M2 - Justify the Choice of Planned Components by Targeted Media Sector

 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.