WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

Our Target AudienceOur target audience for our music video was 16-24 year old females.We chose this demographic due to information that we gained from a survey that we created using ‘Survey Monkey’. We designed the survey after choosing our song as we wanted to know which demographic it was best suited to.

We discovered that the preferred genres of 16-24 year olds were ‘indie’ and ‘pop’ which was perfect as our song is described as ‘indie pop’. 90% of the survey participants were female so we decided to target this gender.

We held a showcase so that we could obtain audience feedback. We distributed a written feedback sheet and we also filmed responses.

Showcase Feedback

Sheet

Here is a vlog where we address the written feedback:

Here is our verbal feedback:

Target AudienceFrom our written feedback we learned that the majority of people (16/24) thought that the target audience for our music video was teenagers and youth, with some (6 people) specifying a female audience. This shows that our music video successfully targeted our audience. The creative decisions that we made in order to cater to a young audience, such as having a young performer and fashionable locations and costumes, paid off as these made it clear what demographic we were targeting. An answer that stood out, however, was someone saying that they thought that the audience could be ‘anyone’, which I think demonstrates the versatility of our video.

Catering to Our AudienceIn order to make our music video more appealing to our target audience, we looked at their likes and dislikes.From our ‘Survey Monkey’ survey, we found that participants valued ‘editing techniques’ and ‘mise-en-scene’ the most in a music video. For this reason we used various interesting editing techniques, such as layering shots and using a kaleidoscope effect. We also focused heavily on our locations and costumes. As ‘performance’ and ‘narrative’ were favoured equally, we incorporated both of these elements in our music video, making it more appealing to a wider range of tastes.

According to Young and Rubicam’s psychographics theory, our target audience are classed as aspirers, meaning that they are more materialistic and are orientated towards image and fashion. This is another reason why we focused on our mise-en-scene, using fashionable locations such as Brick Lane and Camden.

Survey Results

Layered Shots

Kaleidoscope

Brick Lane Location

Editing StyleEveryone (24 people) that answered the question ‘Does the track fit the editing style?’ answered ‘Yes’, with people adding that the ‘lyrics fit the shots’ and that the pace was ‘suitable’. This proves that we were successful in conforming to Andrew Goodwin’s theory that describes a link between the music and visuals and the lyrics and visuals.

Lip-SynchingThe majority of those who gave verbal feedback stated that the lip-synching was very good, with the exception of one saying that it was ‘slightly off’ (but this was due more so to technical difficulties than our editing). This positive response is important as it means that our music video looks more natural, this makes it more enjoyable for the audience as they are not distracted by out-of-synch audio.

NarrativeThe most difficult question from our audience feedback was whether they had understood the narrative. Many people left this question blank, suggesting that they did not understand, 1 person wrote that they were ‘not sure’ and 1 audience member that was filmed said that it was quite ‘confusing’.Despite this confusion, many people did answer the question. The answers were very vague, such as ‘crazy’, ‘escapism’ and ‘internal struggle’. However, this proves that the audience understood the basic themes of our music video.I thought that this response was quite predictable due to the ambiguous nature of our music video. We didn’t focus on a specific narrative, instead choosing to explore various themes, the main being ‘escapism’ – this was also the most common (31%) answer from our audience feedback.

Narrative

Mental Instabil-ity

Drugs

Escapism/Lost Love/Heartbreak

Internal Struggle

Not Sure

ImprovementsOne of the questions that we asked our audience was whether they had any suggestions for improvements should we re-shoot our music video. I found this to be a very important question as I could gain an unbiased opinion on our video in order to see its weaknesses that I may have overlooked.Most of the feedback sheets were either left blank for this question or answered with ‘No’. However, a few did have some suggestions. One being to ‘add another character’ to make the narrative clearer. Another suggested the inclusion of a shot of the dead-ends in the maze location, again, to make the theme of escapism clearer. These responses support the general feedback of our narrative being too vague. In my opinion, this was our biggest ‘weakness’. Whilst we did not want an explicit narrative, it is clearly something that our audience would want. Strengthening our narrative would therefore make our music video more popular and successful.

ConclusionOverall, I learned that the audience enjoyed our music video as there were very few recommendations for improvement. I also learned that the target audience for our product was very clear. This shows that we were successful in targeting our audience’s specific needs, meaning that our music video was a success.It was very beneficial to receive this feedback as it has allowed me to evaluate the success of our product in more depth. By gaining real opinions on our video I was able to look at the video more objectively, understanding what worked well and what needed improvement, such as making the narrative clearer.