EVALUATION Q3a: Audience Engagement

EVALUATION Q3a: How do your products engage with audience? 
For this question I decided to make 4 different videos: 2 digipak unwrapping videos, a Q and A video session live on twitter and a radio interview with Astrid S talking about audience feedback for her latest music video and website, how it impacted in the production of the video and website and about how web 2.0 is allowing audience to participate actively, especially through social media.

The first thing I did for this question was make 2 digipak unwrapping videos. In the first unwrapping video I am a fan of Astrid S called Ashley who has just bought the new digipak by Astrid S.  

However, before I present these videos, I will state some points about my target audience. After doing some initial research into the audience for Astrid S, I discovered that her primary main audience is females aged 15-24. I looked at Astrid S's existing Facebook page and I found some really useful videos for audience. They are videos which follow Astrid S's fans. I could tell that most of Astrid S's fans were females aged 15-24 from these videos. Here is the 1st video that I found: This video follows some of Astrid S's fans waiting to see her live for her concert in Amsterdam. 
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All the fans who were interviewed and shown on camera were female aged 15-24. Also, these fans may have been dutch since this specific concert that these fans were waiting for was in Amsterdam. 


I noticed that most of the females especially in this video had a 'Brandy Melville' or 'arty' style, Brandy Melville is a clothing store which has quite simplistic, comfy clothing for females which consist of the colours: black, white, beige, cream, burgundy, grey, light brown. 



Here is the second video I found on Astrid S's Facebook. This is a video created by Spotify, where Spotify invite the 20 people who have listened to Astrid S the most on Spotify to an exclusive meeting and intimate concert at Universal Music Norway with Astrid S.  
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Yet again all the fans who were shown in this video on camera were females aged 15-24 with one male who was between 15-24 also. These fans may have been all Norwegian since the setting of the video is in Norway. They all look Scandinavian. 


I have also discovered that since Astrid is touring in mainly Scandinavian countries + The Netherlands at the moment, this could mean her primary target audience is females aged 15-24 from Scandinavian/European countries. 







I also asked my friend James who he thought the target audience would be for Astrid S since I have shown him her music and her style, he responded with this. He said he has a 14 year old sister and an 11 year old sister and they don't listen to electropop genre music yet, but instead they listen to pop music such as Katy Perry, Selena Gomez and Marshmello. 

He said he thinks the target audience for Astrid S is females aged 16-24. 
His 14 year old sister listens to rap and hip hop he said, this could relate to how hip hop and rap music is quite mainstream and at that age girls and boys don't know who they are yet and they are just trying to fit in with the mainstream crowd who listens to rap and hip hop. 




After all this research I discovered that I believe that Astrid S's target audience is females aged 15/16-24 with the secondary audience being males aged 15/16-24. This research has helped me a hell of a lot in determining Astrid S's main primary + secondary audience.  

A way I tried to attract the aged 15-24 primary audience was by having characters in my music video which were aged 17-18. I believed that this would attract a young female and male audience aged 15-24 since there is one 17 year old male character and one 18 year old female character. Also, having looked at many other electropop examples like Halsey, Charli XCX and MØ, I have discovered that their target audience is females aged 15/16-24. This also influenced my idea and decision that the target audience for Astrid S is females aged 15-24.

I still think, however, though, that Astrid S has a secondary audience of tweens aged 10-14. This is because she has easy, language free lyrics and the pop genre side to her music attracts a core audience of people aged 10-14 or perhaps even younger like 8-9 year olds. However, after looking at Astrid S's existing music videos, I discovered that the content in them is sometimes a bit inappropriate for children aged 8-14 e.g. kissing neck, clothing slightly revealing. Also after watching and listening to the track I had chosen to use for my music video - 'Bloodstream', I discovered that there were some slightly inappropriate, edgy lyrics - "touching me gently, holding me close, breathe on my skin, lips down my body".

For gender, I discovered after looking at many examples such as Halsey, Charli XCX, Mabel, MØ, Lorde, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, that the primary target gender audience for electropop is females because for a start, the majority of artists in the electropop genre are female which brings me to my point on Dennis McQuail's 'Uses and Gratifications' theory - one of the gratifications in his theory is personal identity; since the artist, Astrid S is a female aged 20, this can attract a female audience because they can identify with the artist and relate to them. The pop side of the electropop genre attracts a strong female audience and the electronic genre side attracts more of a male audience. 

DIGIPAK UNWRAPPING VIDEOS
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Ashley, a fan of Astrid S, unwrapping Astrid S's new digipak after buying it in the store, HMV:


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Astrid S unwrapping her new digipak:


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Q AND A VIDEO SESSION LIVE ON TWITTER

Secondly, I decided to do a live Q and A video session with the fans on twitter, with me being Astrid S and people sending in questions through the comments. I made a post saying "Guess what guys! Tonight I am doing a live video Q and A session on my latest products! Comment below questions and I'll answer some of them tonight see you soon"
Here are the questions that the fans commented on that post:

1. On what platforms will I be able to listen to your new album?

2. Where can I buy your merchandise? I really want a hoodie with your logo on it

3. I really want to stay updated on ur new music and events so do you have any other social media other than Twitter?

4. I saw you perform live like 2 years ago when you only had some EPs out so I really want to see you live again now performing ur new album! do you have any concerts coming up?

5. What is your favourite track on the new album?

6. I've loved your music ever since your first EP - 2AM! Does this new album have a special edition of some kind?

7. How do I subscribe to your latest music and news?

8. I love youuu!! Where can I buy your new album?! 


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The Script:

AUDIENCE: U+G Theory

WHAT I CAN APPLY
I believe that the my music video that I will create will fulfil the 3 gratifications - personal identity, personal relationships and escapism. People in the audience (mainly females aged 15-24) will be able to relate and identify with the main female protagonist on the screen. People (males and females aged 15-24) will be able to relate to the actions of the couple characters in the video for example going to fast food restaurant together, kissing, touching each other, it will be a talking point. They would relate to the kinds of things shared and done in the relationship on screen.  

The Uses and Gratifications theory is the idea that the members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory approaches why people actively seek out specific media forms to fulfil their needs. The audience choose the media to meet/fulfil their needs. These needs can also be described as specific gratifications. There are 4 gratifications. 

These gratifications are:

1. Escapism/Diversion - Escape from everyday tasks/problems.
2. Personal Identity - This means self understanding and trying to relate to people in the media (characters/actors).
3. Personal Relationships - A talking point. The audience relate with the kinds of relationships shown in the media e.g. by relating to the issues risen in the relationships shown or the kinds of things shared and talked in the relationships etc... 
4. Surveillance - This means using media to find out whats around us and to be informed with information.

Katz and Blumler's variation (development) of U+G

These two people tweaked McQuail's theory. 'Uses and Gratifications' (Katz and Blumler) research has identified many potential pleasures of genre, including the following:

One pleasure may simply be the recognition of the features of a particular genre because of our familiarity with it. Recognition of what is likely to be important (and what is not), derived from our knowledge of the genre, is necessary in order to follow a plot. 

Genres may offer various emotional pleasures such as empathy and escapism - a feature which some theoretical commentaries seem to lose sight of. Aristole, of course, acknowledged the special emotional responses which were linked to different genres. 

Goals for media use can be grouped into five uses. The audience wants to:

1. Be informed

2. Identify with characters of the situation in the media environment 

3. Simple entertainment

4. Enhance social interaction

5. Escape from the stresses of daily life.