IGS Creative, a local advertising agency led by myself as Creative Director, has been approached by BBC3 to plan and create an advertising campaign to promote the release of Boundless, a new low-budget TV drama series which is currently in production.
BBC3 provided IGS Creative with a comprehensive list of details regarding their requirements for the advertising campaign, as seen above. I have divided these requirements into 4 categories to better understand how each of them are to be followed: open requirements give me a degree of freedom in how they are carried out, implicit requirements have been interpreted from what is provided in the brief but not mentioned outright, constraints are limitations that the campaign must work within and explicit requirements are those which have been clearly stated in writing and must be heeded.
Aims & Objectives:
The campaign will aim to promote the release of Boundless, bringing awareness of the TV drama among its target audience in order to persuade them to watch the series when it's released. This will be done by ensuring that the campaign is appealing to the target audience of Boundless and reflecting the genre of the series & its themes.
IGS Creative must create a cross-media advertising campaign to run before and alongside the release of the TV drama Boundless, made up of multiple components in at least 3 media sectors. Each of these components must follow the conventions of their media sector and comply with all relevant advertising legislation.
I have the freedom to choose precisely which media sectors to use, what style the campaign will have and what demographic it will be targeted towards, but they should all be suitable for the target audience of the series and reflect the series' genre and themes.
The key deadlines for IGS Creative are 17th December 2021, when the proposal for a campaign will be presented to the BBC3 Commissioning Editor, and 8th April 2022, when the final versions of the campaign components need to be delivered to BBC3, given that they approved the proposal presented in December. Additionally, the overall budget for the campaign is £15,000. This will need to be considered when determining the scope of the campaign and the scale in which it is carried out.
The product and its target audience:
Boundless is a 5-episode crime drama about a young man who starts a cyber crime business in order to make money and prove his worth to those who didn't believe in him. As laid out in my Unit 21 P2 proposal, the series is targeted towards 16-30 year-olds, leaning towards men due to the theme of technology, crime and action-over-emotion events. The series appeals to higher educational classes but lower economic classes, which largely applies to students who are well educated but are not yet financially established.
The appeal of the series comes from the personal identity found within Alex as a relatable protagonist, as well as escapism from the tense and exciting battle between Alex and the police, following typical crime drama beats of mystery and investigation. The advertising campaign should touch on these aspects of the series in order to appeal to the series' target audience and persuade those that are likely to enjoy the series to watch it, as is the aim of the campaign.
D2 - Demonstrate how the technical and aesthetic properties of the media components meet the client brief
The Brief:
Success criteria to meet the client brief:
As explored in P2, the brief from BBC3 asks IGS Creative to plan and create an advertising campaign for the release of the BBC3 TV drama series Boundless. The primary aim of the campaign is to promote the TV drama and attract an audience to view it on its release, which was determined to be done by appealing to the target audience (15-21 year old men, as described in P2) and conforming to the conventions of existing media products. The secondary aim of the campaign is to promote BBC3 as a brand and entertainment service, presenting the platform as a viable alternative to other popular streaming platforms.
As such, each component of the campaign should seek to meet the following criteria in order to fulfil the aims of the campaign as determined from the client brief:
Appeal to the target audience of 15-21 year old men
Conform to the conventions of its media sector & meet industry standards
Comply with all relevant legislation and regulatory bodies
Positively represent the BBC3 brand
Additionally, the campaign as a whole should do the following, as determined from the client brief:
Include components in at least 3 media sectors
Make use of a show ident & logo
Not exceed an overall budget of £15,000
Have a consistent house style across the campaign
Evaluating the produced components against success criteria:
I will now address each point discussed in the success criteria in the context of the components that I have produced for the campaign, determining how well the criterion has been met and, if necessary, what could be improved in order to better fulfil the campaign's aims.
Appeal to the target audience
As discussed earlier, the target audience for the campaign is 15-21 year old men, in line with the target audiences of the Boundless TV drama and the BBC3 platform. This audience was narrowed to focus on those who enjoy the themes associated with the drama's crime genre and cyber theme, meaning that elements of morality & justice as well as mystery & problem-solving are likely to appeal to them alongside direct portrayal of crime and cyber activities.
As explored in M3 (see for more detail), these themes are embedded throughout every component of the campaign; each alludes to the morals of cyber crime and incorporates the police vs criminal dynamic (for example the police radio dialogue as a social media post), each has direct connotations to cyber activity through their use of colour, text and presentation (for example the TV trailer and social media posts using web articles to convey information) and a major part of the campaign's approach is to promote audience engagement through the use of puzzles and speculation (for example the encoded messages as social media post captions). Therefore, I think that the components do appeal to the target audience as they explore themes and content that would peak the interest of those interested in crime shows and the digital world.
Example of linking to both crime and cyber themes to appeal to the target audience in one of the social media posts; the crime aspect is alluded to in the content of the web articles, while the cyber aspect is reinforced through the use of a web article on a computer screen to convey information.
That said, one area of improvement that could be made is the bus poster that I created, as although it nicely links to the cyber theme it does not have any clear link to the crime genre. This means that the poster would appeal to those interested in the cyber aspect of the series but not necessarily those interested in the crime aspect, meaning that it would only attract one half of the overall target audience. To amend this, I could have perhaps changed the primary graphic to show one of the web articles from the TV trailer, thereby connoting to the themes of morality or pursuit as well as the cyber context.
Conform to the conventions of its media sector & meet industry standards
Technical Settings:
TV Trailer - There are a number of technical specifications of TV Trailers that are recommended / required by broadcasters in order to ensure that it is broadcast properly and suitably. As shown in P4, my TV Trailer meets all the industry standards for its video and audio settings: 1080p HD resolution, 25fps, mp4 file format and 48kHz stereo audio with 16-bit depth. Additionally, I ensured that the audio is limited to -6 decibels, which is a requirement for broadcasting to help keep volume between works consistent.
Bus Poster - As mentioned in P4, the poster meets the industry standards: correct dimensions, 300dpi PDF file format + CMYK colours for printing and no important elements at the very edges of the poster (bleed area). This ensures that the poster can be printed and mounted onto a bus while still displaying properly and as intended.
Social Media Posts - To ensure that the posts are displayed properly on the platforms, they must be the correct size for their purpose: image posts should be square with resolution 1080x1080 and video posts should be portrait resolution 1080x1920. I have done this with my posts to fit the resolution of phones and make sure that they are viewed correctly on the social media platforms. Additionally, I've used the png file format for the images and mp4 file format for video, both of which are suitable for display online and supported by all relevant social media platforms.
This was largely covered in M3, but essentially I do believe that all the components conform to the majority of the conventions of their respective sectors (for example the TV trailer having a section at the end with the show ident & release information), as well as meeting industry standards in their technical properties (for example the poster being a 300dpi PDF using CMYK colours). Alongside serving to help meet the aims of the campaign by making the components more effective (as conventions help the audience to quickly recognise a product and discern its meaning easily), conforming to conventions was an explicit requirement from the brief, so it is important that I have met it in order to satisfy the client.
Example of meeting industry standards with the bus poster, as I used a specification sheet from Global, a leading outdoor advertising company in the UK. The information provided on the sheet was closely followed for the production and exporting of the poster.
Comply with all relevant legislation and regulatory bodies
Another direct requirement from the client brief is to ''comply with all relevant legislation/regulations'', so doing so is important in meeting the brief as well as ensuring that the campaign can operate legally and without any unintended consequences.
The legislation and regulatory bodies to adhere to was examined in D1, where I clarified how I would ensure to follow all legal & regulatory requirements in the campaign. I believe that I have followed through with that in the production of the campaign components, abiding by all legislation that was initially outlined. For example, the TV trailer makes it clear that it is advertising a TV series at the end by context of saying 'New episode each Friday' and 'Only on iPlayer'; although it does not outright say that Boundless is a TV drama, by following the conventions of TV trailers it is easily identifiable as one by the audience. This ensures that the trailer is not misleading the audience into thinking that it's advertising something that it's not. Additionally, I have continued to ensure that no content inappropriate for a general audience is included in the advertising components, since as discussed the components can be viewed by any member of the public and therefore content like violence & strong language is not suitable. All of the other points made in D1 have also been held up in the production process, so the campaign does indeed comply with all relevant legislation and regulatory bodies.
Another example of following legislation is the assets table in P4, which shows that copyright laws are being upheld as initially described in D1.
Positively represent the BBC3 brand
This is part of the secondary aim outlined in the campaign proposal, which is to promote BBC3 as a TV channel and streaming platform. This is important for the client because it forms part of why the TV drama Boundless would even be produced, which is to bolster BBC3's existing shows and bring more audience members to the platform. This means that the advertising campaign should drive home the BBC3 affiliation in order to make it clear to the audience that BBC3 is a platform worth using, implied by then convincing them to watch Boundless on said platform.
This criterion can be met simply by attaching the BBC3 logo to the advertising components. This links the campaign to the brand and therefore represents the brand through the content of the campaign. Then, to represent the brand positively, all that is needed is to ensure that the campaign itself is viewed and received positively by the audience; if they think the campaign is offensive for example, then upon seeing the affiliation with BBC3 they will think of BBC3 as responsible for that offense. Conversely, if they think the campaign is great then they will think of BBC3 as responsible for that greatness, thereby representing the BBC3 brand positively.
I think that I have met this criterion in at least two of the components, the TV trailer and bus poster, but not particularly in the social media component. The TV trailer displays the BBC3 logo in the corner throughout the video and prominently above the show ident at the end; this clearly establishes the connection between advert and brand and therefore representing them. This representation would then be considered positive so long as the trailer is received well by the audience, which I believe would happen since the trailer appeals to the target audience, conforms to trailer conventions and complies with all relevant regulatory bodies like Ofcom. The poster also displays the BBC3 logo, in the bottom section, and therefore also positively represents the BBC3 brand as long as the poster is well received, which again I have no reason to object to since it is largely conventional, appealing to (albeit half of) the target audience and complies to relevant legislation like the ASA and CAP codes.
However, I think that the representation of the BBC3 brand could be improved in the social media posts for the campaign. The only link to be seen to the BBC at all is the account names and the hashtag, which are both 'boundlessbbc'; BBC can be seen at the end of the text, linking them to the brand. However, this connection is both somewhat loose and not specific to BBC3, meaning that is doesn't actually represent the BBC3 brand very well. To improve this, I could have changed the account names and hashtag to 'boundlessbbc3' as a start, but also add a direct affiliation with the BBC3 brand through its logo on the posts themselves. The TV trailer and bus poster incorporate the logos, so the social media posts could do the same in order to properly establish that representation.
For example, this social media post does include the hashtag '#boundlessbbc' in the caption, loosely linking to the BBC3 brand, but the post content itself has no link at all. Adding the BBC3 logo to the image, say in the top-left corner, would strengthen the link to the brand and better represent BBC3 like the other campaign components have done.
Include components in at least 3 media sectors
This is a more simple criterion to assess as it's more-or-less absolute in nature. The TV trailer is of course in the television sector, the bus poster in the print sector and the social media component in the 'new media' social media sector.
This nicely meets the requirement as explicitly stated in the client brief, and having both new and traditional media sectors used helps to maximise the efficacy of the campaign and expose the advertising to a wider audience (compared to just using new or traditional media exclusively).
Make use of a show ident & logo
Another simple criterion, and also explicitly stated in the client brief, is that the campaign must use a show ident and/or logo. This is a major component in the 'house style' criterion (more below), helping to create consistency across the campaign and place a common image in the minds of the audience that is reinforced in every component.
In P2, I had already created both an ident and a logo for the campaign, explaining my decisions in their aesthetic and how they are suitable for the campaign (screenshot below). Then, in the production of each component, I have ensured to corporate the ident, logo or both into them in some way: in the TV trailer, the logo shows on the computer monitor, followed by a cut to black then fade in the ident. On the bus poster, the ident is displayed across the left side and the logo on the right. In the social media component, each account uses the logo as their profile picture and the YouTube account uses the ident as its banner art.
As such, I believe that I have successfully met the criterion to use a show ident & logo across the campaign, serving as a significant piece of consistency that helps the audience to remember them and recognise them. More on consistency below.
The show ident used throughout the campaign
Explanation of Ident aesthetic from P2
Not exceed an overall budget of £15,000
Budget is an important aspect to consider when determining the scope and scale at which the campaign can be carried out. I believe that the campaign operates well within the £15,000 budget specified in the client brief, as I have ensured to minimise costs where applicable and keep the overall scope of the campaign reasonably small. For example, I've avoided the need to pay copyright holders royalties for the use of music or other assets in the campaign by ensuring that all assets can be used royalty-free. Additionally, using social media as a component is free to set up and distribute unlike traditional methods like print. Where I have used print, I chose to do so with a bus poster over a static poster (like a billboard) to maximise the efficiency of exposure to money spent; since a bus moves all around cities and suburbs, it can expose the poster to audiences in many different places for a single price.
All this culminates to a low-cost but high-efficiency campaign that certainly operates within the specified limitation of £15,000, meeting that requirement from the client brief.
Have a consistent house style across the campaign
As mentioned in the show ident criterion, consistency across the campaign helps to build an image of the product in the audience's mind, reinforcing common concepts, themes and ideas through the use of repeated elements in every component of the campaign. A large part of this is the aforementioned show ident, but I have also formulated a consistent 'house style' influenced by the ident that ties all the components together under a common aesthetic. A house style is a very important tool to improving the efficacy of the campaign and helping it to meet its aims, as it makes the campaign more memorable and therefore makes audience members more likely to watch the series on its release; if they've forgotten about it, they're not going to watch it.
Firstly is the use of colour. The show ident has a black background with white foreground, and every component of the campaign builds from this: the TV trailer has a black background throughout, with the white light of the monitor representing the foreground. The bus poster has a black background with white foreground. The social media posts, as stills from the TV trailer, do the same as well. It is clear that, looking at each component's colour composition alone, that they all share similarities with the show ident; this assists in creating a house style that the audience can recognise as part of this reinforced image created in their minds. Additionally, as described in P2, the use of black & white in particular has connotations to the cyber theme, as it is reminiscent of command-line interfaces while also alluding to the 'dark void' vastness of the internet as explored in M3. This helps to connect the style of the campaign with the campaign's theme, prompting the audience to think 'cyber' when they see the campaign components and visa versa.
Next, a common font 'consolas' is used in every applicable piece of text in the campaign components including the show ident: the TV trailer's release information at the end, the text on elements of the bus poster and the subtitles on the social media video posts all use the consolas font, in white as well for that matter to link back to the colour aspect. Again, the font choice itself also connotes to the cyber theme, as it's the default font for command-line interfaces on Windows and is commonly known for that. This not only reinforces the font as part of the campaign's house style, but also further reinforces the campaign's link to its cyber theme.
Finally, the use of logos is prevalent throughout the campaign's components, particularly the show's phoenix logo which is present in every component and even incorporated into the show ident itself. The phoenix logo, which as explained in P2 and M3 connotes to the protagonist's character development and is present within the context of the series' fictional setting, is repeated everywhere in the campaign to reinforce it as an iconic piece of imagery - when the audience sees it, it will immediately remind them of the series and is therefore a very powerful advertising tool due to its versatility; in the components I've made, the logo is manifested in 4 different ways: social media profile pictures, on the monitor screen in the TV trailer, displayed on the bus poster and incorporated into the show ident. This makes the phoenix logo a key piece of iconography in the house style of the campaign, alongside the ident itself.
Other logos repeated in the campaign are the iPlayer and BBC3 logos, which help to meet the 'positively represent the BBC3 brand' criterion and reinforce the affiliation between the campaign and the platform it is accessed from; this itself can be considered part of the campaign's house style, as it connects the two in the audience's mind and therefore prompts them to think of one when they think of the other, further assisting in the fulfilling the aims of the campaign by making it more memorable.
D1 - Discuss the Legal & Ethical constraints within the planned campaign
When producing advertisements, producers have a legal responsibility to ensure all advertising is accurate to the product/service, legal, decent, truthful, honest and socially responsible.
Essentially, this means that adverts can't mislead, lie to, offend or harass their audience, as well as not encouraging any illegal, unsafe or otherwise antisocial behaviour. This is primarily enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK's independent advertising regulator.
Regulatory Bodies
ASA - The Advertising Standards Authority aims to ensure that ads across UK media comply with the Advertising Codes, a set of legislation written by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP). The ASA is responsible for responding to concerns & complaints from consumers and businesses, monitoring ads to check they're following the rules, conducting research to test public opinion and taking action to ban advertisements considered misleading, harmful, offensive or irresponsible.
CAP - The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing, known as the CAP Code, covers all non-broadcast advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing communications. This includes my proposed bus poster and social media campaign components.
BCAP - The UK Code of Broadcast Advertising, or BCAP Code, covers all advertisements on radio and TV services licensed by Ofcom. This includes my proposed TV trailer component.
Ofcom - Additionally, all communications services in the UK are regulated and overseen by Ofcom, another independent organisation funded by the industries it regulates. The Ofcom Broadcasting Code must be abided by all TV & radio programmes in the UK, advertisement or not. The BCAP Code includes Ofcom's legislation in its scope, so my TV trailer must satisfy this as well.
Clearcast - In the UK, all broadcasted advertisements are checked against the CAP and BCAP codes by Clearcast, an organisation which must approve that the advertisements conform to them before they can be deployed. Restrictions or outright rejections are imposed on ads where necessary.
How my campaign will conform with regulatory requirements:
Conforming to the guidelines and legislation set out by the above regulatory bodies is mostly a matter of common sense.
Firstly, the campaign cannot mislead the audience into thinking its advertising something else. This means that the advertisements should make it clear that it's for a TV series, specifically a crime drama and not, say, a romantic comedy. This is essentially done by conforming to the conventions of crime drama advertisements, which I will be doing to appeal to the target audience anyway.
Secondly, no content in the campaign can be offensive or unsuitable for a general audience. This is because much of the planned campaign's components, particularly the bus poster, will be fully visible in the public eye such that people of any age or level of vulnerability can see it. This includes violence, strong language, drug use, nudity etc. Although these may be included in the show itself, they will need to be omitted from the advertising material to satisfy legislation requirements.
Finally, the campaign cannot encourage, incite or otherwise glorify anti-social behaviour, which includes anything illegal or dangerous. The planned components will have references to criminal activity, as the protagonist is a criminal themselves, so I will need to be particularly careful not to present that activity as positive to avoid encouraging audience members to take part in criminal activity themselves.
Other Legal & Ethical Considerations
Copyright & intellectual property - As with all media products, advertisements cannot contain any copyrighted material or intellectual property without permission from the owner of the original work and/or paying royalty fees. For all the planned components in the campaign, original or royalty-free / creative commons material will be used where possible and, only if necessary, copyrighted material will be used with explicit permission from the copyright owner and any attached royalty fees will be dealt with accordingly. Foreign intellectual property should be easy to avoid as the campaign will focus on the IP of the advertised TV series and nothing else.
Slander & libel - Media products are also prohibited from making defamatory statements, which is to say a statement that falsely damages the reputation of a person or organisation by presenting something that is untrue as a fact. The two types of defamation, slander & libel, simply refer to whether the defamatory statement is made in writing (libel) or in speech (slander). This is a simple issue to avoid as long as it is actively considered, which I am doing so in the scope of the planned campaign. Since a real-world organisation, the UK police, will be portrayed in the advertising campaign, I will need to ensure that no defamatory statements are made regarding them or any individual. This shouldn't be a problem as the police will be portrayed in a mostly positive way such that their reputation would not be harmed by any statements made about them.
Performance rights - Performance rights refer to the copyright laws surrounding the broadcast or public performance of music. When a music piece is played publicly or broadcast on TV, copyright law demands that the composer of that piece is paid royalties. For my campaign, this would apply to my TV trailer as it will include music that will be broadcast. I will need to ensure that the music used either has no royalties necessary or are considered within the budget of the planned campaign.
Permission to film - For the TV trailer component of the campaign, permission to film will be required in order to publish recorded video from a given location. This applies to everywhere, including public places, as the recordings will be distributed publicly and for marketing purposes. Thankfully, permission to film is quite simple to obtain, with just written proof of permission from the land owner required to satisfy it. I believe that all necessary filming will likely take place within my own home anyway, in which I can give myself permission.
Violence & offensive language/behaviour/material - As well as being covered by regulatory bodies, extreme or offensive material in media is also an ethical concern to consider as it can have an effect on the audience of the work. In the planned campaign, the advertising components will be in the public eye and available to be seen by anyone, meaning that any material that offends / is unsuitable for vulnerable or younger audiences will need to be excluded even if they are not the targeted demographic of the series. For example, the series itself may contain violence and strong language, but that should not be included in the advertising campaign as children may see it on, say, the planned bus poster.
As such, any and all aforementioned material will be excluded entirely from the campaign's content, or at least reduced to implicit inclusion (for example through euphemisms) in order to protect young and/or vulnerable audience members who may be exposes to the advertising components. This also satisfies the safeguarding measures required by regulatory bodies like Ofcom.
Representation - In the planned campaign, individuals and organisations will be portrayed. Regardless of whether they are fictional or not, each is a representation of a real-world group of people or organisation. For example, a fictional male character from the series that is featured in the campaign may be considered representative of all men, even if that isn't the intent. It is therefore important to consider how any groups or organisations are represented in the planned campaign, as portraying them inappropriately could cause offense or harm their reputation (for example, if all women in the campaign were portrayed as weak and helpless then that would be offensive to women and considered completely inappropriate and sexist, likely causing public outcry). In the planned campaign, the main groups that will be represented are criminals / hackers and police. These groups must be represented appropriately, which in fact means a different thing for each group; criminals are widely frowned upon in society and the media, so in this case 'appropriate' representation would mean not glorifying them or portraying them too positively. For police, an appropriate representation would be one that is not too negative or harmful to police officers' reputations, as they are mostly accepted by society as a force of good (albeit saying that nowadays is somewhat controversial).
M3 - Explain how the created components comply with the codes & conventions of their media sectors
Codes are the specific elements in a media product that give the product its meaning when identified by the audience. Codes are divided into 3 categories: symbolic, technical and written.
Symbolic codes point the audience towards meaning implicitly, such as the use of colour to convey an emotion.
Technical codes are the way in which the product was created, such as using low camera angles to make the audience feel small.
Written codes are the language used in the product, including any text shown or dialogue heard.
Conventions refer to the commonly accepted ways in which codes are organized in a media product. Conventions can be associated with the media product's sector, genre, theme or target audience and are largely determined by whatever the 'status-quo' is. Using conventions helps the audience to identify the product's codes, thereby helping to convey the product's meaning.
TV Trailer:
I will be comparing my trailer to the Mr. Robot launch trailer by Amazon Prime Video UK. Mr. Robot is a crime drama / thriller about a young cyber security engineer / vigilante hacker working to take down a corrupt corporation. This is very similar to Boundless in genre, themes and target audience so it's a good choice to compare to in terms of conventions.
Mr. Robot - Launch Trailer | Prime Video
BOUNDLESS | Trailer
TV TRAILER CONVENTIONS
Short duration My trailer is 1 minute and 10 seconds long. Trailers are generally between 1 and 3 minutes long so that they're long enough to convey all the information they need, but short enough to keep the audience's attention. The Mr. Robot trailer is 1 minute 59 seconds, a decent amount longer than my trailer but both are conventional nonetheless.
Spoken language
Trailers almost always use spoken language to help convey the show's narrative; this is done using dialogue spliced from the show itself or with narration / a character voiceover. The Mr. Robot trailer uses a mixture of dialogue from the show and character voiceover from the protagonist, Elliot, in order to paint a picture of what the series is about to the audience. In my trailer, I have used just a voiceover of the protagonist, Alex, to tease information about the narrative.
Music
Trailers also supplement their visuals and dialogue with a dramatic piece of background music to help engage the audience and make the trailer more exciting. In both my trailer and the Mr. Robot trailer, a synth-heavy cyberpunk track plays throughout, building in intensity until it reaches a crescendo at the end. The techno music also helps to tie in with the theme of the series, which in both cases is cyber security.
Features main cast
The trailer for Mr. Robot showcases just about every major character in the series, albeit some just briefly, to present them to the audience and help them to build personal identity in any characters that they relate to. Perhaps this convention was not met particularly well in my trailer, as the only character included in the trailer is the protagonist, Alex, and even then only in the form of a voiceover. However, I believe this lack of other characters is justified as it helps to meet one of the conventions of the crime genre, which is withholding information from the audience and being mysterious (more on that below). Additionally, minimizing the number of actors needed for the trailer's production has helped to keep costs low and save time for other things.
Show ident and release information
A staple component of any TV trailer is the show ident and release / viewing information at the end, helping to direct the audience to view the show. Having these elements at the very end also makes it more likely to be remembered, which is important for ensuring that the audience knows how to view it. The Mr. Robot trailer certainly does this, showing the 'Mr. Robot' ident followed by 'Only on Amazon Prime'. My trailer also does this, as I made sure to include a final section of the trailer that displays the show's ident and information about its release; it's even accompanied by a narrator saying that information to really drive it into the audience's minds both visually and audibly, as well as for accessibility means for the visually impaired.
Platform / production company logo featured
For shows produced for certain streaming platforms, the platform logo is often included in one of the corners of the frame throughout the trailer, and then more prominently at the end as part of the release information. This is showcased clearly in the Mr. Robot trailer, where the Amazon Prime logo can be seen in the bottom-right corner of the frame and again as part of the 'Only on Amazon Prime' text at the end. In my trailer, I have overlaid the BBC3 logo in the top-left corner of the frame. Additionally, the logo is in full view above the show's ident in the final section alongside the iPlayer logo, which is included as part of the 'Only on iPlayer' text. Including the platform logos helps to reinforce the affiliation with the platform to the audience and direct them to that platform to view the show.
CONVENTIONS OF THE CRIME GENRE:
Concepts of morality & justice
This is an essential component of crime shows, and it usually reflected in their trailers. Mr. Robot does this very well, in its focus on bringing justice to the world and taking down 'Evil Corp'. In my trailer, I haven't explored these concepts quite as explicitly, but they are implied through the combination of Alex's voiceover and the web articles on the monitor screen; they hint that Alex has caused harm and destruction to others while he talks about how much money it's made him, touching on his warped sense of morality and how he may be the one who needs to be brought to justice.
Pursuit / interrogation of the protagonist
Crime show trailers usually feature the protagonist being chased, pursued or interrogated by the antagonist, who is often police but could also be other criminals and the like. The Mr. Robot trailer mentions how the protagonist thinks he's being followed, accompanied by shots of ominous men dressed in black suits. My trailer does touch on this concept, but again not as explicitly as it's in the form of a web article detailing a police investigation into Alex. Still, I would consider the convention met.
Elements of mystery & withholding information from the audience
Trailers in general tend to withhold information from the audience to leave them wanting more and intrigue them to see the show; crime dramas, particularly those more oriented towards the 'detective' side of the genre, do this more than others as mystery and problem solving is a bigger component of the genre's narrative. The Mr. Robot trailer certainly keeps a lot of information about the series mysterious and vague, completely avoiding massive twists in the narrative to keep the audience in the dark. I have tried to hammer this convention into the trailer's very core, being the reason why many of the other conventions are portrayed implicitly. Leaving more of the series' narrative up to the audience to speculate on is a technique I've incorporated into the whole campaign in order to promote engagement and intrigue.
CODES
Technical codes
Industry standards
There are a number of technical specifications of TV Trailers that are recommended / required by broadcasters in order to ensure that it is broadcast properly and suitably. As shown in P4, my TV Trailer meets all the industry standards for its video and audio settings, using 1080p HD resolution, 25fps, mp4 file format and 48kHz stereo audio with 16-bit depth. Additionally, I ensured that the audio is limited to -6 decibels, which is a requirement for broadcasting.
Camerawork
Camerawork can have a massive effect on the meaning derived from a shot so, since my trailer is only composed of a single shot, my choice of what kind of shot to use was very important. I chose to use a slow dolly zoom out movement throughout the whole shot, consistently drawing back and making the subject of the shot, the computer monitor, smaller and smaller compared to the rest of the frame. This conveys to the audience that the monitor, which represents Alex and his work, is just a small part of a much larger whole, alluding even to the series' name, Boundless, which comes from the idea that the internet is so massive that only a small amount of it can even be seen from major search engines - like a 'tip of the iceberg' scenario.
Lighting
I also chose to film the shot in a very low-light environment, in almost complete darkness besides the light emitted from the monitor. This not only fits the dark colour scheme (as mentioned below), but also helps to assist the meaning of the zoom out by having more and more of the frame filled with darkness while the source of light gets smaller and smaller. This further conveys to the audience the sheer scale of the internet, but also presents it as ominous and even dangerous through its association with darkness.
Editing
Although my trailer is only composed of a single shot + graphic at the end, my editing choices were important to creating meaning in the trailer. Firstly, I used a fade-in from black at the start of the trailer to help ease-in the audience to the shot and create a slow starting pace. At the end of the shot, it cuts straight to black instead which fits with the faster pace that is built up throughout the trailer from the increasing intensity of the background music. For the final graphic with the show ident and release information, I also added a number of animations to make the text appear as though it was emerging from the black background and then sinking back into it, further reinforcing the 'dark void' connotations established through the camerawork and lighting.
Symbolic codes
Mise-en-scène
The trailer is set in the protagonist's, Alex's, apartment, a dark and messy interior that represents his mind and state of self. This conveys to the audience that Alex is reckless and disorganized, giving information about him as a character and thereby helping the audience to find personal identity in him via relatability.
Shot composition
In the shot, the computer monitor is positioned in the centre of the frame. This implies that the computer is central to the series and highlights its importance in both Alex's life and the series as a whole, reinforcing the concept of technology and the internet being a core part of the series.
Colours
The trailer uses quite a black & white colour palette, along with some bright neon colours sprinkled in from the keyboard and web articles. The black & white largely overpowers what colour there is, conveying to the audience that the series is mostly bleak with only small amounts of respite. The colours also link to the technology theme, both black & white and bright colours alike for different connotations; black & white connotes to command-line interfaces and basic computer programs while the bright colours connote to the wonders of technology and how bright and colourful it can be.
Written codes
Written language
The written language in the trailer is featured in two places: on the web articles during the trailer and on the ident and release information at the end. The web articles have large headlines to catch the viewer's eye, teasing elements of the series' plot such as the damage Alex has caused through cyber crime and the police investigation into him. This rewards attentive audience members with more information to help keep them engaged and intrigued about what might happen in the series. The ident and release information is more straight-forward, outright telling the audience what the name of the show is and when/where to watch it. This information is crucial to the aim of the campaign as a whole, which is to get people to watch the show; if they don't know how to access it, then they can't watch it.
Spoken language
Spoken language is used in two instances in the trailer: the character voiceover from Alex and the narration at the end. The character voiceover is used to give the audience information about the protagonist and his situation, albeit remaining very vague to keep it intriguing and mysterious. This gives the audience more to speculate about as well as helping to showcase Alex as a character, which is important for the audience to find personal identity in the character and thereby engage them. The narration at the end is more straight-forward, simply stating the information shown in text in order to reinforce it into the audience's mind and make them more likely to remember it.
Bus Poster:
Although John Wick 3 is not a particularly similar product to Boundless, I could not find many good images of T-shaped bus posters in general so this will have to do. Fortunately, bus posters are very conventional regardless of genre and all use many of the same elements.
John Wick 3 bus poster
Boundless bus poster
BUS POSTER CONVENTIONS
Show ident
One of the key elements of any poster is the ident of the product. This ident is usually positioned on the left / middle-left area of the poster and takes up as much space as it can to be read easily. The John Wick poster clearly does this, and so does mine.
Main actors' or director's names
Posters often include the starring actor's or director's name on them if they are a celebrity figure that audiences will know. This is done to help convince the audience that the show is worth watching because it has a well-renowned person effectively endorsing it by being part of it. In the John Wick poster, Keanu Reeves' name is prominently displayed to persuade the audience to watch it on the basis of it having Keanu Reeves as the protagonist, which is a large selling point of blockbuster films. In my poster, I have not included the names of anyone because there are no well-renowned actors or directors in it, such that the audience would not know or care who they are and it would not be effective to include it.
Release date & platform mentioned
As with TV trailers, it is very important that posters tell the audience when & where to view the show so that they know how to do so. The John Wick poster has done this at the bottom segment, with the text 'In cinemas Wed May 15', and my poster has done so next to the ident with the text '27/05/2022, only on iPlayer'.
Primary graphic
Posters, especially bus posters, are usually composed of a single graphic that takes up the whole space. Since bus posters only have a select segment to work with vertically, this is almost always the place where the primary graphic is positioned. The primary graphic itself is usually either the main character/s of the show, or some other imagery that is symbolic / iconic of the show. The John Wick poster goes for the former with an image of John Wick himself, while my poster goes for the latter with the show's phoenix logo that carries a lot of significance in the series.
Links to affiliated social media accounts with their respective logos
Posters sometimes also include links or references to affiliated social media accounts, featuring the account name and a logo of the social media platform next to it to clearly show the audience where to go. Although the John Wick poster does not do this, mine does at the bottom section with the account name '@boundlessbbc' accompanied by the YouTube, Instagram and TikTok logos beneath it. This instructs the audience to visit the social media accounts
CONVENTIONS OF THE CRIME GENRE:
Concepts of morality & justice
As a major theme of the crime genre, morality & justice is often represented in posters. Unfortunately, I did not meet this convention due to my choice of minimalist primary graphic, limiting the concepts that can be portrayed with it.
Pursuit / interrogation of the protagonist
As with the above, I did not meet this convention as I chose to focus on the symbolism of the phoenix logo. Again, this is unfortunate, as the poster is not clearly identifiable as fitting the crime genre, but perhaps that is made up for with the sense of mystery and connection to the show's technology theme. Since I can only really work with a single graphic, it is difficult to incorporate everything about the show into it.
Elements of mystery & withholding information from the audience
The poster itself is quite minimal in nature, especially in terms of the primary graphic which conveys no explicit information about the show; many things can be inferred from the ASCII art phoenix, but it's not as clear as other posters that include all of the main cast. This was done deliberately in order to help reinforce the air of mystery surrounding the campaign, in the effort of increasing audience engagement through theories and speculation.
CODES
Technical codes
Industry standards
As mentioned in P4, the poster meets the industry standards: correct dimensions, 300dpi, PDF file format, CMYK colours for printing and no important elements at the very edges of the poster (bleed area). This ensures that the poster can be printed and mounted onto a bus while still displaying properly and as intended.
Symbolic codes
Text
All the text shown on the poster matches the show's ident in its white colour and consolas font. The font choice, consolas, connotes to the technology theme as it's the default font for the Windows command prompt and notepad programs.
Choice of graphic
My choice of graphic for the poster, the show's phoenix logo, has a lot of connotations attached to it at varying levels of interpretation. Firstly, the graphic itself is made up of just individual symbols & characters in a technique known as 'ASCII art', which connotes to computers and old-style graphics that worked within a command-line interface, the context to which the logo is displayed in the series itself and the TV trailer. Additionally, the choice of a phoenix particularly represents the protagonist's change and 'rebirth' in the series, forming a new identity as a hacker-for-hire.
Colours
The dark, black & white colour scheme of the poster helps link to the technology theme and house style of the campaign. The poster is all a near-black in the background with white foreground elements (bar logos from brands), fitting with the ident and connoting to a command-line interface. Additionally, white on black is a very high-contrast combination, meaning that all the elements, particularly text, can be easily perceived by audience members even from afar, which may well be the case when the poster is mounted on a bus.
Written codes
Written language
The language used on the poster is all for informative purposes, giving them information about when + where to watch the series and the account name for the affiliated social media platforms. This is important in helping to achieve the campaign's aim, getting people to watch the series, by giving them everything they need to know in order to do so.
Social Media:
I'll be comparing my social media posts with one from the Mr. Robot instagram account, since as I said before Mr. Robot is very similar to Boundless.
Caption: fsociety. The Dark Army. Only one can exist in our new world. The Final Season. #MrRobot. SUNDAY. 10/9c. @USA_Network.
Caption: It's finally time to learn the truth. The #MrRobot 2-Hour Series Finale starts SUNDAY at a special time: 9/8c. @USA_Network.
Social media posts need to catch the audience's eye in order to grab their attention, as they may be scrolling through many posts and won't stop unless it peaks their interest. The Mr. Robot post certainly gets your attention, and I think that the bright monitor screen in the centre of a black background helps to make my posts eye-catching as well, drawing the viewer's eye to the centre of the frame and inviting them to look closer.
Videos have soundbites & clips from the show
Social media posts are often grabbed straight from the show, showcasing tense or funny moments to hold the viewer's attention. The Mr. Robot video post definitely does this, and my video posts do indeed make use of soundbites, but they were made specifically for the campaign and not the show itself. That said, it would still meet the convention as the dialogue is set in the universe of the series and from characters' perspectives.
Subtitles
Any speech in social media posts is usually accompanied by subtitles, allowing the viewer to view the post without sound or simply reinforcing what is being said. This is followed by the Mr. Robot post and for my video posts, I made sure to include subtitles in the lower half of the frame, running in real-time with the dialogue so the audience can read it as it's heard, reinforcing the information into their minds and increasing engagement.
Short duration
Posts are usually between 5-20 seconds long, promoting very quick & punchy content and only needing a short attention span. The Mr. Robot video post is 20 seconds long exactly, making it on the longer side but still somewhat suitable, and my video posts are 15-17 seconds long which is a bit more suitable.
Post caption
Social media platforms usually allow posts to be accompanied by a caption, which displays below the post and can be used for a range of purposes. In advertising, these captions are mostly used to help describe the post's content and give the opportunity to link the post to anything like a hashtag or other accounts. The Mr. Robot posts showcase this well, using both the show hashtag #MrRobot and a link to the USA Network account, the company that produces the show. As part of my campaign's focus on mystery and problem solving, I've added encoded messages instead of typical descriptive captions. These messages can be solved to reveal lines from the TV trailer, promoting audience engagement and linking to the theme of hacking / cyber security with the concept of encryption. Appended to these messages is also a hashtag, #boundlessbbc. This helps to link all of the social media posts together and allow audience members to easily view every post with that hashtag, as well as publish their own posts using the hashtag to build a sense of community around the show's fans. This would highly valuable, as it would result in the audience building interest in the series all by itself, effectively providing free bonus advertising.
CRIME GENRE CONVENTIONS
Portray concepts of morality & justice
Although not really touched on by these particular Mr. Robot posts, this convention is implicitly met in most of my posts, as they reference cyber crime and the damage caused by it. The posts' content portrays cyber crime very negatively, setting up the idea of someone committing it is a terrible person. Then, the encoded captions that accompany the posts are from the perspective of the protagonist, presenting to the audience a matter of morality regarding the protagonist's implied actions.
Pursuit / interrogation of main protagonist
Again, the Mr. Robot posts do not show this very well, the concept of the protagonist being pursued is implicitly present in two of my posts; the video with police radio-esque dialogue and the image with the article detailing a police investigation into the protagonist. This greatly helps to convey the series' genre to the audience, as the police vs criminal dynamic is one of the most iconic conventions of crime dramas and helps the audience to identify the series as part of it.
Elements of mystery & withholding information from the audience
The Mr. Robot posts do showcase this pretty well, remaining very vague and unclear in the video and only basic in the image post. Mystery and withholding information is most certainly evident in my posts and underpins their very nature. Firstly, the captions on all the posts are encrypted with a caesar cipher, making them unintelligible unless solved with the correct key. This presents a mystery for the audience to solve, withholding the meaning of the messages from them unless they do so. Additionally, in the video posts, words that are significant to the narrative (such as characters' names etc.) are garbled such that they're very hard to hear. This withholds the most critical information from the audience, teasing them by letting them hear everything else and leaving questions for them to speculate on, perhaps using the hashtag to share their thoughts with others and increasing their engagement with the campaign.
CODES
Technical codes
Industry standards
To ensure that the posts are displayed properly on the platforms, they must be the correct size for their purpose: image posts should be square with resolution 1080x1080 and video posts should be portrait resolution 1080x1920. I have done this with my posts to fit the resolution of phones and make sure that they are viewed correctly on the social media platforms. Additionally, I've used the png file format for the images and mp4 file format for video, both of which are suitable for display online.
Lighting
Since the image posts are stills taken from the TV trailer, my choice of lighting applies here as well. See TV Trailer codes.
Editing
For the image posts, I manipulated the top and bottom edges of the frame to smoothly transition to black, in order to avoid a visible cut-off point where the original still does not cover the whole square frame. This makes the image look larger than it actually is, assisting in the 'dark void' connotations as explained in the TV trailer codes.
For the video posts, I edited the audio heavily to make it sound like a low-quality phone call, lowing the samplerate and adding background noise. This helps link to the technology theme and makes the audio sound more realistic in the context of the series, as if it were being intercepted. I also garbled some sections of the dialogue by reversing splices of it and making it hard to hear, withholding information from the audience and inciting them to try decode it themselves.
Symbolic codes
Text
All the text shown on the video posts matches the show's ident in its white colour and consolas font. The font choice, consolas, connotes to the technology theme as it's the default font for the Windows command prompt and notepad programs.
Composition
Since the image posts are stills taken from the TV trailer, my choice of composition applies here as well. See TV Trailer codes.
Colours
The social media posts are no exception to the house style of the campaign, which incorporates a dark colour scheme with black as background and white as the foreground. The image posts are stills from the TV trailer, so have a black background with bright monitor light in the centre. The video posts' visual elements are just a dark static effect, which also fits with the conventional colour scheme of the genre while linking back to the technology theme associated with the static itself.
Written codes
Written language
For the video posts, the written language is the subtitles that are on the screen alongside the dialogue, helping the audience to understand what it says and enable the audience to view it without sound. The garbled parts of the dialogue are written as --- to show that they're incomprehensible.
Additionally, all the captions have written language, although it is encrypted with a basic cipher and must be decoded before it can be read. This teases lines from the TV trailer, giving the audience the opportunity to piece it together early before the trailer is released, engaging them with the campaign and getting them more invested in the series.
Spoken language
In the video posts, the spoken language is dialogue from characters in the show. Outside of what they're actually saying, the way that the dialogue is said can infer details about the character: the detective speaks very deliberately and calmly, showing that they are confident and sure of themselves, while the employee speaks hesitantly and shakily, showing that they are distressed and confused. This helps the audience to contextualise the dialogue themselves and speculate on all the missing details around it, further engaging them with the campaign. The actual words being said also reflect the nature of the characters, as well as providing small details about events in the series while masking the most important parts by garbling them. This also serves to engage the audience by intriguing them and teasing just enough for them to want more, increasing the likelihood that they'll watch the show.
M2 - Justify the Choice of Planned Components by Targeted Media Sector
Primary Research
For context, primary research was conducted using a 5-minute survey sent by email to students in Years 10-13 at Ilkley Grammar School, gathering 333 responses in total. The vast majority of these responses identified their age as between 15 and 21 and just under half identified as male, which indicates that the research is at least somewhat representative of the target audience of Boundless.
Social Media Campaign
In the last 10 years, social media has become an increasingly dominant presence in the lives of young people, with the vast majority using social media platforms multiple times a day. From the results of the survey, the most popular social media platforms among participants was YouTube and Instagram (used by ~76% of participants), followed by Snapchat and TikTok (66% and 60% respectively). For my campaign, all of these platforms, aside from Snapchat (reason below), will be incorporated into the campaign to reach large swathes of the target audience. Since the majority of the target audience use social media regularly, it would be a very effective advertising medium at exposing the audience to the series. Additionally, social media comes with many integrated features to increase audience engagement with advertisements, through the use of likes, comments, hashtags and sharing methods which I can make use of to bolster the effectiveness of the campaign - audience members that engage with advertisements are more likely to remember them and therefore more likely to use the product being advertised. Moreover, if users are sharing advertisements with other users on the site then that's essentially bonus advertising in lieu of word-of-mouth, exposing even more audience members to the series.
To measure how effective different mediums were at making advertisements stick in the audience's minds, survey participants were asked which mediums they had seen ads from for the last TV series they watched. This included social media platforms, of which 30% of participants mentioned YouTube, 23% mentioned Instagram and 23% mentioned TikTok, falling short only to ads viewed directly from TV or within streaming services (which will both also be present in the campaign). This further justifies my choice of using these social media platforms because they are evidently quite effective at making audience members aware of the product and remember the advertisements that they saw. The reason why I chose not to include Snapchat in my roster of platforms to use came from this question as well; despite being the 3rd most popular social media platform, only 11% of participants saw ads for their last watched series, suggesting that Snapchat is not a very suitable or effective platform to use, at least compared to the others.
Television Advertisement / Trailer
Since the advertised products is a TV series, it would be nonsensical to not advertise the product on TV. A TV trailer is considered a must-have for advertising films & TV series, as they can give the audience a taste of what the product will look and sound like. Although the series will only be available on BBC iPlayer, many TVs nowadays can still access online streaming services, meaning that the series can still be watched on TV even without airing by traditional means. Additionally, users watching TV are immediately identifying themselves as someone who watches TV, meaning that they would be more likely to actually be interested in watching a TV series compared to other mediums like social media which may include people who don't watch TV at all.
Television was reported as the 3rd-most memorable advertising platform in the survey (26%), among the social media platforms that I mentioned earlier. Additionally, video trailers in general are ranked second among participants regarding how likely it is to persuade them to watch a show, only behind recommendations from friends. Since my trailer will try to intrigue viewers and provoke discussion among audience members, it may also be recommended by existing audience members to capitalize on that efficacy.
As such, it would be a no-brainer to create a TV trailer and advertise it on the platform. Trailers are usually the flagship components of a TV series' advertising campaign, and mine will be no different. The trailer will give the audience their first look at the audiovisual style of Boundless, as well as revealing information about the show's theme, story and protagonist to increase the hype around the series and get audience members looking forward to the series' release. Moreover, the trailer can be distributed on social media sites like YouTube to provide more content for the social media campaign and allow audience members to view it whenever they want as opposed to specific airing times, maximizing audience exposure to the trailer.
Printed Advertisement on the Side of Buses
Admittedly, printed advertisements showed less promise in terms of popularity and memorability among survey participants but, considering that I've already included the most effective platforms, print is the next best thing. Printed advertisements ranked 6th in memorability, behind streaming services, television, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. That said, I still think that print is a valid medium to consider for exposing the show to the target audience for several reasons.
First is my choice is using advertisements shown on the side of buses. I chose this type of print in particular because of its versatility, ease of production and value for money, but also because buses are concentrated mostly in & around cities where many members of the target audience will see it (young people aged 15-21, especially university students and those in the 'explorer' psychographic category who are more likely to go out and see the ads than other groups.). Additionally, targeting citygoers is fitting for the series' content as it's set in the city of Leeds, giving a sense of existing familiarity and relatability to the series.
Another reason is the opportunity to repurpose / redistribute the printed posters with other components of the campaign. As with the TV trailer, the images and assets used in the creation of the printed advertisements can be modified to fit as social media posts or components of a social media account's profile (eg. banner art). This is beneficial as it allows more content to be created for the campaign while saving time and money by not needing new assets to be produced.
Moreover, cross-promotion between components extends to print very suitably, as elements like the names of social media accounts can be included on the posters to direct audience members to them, just like the TV trailer. This helps to expose audiences to the rest of the campaign from a single starting point, which in turn increases the likelihood of convincing audience members to watch the series on release.
Interactive Mobile App
Finally, the interactive mobile app. Although they can be a bit hit or miss in their reception from audiences, they provide the perfect medium for direct audience engagement with the advertised product, in this case the TV series. This is because apps require the active participation of the user, allowing them to further expose the user to the product and ultimately increase their chance of actually watching the show on release. BBC's brief made it clear that the concept for a mobile app must be included as part of the proposal, so I have mostly included it here out of necessity. However, that is not to downplay the potential benefits of using a mobile app, as there are still many other reasons to incorporate one into the campaign.
Firstly is the aforementioned active engagement that comes with the platform, getting audience members more involved with the series than any other component. This can help to generate more anticipation over the series' release and convince more audience members to watch it.
Secondly, there is yet again opportunity for cross-promotion of other advertising components within the app, if anything at an even greater level. Since users of the app will already be using their digital devices, direct links to components like social media accounts can be included which allow the user to go straight to the other platforms instantly. As with print & TV, this can be used to expose the audience to the other components of the campaign and thereby better convince them to watch the show.
Finally, an app is most certainly suitable for the target audience of 15-21 year olds, the vast majority of which use personal devices like smartphones and tablets every day. As such, they would be accustomed to downloading apps and would be more likely to do so compared to older groups who may not be as digitally inclined. Moreover, since the theme of the series is technology and cyber crime, those who are interested in those themes are even more likely to use digital devices regularly, and by extension be convinced to download and use an app.
