Evaluation Task 3What have I learnt from audience feedback?

How did I gather my audience feedback?

I gathered my audience feedback using a variety of methods including Focus Groups, Surveys, Interviews and

Questionnaires.I used my phone to record the focus group and interviews in

order to analyse the content of the video and gain more detailed responses.

All the information I gathered can be found on my blog.

• I found that the vast majority of people who viewed my video said to enjoy it. People who weren’t in our target audience still said they enjoyed the upbeat style of the music and the catchy melodies as well as the aesthetic looks of the band as a whole. I went to target a more niche market of people but in the end the mass have ended up liking the video more than expected due to its positive message of friendship.

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• The focus group I conducted showed this. I did a focus group with a number of people in order to create a talkative atmosphere in which questions could be asked to get some qualitative feedback on the video.

FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANT PROFILES

The target audience for my video was 15-24 year olds who are into the punk genre. In the focus group that was conducted, only one of the 4 members had an avid knowledge of the punk genre, but the other 3

knew a limited amount about it. The feedback from the knowledgeable member of the group was very helpful. He suggested that ‘punk is not about individuals’ but rather the collective. This is why he did not agree fully with the front cover of the album presenting only the lead singer.

However, once he was informed about why this decision was made and about the picture of the band on the inside cover, he was more than

convinced.

The other three members of the focus group liked the image of the frontman on the front of the cover. So this means that despite my thinking that the music video and campaign would be more interesting to punk rock fans, it’s ended up being more liked by the mass market. Punk rock fans may expect to see something

more antiestablishment and a more embodied sense of togetherness against a power as the front image, rather than

promoting what seems like a solo artist.

The sources that I used for my research were varied in reliability. All the people used were members of my school and so this may have effected their answers as they may have wanted to avoid too much criticism. However, most

people were fairly truthful about their responses in answer to my questions and in my opinion are worthwhile having.

A questionnaire was sent out and the results were anonymised to avoid this type of bias results and it showed the same result as what the focus groups

showed, therefore meaning the focus group was in fact reliable.

Reliability:

The research that was conducted showed that my video is appealing to the vast majority of people, which is a very good thing. It shows that the star image of the

frontman is easy to buy into and suggests a good USP for the product, meaning it may be able to take a place in an already saturated market. Unfortunately, the product isn’t quite as popular with the punk fans as I thought it would be; however, it seems as though they can still appreciate the music and the style of the video, but

maybe not enough to invest themselves and their money into it.

Strengths:

The audience mainly seemed to like the digipack and the video. However, a few weaknesses were pointed out in the form of style errors in the

digipack. Some people questioned suggested that the track names be rearranged to make it more aesthetically pleasing, which I agree with. It

was also mentioned that the video should have more narrative, as there is a definite focus on the performance element, and it was not quite enough to

get fully involved in the video.

Weaknesses/Flaws:

It was suggested by a few people who were questioned that the fashion choices in the video reflected mod culture. This

was the sort of style I was trying to achieve so this is a success. The YouTube Statistics go on to show that this has led to a large viewing in Italy and Spain as fashion is very important in that part of Europe and the band members all have a unique sense of style. It’s also suggested that punk

and mod culture in Italy is still prevalent in the society, so this video may have reflected their culture.

The YouTube analytics also show that our viewers were of the age that we predicted. Saturated around the

16-25 area. However, what I was surprised by was the 50/50 split between male and female viewers. I would

have expected a much more male dominated audience

The members of focus groups said they very much liked the logo of the band. It is simple, easy to read, well designed and eye catching. Some people pointed out that the style of it was

similar to that of the All American Rejects as well as The Stooges.

The Logo:

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I intended to have a number of meanings behind my music video, the first being the idea of strong friendship being valued higher than

anything else. The boys in the band all want the same record, but instead of fighting, they become friends, thus forming their band.

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Encoding:I also wanted to put across the shame of the

vinyl being replaced. I wanted to put across the message that vinyl shopping is much more fun and rewarding than shopping for singles online,

and one can even meet and become friends with some interesting people whilst doing so.

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Encoding: The idea of ‘Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover’ is also prevalent in the video. These boys don’t think anything of each other at first, but as they get to

know each other they become great friends. Give everyone a chance is the message.

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From the audience feedback we saw that the people involved actually saw most of the

messages that we intended to put into the video. It was mentioned in the focus group that

the values of friendship were obvious in the video.

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The audience also noticed that the fact the video was shot in a record shop promoted the values of the past, and the fact that shopping

for physical vinyl records looked much more fun than browsing iTunes or a similar site.

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The audience didn’t like the original name of ‘Sharma Marmalade’ as they didn’t think it was serious enough for the nature of the band. This

was obvious from the analysis of the facial expressions from the focus group after the

name was mentioned for the first time

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From the new name of the band, most people didn't understand the ‘Thin Blue Line’ was a reference to the Police Force. However, once explained, everyone thought it was a good name for the band and helped enforce their

values. They thought it was quite ironic to call a punk band with an antisocial agenda a

nickname of the police.