Cloud which I have made the most prominent, as I feel they are the most relevant to our marketing campaign. In deliberately constructing her as an openly-feminist artist, GiGi possessed a Unique Selling Point which could help her appeal to our primary audience group of progressively-minded 15-24 year olds in particular, and could also be a tool to stand out from other similar artists in the industry and indeed specifically in the market of female soloists.

Meanwhile, an aspect that is perhaps more conventional - though just as important - is the independence and strength of our artist GiGi. The construction of GiGi's Star Identity as a role model and figure of strength and independence is another appealing factor - particularly to our younger, secondary audience group of 8-15 year old girls.

-In Conclusion:

On the whole, I feel that we have created a very successful combination of products in our marketing campaign for our artist, GiGi. The main product of the video, alongside the ancillary texts (website and digipak) have worked effectively & synergistically to convince our target audience groups to buy into our artist and her products. I also believe that we were able to utilise the strengths of each particular product well in order to do so.

In my opinion, we also used Richard Dyer's Star Theory to great effect in deliberately constructing the various aspects of our artist and her persona, and have since used this well when marketing GiGi to successfully appeal to our primary and alternative target audience groups.

Evaluation Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our target audience groups, and particularly the feedback which they have given us, have been absolutely paramount during each stage of the project in order to tweak and tailor our finished media products to their needs. I plan to examine and analyse who our target audience is, the feedback which they have given us both via word-of-mouth and from our surveys, and how we have gratified their needs using Blumler & Katz's Uses and Gratifications Theory.

Our Target Audience

I believe that our target audience can essentially be deconstructed into three main groups:

A typical example of a member of
our primary target audience

Primary Audience:

-Teenage girls & young women, 15-24 year-old age range

-Supporters of women's rights/female empowerment/feminism

Our primary audience group is made up of teenagers and young adults, skewed towards females. This age range can be classified as millennials or members of 'Generation Y', born between the mid/early 1990s and early 2000s. Our primary market also have far more progressive attitudes towards feminism and women's rights.

Successful female artists like Meghan Trainor, Demi Lovato, Daya & Selena Gomez
have used their music to make statements promoting feminism & female empowerment

For this reason, we aimed to target a large female cohort by constructing our artist GiGi as a female solo artist who also uses her music to make a clear statement of female empowerment and positivity. These messages can provide inspiration to our target audience groups - especially the girls and young women who make up our primary and secondary target audience.

Audience Consumption Habits

(Please click to enlarge the graphs)

Understanding the media consumption habits of our most important audience segments has been crucial in targeting our audience - especially our primary and secondary groups. According to Ofcom's 2016 report on adult media use and attitudes, 100% of young adults aged 16-24 own a mobile phone, with 93% smartphone ownership. In another study, 60% of 16-24 year-olds' listening habits were through streaming and personal digital music.

Our primary audience is far more likely to stream music than listen via radio or CDs - which have continued to lose popularity amongst the 15-24 year-old demographic. According to a survey for the British Phonographic Industry, young people in the UK are more likely to use free services like Soundcloud & Youtube/Vevo to consume their music, though this is changing with the rise in popularity of subscription streaming services like Apple Music & Spotify.

Secondary Audience:

A typical example of a
member of our secondary
target audience

-Young girls, 8-14 year-old age range

-General pop genre fans/ fans of mainstream chart music

Our secondary audience consists of both younger girls (with an approximate age range of 8-14) and fans of pop & its subgenres such as synthpop & bubblegum pop - which have achieved chart success in recent years. Interestingly, this younger demographic is in fact the most likely to seek out the latest releases (please see below). Alternatively, our use of Dyer's star theory in deliberately constructing GiGi's identity & persona as a role model who remains defiant and staunchly opposed to being objectified could be an aspirational factor, and so could add further appeal to our target markets - our secondary audience in particular.

I have further broken down the appeal of our products to our secondary audience below:

Tertiary Audience:

-Older women & relatives of the primary audience (e.g mothers)

A typical example of a member of
our tertiary target audience listening
to music with her daughter.

It is still hugely important to consider older consumers, not just because it simply makes our scope to target our various audience groups as wide as possible, but also because the older demographic is relatively easy to target, as a direct result of younger target audience members consuming our artist's music. Adults are likely to have control over which type of music their children consume based on its genre, content and any messages in the song - so will most likely become aware of our artist in doing so, and will be satisfied that the song doesn't fall foul of any criteria against dark messages or bad language. This audience demographic is also far more likely than the younger primary and secondary audience groups to consume music via the radio.

Using the 'Uses & Gratifications Theory':

A further aspect which we felt was extremely important to bear in mind when targeting our audience groups was to incorporate Blumler and Katz's 'Uses and Gratifications Theory'. This model is essentially based around the belief that audiences actively consume media products, with these media products deliberately chosen to gratify certain 'needs'. Thus we felt it would be very useful to use this theory to help us target our audience, and from there to help convince members of the audience to become fans of GiGi's music, identity & brand, and generate revenue through ticket, music & merchandise sales.

-Information/Surveillance
The idea that audiences actively seek media in order to satisfy their need for knowledge and information on what is happening in the world around them. This has become far easier with the proliferation of information via Web 2.0, allowing easy access to such information. I have listed how we gratified the audience's needs below:

(Please click to enlarge)
Surveillance gratification on the website - how we informed visitors to the site.

-We also included numerous pieces of information on our digipak, such as the artist name, copyright info & track listing. Meanwhile, at the end of the music video, we included "(C) 2016 Glass Ceiling Records" to provide the audience with information about GiGi's record label.


-Diversion
The notion that audiences seek media for entertainment; seeking a 'diversion' in a particular product, to escape from the trials and tribulations of everyday life. In our case, our music video gratified this, following typical conventions of music videos to include content which engages the viewer, such as the artist in performance or dancing, fast-paced discontinuous editing and, often, a captivating narrative. I have listed how we gratified the audience's needs below:

(left) Rapid discontinuous editing        (right) Energetic choreography    

          (left) Parody of the 1950s Housewife     (right) Numerous different setups                 

-The discontinuous editing sustains the viewers' attention due to its rapid cutting speed, and allows the audience to see more content during the course of the video.

-Dancing and performance are also good tools to engage the audience. We ensured that GiGi had a routine, and that viewers' entertainment needs would be satisfied due to her energetic performance.

We took inspiration from Meghan
Trainor in parodying a housewife.
Her music typically promotes
female empowerment.

-The parody of the 1950s housewife was very useful in gratifying the entertainment needs of our primary feminist-orientated audience segment in particular, as it mocks an era in history associated with female domesticity.

-The inclusion of numerous different setups, each with different lighting, costume, props and characterisation, was useful in captivating the audience through the variation in content.

-The balance of the performance setup with the Dolls House narrative also varied the visual content, whilst the addition of slapstick comedy at certain points of the video (please see video below) was a further tool to satisfy the audience's need for diversion & entertainment.

Similarly, this could tie in with Richard Dyer's Utopian Theory, in which audiences pursue media out of boredom or stress, with the utopian, fantasy aspect (as in the Dolls House in our music video) providing entertainment to gratify the audience's needs.


-Personal Relationships
The concept that audiences seek media to gratify their need for inclusion or for a relationship with other people. It also encompasses the idea of interactivity - as theorist Andrew Dubber has stated in "Toward a Sixth Media Age", music websites today are places where people gather and connect with an artist and each other.. We were able to market GiGi as a figure to look up to, and as someone who relates to their audience through her beliefs in positivity and female empowerment. I have listed how we gratified the audience's needs below:

An explanation of the interactive features we included on GiGi's website

-Meanwhile, the friendship which develops between the female doll figure in the narrative and GiGi could be seen as meeting the audience's personal relationship gratification, as the audience can aspire to have a similarly close friendship.


-Identity
The idea that audiences seek media to explore themselves, and to search for traits, identities & personalities depicted in the media which they can relate to. Once again, we were able to meet the audience's gratifications using the music video, deliberately constructing GiGi's persona and star identity to appeal to our audience, and alluding to this throughout the video. I have listed how we gratified the audience's needs below:

        (left) Standing up to the patriarchal doll      (right) GiGi is a sassy, confident character     

-GiGi is presented as a strong, confident and independent woman throughout the video. This enables us to appeal to our various target audience groups, as GiGi is a role model figure who can act as an inspiration for viewers.

-We also present her as someone who can more than stand up to the patriarchal male figure as represented by the male doll in the video. This reinforces the theme of female empowerment within the song, and allows the audience to relate to GiGi through this positive message.

Feedback during the construction process:

Another huge positive of using audience feedback before, during and after the production of our media products was the ability to receive persistent feedback from members of our target audience groups, which allowed us to directly tailor various aspects of our products to their needs and preferences.

General/Group Feedback:

One of the means by which we gathered audience responses was to continually collect audience feedback via focus groups and general comments throughout the construction process of our various products. Looking back, this was very helpful, as we could directly make the changes suggested by our target audience groups and gradually tailor our products to their needs...

-The notes below detail the audience's feedback having reviewed the music video:

(Please click the video above to expand): One of the feedback points which we received was to change the ending of our narrative (please see our final video at the top of the page), as the original version was judged to be extremely awkward.

-The notes below detail the audience's feedback having reviewed the website:

(above): The original version of our website background was adjudged to have been very off-putting to look at, and that it drew attention away from relevant information or images on a page. As a result, we used a couple of promo shots, in a style similar to Carly Rae Jepsen's website.



-The notes below detail the audience's feedback having reviewed the digipak:

(Please click to enlarge the image above) Unfortunately, some feedback which we received during the construction process was contradicted by other opinions expressed on SurveyMonkey during the evaluation. An example of this was the purple track listing on the back cover of the digipak.



Interviews:

A further useful method to collect audience feedback was via one to one interviews. These proved to be incredibly helpful, as we could extract the audience's perspectives on our various media products via a detailed, informative discussion.We were also able to ask targeted questions on certain aspects of our project to discover the audience's thoughts:

Survey Feedback:

Another very helpful method to collect data and feedback from our target audience was through Survey Monkey. Whilst it had its limitations, such as how we were unable to obtain any detailed feedback due to a word count, and were limited to 9 questions unless we upgraded to premium; we were still able to gather very important and useful information to build up a general trend based on the audience's responses

Below I have created a Padlet with each of our surveys - one for each media product that we produced - contained within a video:
(Please scroll down on the Padlet and press play on the videos)

I have then analysed our survey results to examine if any trends exist, and to evaluate the overall success of the products which we constructed.
(Please use the arrow keys to navigate & press the square icon to access full screen. To zoom, use the scroller on the mouse.)

It is interesting to note the range of responses which we received. This can link to Stuart Hall's Encoding/Decoding Model, in which he argues meaning is polysemic, and is open to multiple different interpretations (as seen in our survey responses - especially for the message of the music video). It has also been fascinating to view contradictory responses from audience members on the surveys - for instance when discussing the relationship of the digipak to the music video.

Whilst we certainly succeeded in connoting the genre and target audience of our three particular products, it is interesting to note that the audience often failed to identify similar artists or products, and this may be because we didn't solely base our ideas around one artist in particular, or that we didn't make these influences clear enough. Alternatively, it could be a positive, as GiGi can be seen as possessing a uniqueness whilst remaining conventional (as proven by the clear identification of GiGi as a pop artist by respondents of our surveys).


In Conclusion:

All in all, myself and my group have learned a lot from our audience feedback during the construction and evaluation of the project. It was extremely important, firstly, to establish exactly who our various audience groups were (as well as analysing the possible reach of our product to them, in addition to their music consumption habits) in order to tailor exact aspects of our media products to their needs.

Their feedback during the project was absolutely vital to allow us to pinpoint exactly where we needed to implement changes. Besides this, though, we were also able to analyse their responses during the evaluation stage and assess how well overall we had appealed to our target audience. Whilst we largely succeeded in targeting our primary and alternative audience groups, we perhaps alienated the male segment of the audience due to a large focus on reinforcing the feminist theme with young women.

Overall, though, I am pleased with the comments which we received, and it seems that we were largely successful in convincing members of our audience groups to appreciate GiGi, her brand and what she stands for. I am also glad with what I learned from the audience feedback and I am satisfied that as a group, we used it to the best of our ability to make changes where necessary and to tailor our products to the audience in order to ensure they are as high-quality & successful as possible.