Target Audience

I have been thinking more in depth about the target audience we are aiming the video at. It is important that we try and adapt to the criteria that we believe they are looking for in their videos.

So, I have asked 6 different people between the ages of 18-35 to tell me their favourite music video, they are both female and male as we have identified that both genders are targeted in different ways. I have then analysed the data they have given me to see whether our video has any similarities or differences to these videos, and too look deeper into why it is. I asked them strictly to think about the video as opposed to the song itself, and name 3 things they particularly like; but I have to bare in mind that that the song may have a slight influence on the choices they make. I did not specify how recent the video had to be, but I did suspect that I would get more recent videos than old purely because the newer ones will probably the ones that come to their minds first.

The videos that were chosen:

1. Male, 20 years old.
Name of song: Day 'n Nite
Artist: Kid Cudi vs. Crookers

1. The comic element to it (the over the-top mise en scene especially!)
2. The women featured in the video
3. The quick pace to it (this is in terms of editing).

2. Female, 19 years old.
Song: Heartbeat
Artist: Enrique Iglesias (feat. Nicole Scherzinger)

1. The use of a black background with the coloured patterns lit up all over their bodies.
2. The mirror scenes, where there are multiple reflections of Enrique and Nicole.
3. The performance of the artists when together at the end.

3. Male, 23 years old
Song: Miami 2 Ibiza
Artist: Tinie Tempah (feat. Swedish House Mafia)

1. The quick editing pace
2. The special effects (the black and white scenes, the CCTV style filming, and the use of two images overlapping).
3. The wide range of locations used (the areoplane, underwater, the house, the club etc).

4. Female, 18 years old.
Song: If I Were a Boy
Artist: Beyonce

1. The story line (how in the first half of the song the visuals contradict the lyrics).
2. The use of black and white flashbacks, makes it look modern.
3. That it isn't purely actors pefromance, and the story makes it like a mini-film.

5, Male, 26 years old.
Song: Buttons
Artists: The Pussycat Dolls

1. The artists costumes, they are minimal and black.
2. The illusion of them being naked during the video.
3. The additional dance scene in the middle of the song.


6. Female, 29 years old.
Song: Fight for this Love
Artist: Cheryl Cole

1. The various outfit changes she has in the song, especially the military style jacket.
2. The special effects (anamation).
3. The choreography and colour scheme.

Data Analysis:

So, after collecting the results, I tried to categorise the main features of the video that people liked:

1. Comedy (1)
2. Artist Appearance (3)
2. Actors Appearance (1)
3. Special Effects (4)
4. Choregraphy (2)
5. Storyline (1)
6. Costumes (2)
7. Editing (2)
8. Locations (1)

Conclusion:

My mini-investigation shows that Special Effects seems to be the thing that the target audience we are aiming for enjoys most about a video. For our group, this isn't overly good as we are not using any impressive SFX in our video (only the use of black and white and then reverse play in the final bridge). However, we have combined elements of every other feature listed. For example, we have catered for the need of costumes, storyline, various locations, choregraphy and appearance of artists/actors.

Overall, I am confident that we are atleast hitting some of the criteria for this age group. The investigation is simply not big enough to generalise it to the whole target audience but it does give us a slight indication to what people want to see. In terms of the videos chosen, I was right in predicting that more recent videos would probably be chosen. On top of this, the selection of the Pussy Cat Dolls song and the reasons for this choice proves my original theory about girl groups wanting to appeal to their male audience even though the majority of their fans are female.