Poll Results

I have created a poll to see what genre of music video people think my song will fit best. Below are the results:

From the results I can see that a Storyline genre is clearly the most popular genre to use (70%). The 2nd most popular was Dance at 35% and 3rd Performance at 29%.

I asked a class of media studies students aged 16-18 to vote on my poll. This groups fits inside my target audience for the song. My audiences were informed about a previous post I had posted that they could use to help them chose there answer. The post outlined what each music video genre was. (http://bethanyhutsona2.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/music-video-genres.html)

• I think conceptual scored the least amount of votes dues to it's quirky nature. I think a song with a slightly unclear message and more of a feel-good song. This type of video would be unconventional with less of a message. 
• The second choice (special effects) is likely to be to have a low score for similar reasons as conceptual. Special effects videos are often quite abstract and don't follow a particular path. This type of video wouldn't have fit well with a mainstream song.
• An animation video also scored low however, I believe that this type of video could have fitted well with the song. A story could have been told through the animation however, it may have given it a slightly less serious feel to the song, something I don't think would have worked with the approach I wanted.
• A performance video would have worked however, for my a-level project lip syncing and finding the appropriate cast that would have fitted that place of the artist may have been hard. Also, finding sufficient shots for the video would have had obstacles. Therefore, whilst this would have worked for the song as a whole, for my a-levels it may have lowered the standard of my video.
• The second highest score was for a dance video. I believe that this should have scored slightly higher as many successful dance videos are up-beat with a fast tempo to create a feel-good factor and I believe this song is perhaps a bit too slow. However, with the right effort, a slower dance could have been made successful.
• Storyline, the genre of music video that I chose to use for my project, scored the best. I think this genre fits most suitably because the lyrics allow for many different interpretations of the song and therefore by creating a storyline music video you can easily show your interpretation.

Audience Research - A Liar's Autobiography

I looked into audience research to see how other markets have promoted their media products and to get information about how best to promote my production. I looked on the BFI website to research case studies that they had produced on the ways that they promoted texts.
One case study that I found was based on "A Liar's Autobiography", an animated, factually incorrect biography of Graham Arthur Chapman, one of the founding members of the comedy group Monty Python. From the research I learnt of different ways they promoted their product and therefore got useful information about how I could promote my own media product. Here are my main finding from the research:

Marketing Approach:

• The marketing strategy was straight away decided to be based upon the Monthy Python popularity and legacy
• They wanted to appeal to younger audiences; those generations who may have heard of Monthy Python from their parents
• They didn't want the animated film to move too far away from the Monthy Python fans, they wanted to attract a new audience as well as keeping the loyal fans interested to appeal to big sector of the public.

Target Audience:

• They created two target audience; the 'core' audience and the 'broad' audience

Core:

• 35+ years, male  - loyal  fans and those who grew up watching the series
• 20+ years, male and female - animated enthusiasts and professionals: both old enough to have grown up with the series and young enough to be enthusiastic about animation
• 25+ years male and female art house audiences

Broad:

• 30+ years principally males but females too - fans of British comedy
• 25+ years male and female, may not have been film fans but heard about them through publicity

Overall Distribution and Marketing Strategies:

• simultaneous theatrical and VOD release, closely followed by DVD and BD release
• Support from Adobe
• www.liarsautobiography.com Official website an interactive and innovative site; it received over 13k unique visitors in the UK.
• www.facebook.com/aliarsautobiographymovie Official Facebook Page: became the main ‘hub’
  for all on line activity and distribution of an array of content: including clips, links to YT videos e.t.c.

Conclusion:

• I need to decide what genre and style my music video is so when marketing the single I can aim it at the right audience.
• I then need to decide specifics of my audience (age, gender, social group e.t.c.) for both a broad audience and a core audience. By aiming my production at two audiences I can get as broad audience as possible.
• I then need to decide suitable ways to market my production - this will be connected to the target audience criteria (e.g. am I aiming it at the 'online generation'?

To read up on their audience research Even further visit and click on the top left link in the table ('A Liar's Autobiography) http://www.bfi.org.uk/film-industry/lottery-funding-distribution/insight-reports-case-studies-audience-research/new-ways-reaching-audiences-distribution