Audience Profile for Music Video/Print Production

8/13/2019 Audience Profile for Music Video/Print Production

1/8

Overview The target audience for our music video and print production could

be said to be quite niche in the way that it won't appeal to the mid-teen demographic that many popular music videos target. Instead,

the demographic that we aimed to target was 18-30 year olds who

have an awareness or understanding of the current situation of

equality and austerity in society. Furthermore, the audience would

be predominantly male due to the use of one male actor to play two

male characters and the complete lack of female characters. It was

unintentional to not include female characters, rather that the

concept worked better with two male characters as we were able to

show the binary opposition in class more effectively. However, using

a female character would have been interesting/worthwhile if the

issue we were trying to tackle was discrimination against women in

society, particularly in politics. There is no reason why the music

video and print production wouldn't appeal to an older audience as

they will have more of an understanding of inequality of society just

by being adults. The only reason why the music video might not

appeal to an older audience is because they may have trouble

identifying with the younger characters.

The target audience would also be predominately white British dueto the fact that the characters are white and there is very little

ethnic diversity. However, once again this doesn't mean that the

productions wouldn't appeal to various ethnic groups - but the fact

that there aren't characters reflecting ethnic minorities could mean

that the productions don't reach as wide an audience as if we had

included characters of different ethnic backgrounds. The idea

behind the music video meant that we only needed one actor, and

we made the choice based simply on the reliability of the actor and

the fact that we had previously worked together.

White British male character as

shown on a draft for the print

production/digipak


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Dress Code The dress code for the audience of the music video and print production will most probably be linked to the social class that

were also targeting (middle class/lower middle class/working class)). This means that the dress code will vary between the target

audience, however, most of the target audience will be up to date with trends and have a reasonably contemporary dress style.

The dress code of the target audience will most probably be similar to that of the protester character seen in the music video.

Therefore, the audience would be expected to wear casual clothing, such as jeans, trainers and plain t-shirts; some of the

clothing items could be branded, however, this would be more affordable brands (such as Levis, Adidas and other streetwearbrands) in comparison to the designer brands such as Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Although it would be unlikely, the music

video and print production could reach and effect/convey the message to audiences of a higher social class, who may dress like

the businessman character in the music video i.e. suit, tie and smart hard-bottom shoes. The target audience would most likely

shop at stores like Topshop/Topman

In this case, placing a stereotype of dress pattern on the target audience is quite difficult due to the genre of the track and the

style of the music video. However, If I had to put the dress code into a particular stereotype it would probably be a cross over

between the dress patterns of indie and hip hop/street wear. This is due to the impression that indie genre audiences are well-

educated compared to other genres as they are aware of contemporary issues surrounding society. Additionally, the hip hop

genre crosses over with the trip hop genre of the track.


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Social Class The music video deals with issues revolving around the lack of equality in society, particularly the divide between the classes. There is a

huge difference between the upper class and the working class in terms of wealth, opportunities and overall quality of life. Thereforethe music video and print production would appeal mostly to the lower middle class and the working class within society, as these arethe classes that would be most concerned about the class divide and are most affected by the division of wealth. These social classesare also the appropriate target audience as they are the demographic that wants to bring about change; it would be no use targetingthe upper middle class and upper class because most of them would have no reason to want to sacrifice their life of comfort in order tobetter the quality of life of many others in society. This is not to say the video would reach audience members in upper classes,however, the message would reach out to more members of lower classes as they would be able to identify with the events in themusic video. Between 1979 and 2007, the top earning 1% of Americans have seen their after-tax-and-benefit incomes grow by anaverage of 275%, compared to around 40-60% for the lower 99%. The way that the print production and music video would bepromoted and marketed would also most likely appeal to a lower middle class (average income) audience because they are thedemographic group that would be most in touch with social networking sites, as well as being more likely to take the time to watch the

music video of look at the print production, particularly if it applies to the situation that theyre in. In contrast to this , there is a smallpercentage of citizens within the top 1% of wealth that also wish to change equality in society, standing by the 99% and voicing theiropinions to increase tax for those with more wealth.


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What kind of music would the

audience be interested in? The audience would most probably be interested in similar genres to that of the track, thus the target audience would be

fans of trip hop, hip hop, electronic, alternative and spoken word genres. The issues brought up in the track and music video

require slightly more thought than an average music video and so the target audience would most probably have an

awareness of issues, such as social inequality, brought about by other tracks that cover similar topics. Hip hop has often

been known to touch upon issues regarding society due to the harsh upbringing of many of the artists, most of which grew

up as part of the working class or even underclass, with a lack of funds for education. For example, Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos

Def) parodied a song originally by Jay-Z and Kanye West, with lines such as whats 50 grand to a motherf***** like me, Can

you please remind me?. Bey replaced many of the lines by relating to the current state of society for those who cant afford

luxury, replacing the above line with whats 50 grand to a young n**** like me, more than my average salary. The

relationship between Hip-Hop, community action and politics is a volatile and symbiotic relationship with all working with

and against each other seemingly at the same time. Hip hop has typically been critical of the powers that be, but also been

driven by a desire for those in power to improve the environment. Hip hop to the core is an outsiders attempt to get insiders

to listen to their plight, concerns and issues. The rise of the emcee is, in part, because those voices were ignored. Bands that

operate in the electronic genre have also been known to produce tracks that tackle social issues. For example, Radiohead

produced the track All I Need which, along with the accompanying music video, touches upon child labour in foreign

countries and the way in which we benefit from their suffering. When planning the music video, we actually took inspiration

from the music video for All I Need due to the way that it creates such strong binary opposition and sends a very clear

message about the state of society to the audience.


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What kind of film/TV would the audience

be interested in/be able to relate to? The target audience for the music video/print production would most probably be interested in productions with a political or societal

element/plotline, similar to that of the music video. Films such as V for Vendetta, The Matrix and 1984 all have in com mon theformation of society against a dominant government or group that has control and power over the rest of society (The Matrix and Vfor Vendetta where both written/directed by the Wachowski brothers). V for Vendetta has been seen by many political groups as anallegory of oppression by government; Libertarians and Anarchists have used it to promote their beliefs. Activists belonging to thegroup Anonymous use the Guy Fawkes mask popularized by the film when they appear in public at numerous high-profile events,emulating one of its key scenes. These films also seem to be in the thriller/dystopia genre, and so it would be a fair assumption to makethat, out of the fiction genres, the thriller/dystopia genre would appeal most to the target audience. On the other hand, the issuesbrought up in the music video are much more likely to appear in a documentary about politics and society, as the issues are factual andreal, thus a real film production would represent the issues the best and be able to convey a message to an audience. Michael Mo ores

documentaries about the American Government and capitalism (particularly Capitalism A Love Story) are a perfect example ofdocumentary filmmaking about social inequality and corporate power.

The styles seen in the music video and the print production could also be a possible influence for audiences, particularly thebusinessman character and his costume. The white male in a suit is a common staple across a number of film genres, appearing in filmssuch as The Wolf of Wall Street, Wall Street, Maltese Falcon, The Talented Mr Ripley and Pulp Fiction to name a few .Therefore, audiences who have an affinity for these sorts of films, characters and costumes may be able to identify with the music videoor the characters.


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Social Network Sites

Due to the age of the target demographic (1830), I would

expect that social network sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and

Instagram would be heavily used amongst the audience. From

looking at research undertaken by Pew Research Centre, 89% of

the 18-29 year olds who took part in the survey use social

networking sites, closely followed by 78% of 30-49 year olds.

Therefore marketing and advertising the music video/print

production through the use of social media/social network sites

would be most effective as we would be able to reach a large

amount of the target audience. Advertising on social network

sites is also considerably cheaper than traditional methods of

advertising, such as trailers advertised on TV. Social network

sites are also extremely useful for garnering word of mouth, as

posts/videos can be shared and like by thousands or millions of

people, thus raising the awareness of the post in question.

Looking at the annual household income and cross checking it

over with the social class pyramid, it also seems that the working

class and middle class citizens use social networking sites the

most, thus advertising on these sites would appeal to the target

audience. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are accessible to

everyone and so the audience is much more varied; this could

help to attract a wider audience, as the music video appeals

mostly to white males but through advertising on social media, it

could reach other audiences.


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Aspirations

While the basic message of the music video could be understood by anyone with a general understanding

of the issues in society, the specific details and problems within society brought up in the video would

mostly be understood or appeal to an audience with an interest in to politics, social sciences and charity

work/social work. Therefore the target audience would most probably aspire to have a career that is

related to any of the three categories that Ive previously mentioned. The music video would also appeal

to those who are in financial troubles, much like the protester character in the production, thus a large

part of the target audience would be university students who will be struggling with money whilst at

university, and be coming out of university with a large amount of debt. Higher education students haveoften been known to get involved in issues regarding money within society, particularly when the cost of

going to university went up from 9,000 to 27,000 in fees alone.


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Tribal Identity

Using Channel 4s website uktribes.com I was able to look at some of the supposed tribes that populate theyouth of the United Kingdom. I found it difficult to place the target audience for our music video/print productionin to any one of the tribes on the website, but felt that the target audience was a cross over of several tribes. Thetarget audience that the music video aims for would most probably be described by uktribes.com as somewherebetween creatives (curation, collaboration, collective), DIYers (resourceful, proactive, influencers) and YoungAlts (experimental, eclectic, variety is the spice of life.

How was the data collected?

400+ young people representing different tribes make up the UK Tribe Project

Participation from youth on Facebook and Twitter

In the moment contributions from mobile

Qualitative Techniques

Desk research

Depth Interviews

Expert interviews with marketers, media, event promoters, DJs, fanzine editors etc

Video and picture diaries

SMS-derived insight

Quantitative Techniques

Online survey called Find Your Tribespread through social media sites and online blogs

Online survey versions one and two garnered 88,000 participants, allowing Channel 4 to gather preferences acrossover 250 brands and media, plus on lifestyle attitudes and habits.

Documents

Audience Profile for Music Video/Print Production