[Q3] What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

The audience feedback for the projects allowed us to see if the video and texts we had produced were as effective as we had designed them to be. It allowed us to compare what we thought was best for the audience with how the audience actually wanted and liked about our project.

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Quite early on with our project we pinned down exactly what kind of people we were going to target with our project. We planned that we would appeal to fans of the alternative/electronic genre primarily, regardless of sex or age. Our secondary audience would consist of Electronic/Alternative fans ageing from late teens to early 20s and for the tertiary audience we would aim to target people ageing from their late 30s to early 40s.

PRIMARY AUDIENCE
We chose to target alternative/electronic genre fans of any any age or gender. This was to make sure that NTLS had the widest appeal possible.

As this alternative/electronic scene is quite large and stretches across various age ranges we assumed music would be consumed in a variety of different ways. Streaming and downloading would be common among the younger audiences, especially it is the cheaper alternative and they have a lower disposable income than the older generation. The older audience we assumed would opt for buying music as a hard copy vinyl or CD. Overall though, it was generally considered that all audiences would be willing to attend live performances and buy into the artist.

SECONDARY AUDIENCE
Our secondary audience consisting of Electronic/Alternative fans ageing from late teens to early 20s we thought we could appeal to easily as this is the age range in which the genre is most popular. The NTLS artists LuLu and Nathan are also this age and so this is the audience that can relate to them the most.

 

 This age range tends to download music either legally or illegally, which would lead to reduced sales of the album. However, this is also the age range that spends the most money on live events which is beneficial to when NTLS tour. This audience would also listen to radio stations such as BBC Radio 1, and use websites and social media such as Twitter, Soundcloud, Instagram and Facebook.

TERTIARY AUDIENCE

People ageing from their late 30s to early 40s we thought would like NTLS' music due to its slow pace, and seeing as comparatively they have the most disposable income they would be wise to target due to the likely hood of purchasing NTLS products, particularly vinyls and CDs.

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS
We referenced Blumler and Katz's Uses And Gratifications Theory when making our video, as we wanted to make sure that we appealed to our audience as much as possible. This could potentially in turn encouraged them to both purchase the album, and become a fan of NTLS.

DIVERSION
- The way in which the audience build up a relationship between the couple seen in the VHS footage over the course of the video is captivating to the audience, especially the early 20s/late teen audience, as the relationship is entertaining, fun to watch and also relatable seeing as the actors are of the same age. Below is a breakdown that group 5 put together of the character's relationship throughout the video:



- The studio scenes are also visually striking and provide something that draws the viewers attention. We designed them so that the audience's eyes would not stay in one place for to long, as we felt that the speed of the song was slow enough already and that people may lose interest. They were also meant to aesthetically please the viewer in a way which encouraged them to watch the rest of the video.

The shot changes 5 times in 6 seconds and I'm moist lol prawnjape banter yoloswag

RELATIONSHIPS
- With the content of the song focusing around the theme of relationship and still loving someone you have broken up with, we made sure that the focus of the video's narrative was also about this topic. This allowed viewers to empathise with the characters in the video as the situation is something most people have to deal with.

- The nonsexual relationship present in the studio shots of the video was one that the audience could recognise as a performance between the two artists on the songs message. Neither artist was sexualised for audience appeal and the pleasure of the viewer came from the aesthetics of the setup and choreography, rather than from the artists themselves.

IDENTITY
- The way in which the couple's relationship is presented some people would envy, particularly the secondary target audience in this case as the couple are their age. Although the relationship between the couple does deteriorate towards the end of the video, it is clear they are in a loving relationship at the beginning of the video.

- Fans would aspire to the artist's personas. The way they dress, act and look are all typical for fans of the Electronic/Alternative genre. Fans of NTLS would aspire to be like them and see them as an icon in terms of what the Electronic/Alternative scene is about.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
RESEARCH AND PLANNING
Digipak
When designing the album cover and researching other artist's examples, we decided that the idea to use a panorama across the front and back of the digipak would be really aesthetically pleasing to the audience. Before going ahead with the idea we asked members of our target audience what their thoughts were on the cover.

Mock-Up of panoramic album cover idea

Feedback from a member of our primary audience about the digipak:



Using the feedback as a guide we designed a graphic that could go on the front of the digipak, testing different layouts and shapes that we could use.

After the changes, the feedback from people was really positive. The circular design was a lot more popular as people thought that it looked more abstract and so we decided to continue with this idea.

Website
The theme of using the album cover for an artist on their website was present on a lot of Electronic/Indie websites we researched. We drew out a plan on paper and then recreated it on the computer using the web tool 'Wix'.

Asking friends and family we knew were electronic/indie fans for feedback on our design, the majority of people thought that the idea of having an album cover similar to the website kept the band's image well and looked really stylised due to how they were slightly different to each other. We decided to maintain and work around this idea in the construction phase as a result of the positive feedback we had received.

Music Video
To showcase the performance and narrative ideas we had began to think of, and to give us an idea of how the video will look when complete, we made an Animatic (a series of stills editied into sequence) and Steal-O-Matic (a collection of footage taken from other videos similar to our idea).

The final animatic and stealomatic were shown to people within our target audience. The first comments we received were about how we had left gaps for the archive footage shots. We had purposefully done this to avoid planning the shots too much, leaving room for spontaneity. However, after discussing the feedback received we decided on adding stills to give us a guide to the shots we wanted and how they would look. Other than that people really liked the video and thought the VHS footage was a really unique selling point.

The revised stealomatic was also critiqued by friends to iron out any problems with the structure.

Our target audience thought the overall structure was good but we should play with cuts and the music more to avoid it becoming repetitive, otherwise it was perfect for a music video.

CONSTRUCTION
Over the course of the construction phase we managed to obtain various feedback for our products that we used to improve the quality of our project.

Digipack
- The NTLS logo on the inside was changed from a picture LuLu on her own as it was suggested that it  would strengthen band image as well as brand image

Before

After

- We were advised to include a QR code on the back which when scanned takes the person to the website, as this would allow for greater synergy between the two platforms.

Before

After

Website

- The tour page was quite empty and so we decided to include more information on the tour page of the website. We added a Twitter feed and an advert for the BBC Radio 1 performance, showing symbiosis with other companies.

- On the CONTACT US page people thought that more information for institutions, such as Red Pigeon Records, needed to be included and so we added a map and emails for the offices in Westminster.

Video
We managed to host a miniature screening for friends who enjoy Electronic/Alternative music to see what they thought of the video:

Acting on the feedback given to us, we changed and reshot the end sequence and added some performance footage from the studio in to create variety rather than stick with the same style of video.

- A lot of people after watching the video thought that the narrative progression of the couple's relationship was not strong enough and needed some kind of ending. To amend this, we rearranged some of the VHS sequences and filmed an extra scene for the end of the video.

The initial ending we shot was too bright due to us having used the wrong settings on the camera, so we were advised to reshoot them with the right settings as it was quite off-putting for the audience.

The difference with the footage was obvious, and other people from our target audience we asked about this scene did not pick on anything wrong after this change. 

- Some shots too bright and needed to be graded better. With the limited grading software in Adobe Premiere Pro we resorted to Adobe After Effect for more advanced tools to fix the grading of these shots.

A comparison between the graded picture (right) and ungraded picture (left)

WEBSITE
After completing the construction of the website we asked members of our primary, secondary and tertiary audiences for feedback.



All of the people interviewed recognised the website as one of the electronic/alternative/indie genre. Audience members really like the level of interactivity with the website; how you could buy their merchandise and visit their social media pages especially. The branding was "strong and recognisable", with people acknowledging the graphic as a universal logo. Suggest changes were to include more logo saturation with the dotted album cover graphic seeing as it was featured on the album cover and website, but overall the website was a success.

ALBUM COVER
We conducted the same interview for the album cover also, asking similar questions about what the interviewees thought about the products.




Again the electronic/indie/alternative genre was strong with the design of the album cover, with all those asked identifying it as so. The monochrome colour scheme was noticed as well as the link between the main page and the digipak cover; "everything marries really well with each other". Some thought that some lyrics to songs could have been included with the album, which was a good suggestion as fans of the indie/alternative/electronic like to learn the lyrics of their favourite songs usually.

MUSIC VIDEO
In order to get feedback for the music video we decided to create an online survey that our target audience could fill out using the web tool 'surveymonkey'. We uploaded a link to both the video and the survey on Facebook and waited for people to answer.

This was posted on my Facebook wall so that friends and family could easily access the links

This was a really great way of recording feedback as it was anonymous so people were honestly critical  about the video, addressing both negatives and positives about it.

 The majority of people thought that the video was a 'clear and engaging music video'

We asked people various questions about the video, trying to find out what they thought of the video to get an idea of how effective it had been in pleasing the audience.

With questions like 'What genre does the video reflect?' it was good to see that 100% of those asked thought it fell under either the indie, alternative or electronic category. This meant that we had been successful in producing a video that did intact reflect our genre.

We also asked people some questions that were not multiple choice in order to gain feedback that was wholly their opinion. These were questions were the person could write in a text box and submit their answer, so we had a range of replies

The narrative of the couples relationship was clearly understood with examples of people's answers to the question "What do you think the message of the video is?" being "relationships can break down because people change as individuals, even though they may still love eachother and may want to stay together it is not always possible" and "The singers the story of a deteriorating relationship, the song ends with a break up". This indicated that the majority of audiences saw the video was about a relationship.

With the question "Finally, do you think that the video and its presentation of the artists is professional/believable? Is there anything you would change about the video?", we were intending to receive some constructive criticism about the video and how we could improve it. 

"V professional, the ending where the boy left the house and looked back was kind of predictable"

"I think the artist image is believable and interesting. The one negative thing I would say is that I thought some of the VCR shots could have been more shaky to contrast the studio shots. The final bits where Louis walked out could have been shot a little better but that's only minor. To conclude, great visually, strong acting, very believable artist image and overall a really good tone for the video that matches the song very well"

"Very stylised and professional, but would be more believable if singers looked older and if there was more alteration in costumes"

"Better video quality"

The answers ranged in length and detail but overall people really loved the video. The artist image was believable in all cases, although some thought that if the artists had been older it could have worked better as a music video. The narrative also got some really positive feedback, with most liking the contrast between the studio and VHS shots. Some thought the VHS shots were too static, and others disliked the lack of quality, although these were both minor faults. The structure of the relationship went down really well also, although "the ending where the boy left the house and looked back was kind of predictable" in one person's opinion.

We also managed to get some reaction videos of people watching our video for the first time:

Overall, I feel that the music video gratified and pleasured the audience well. In hindsight, I think that using an actual VHS camera got the best footage stylistically but was not necessarily the best choice for quality and that's and area that the video lacks in for me. It also caused a lot of problems in the editing department, so maybe it would have been more efficient to shoot on a camera with better quality video that could be edited to look like VHS.