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.