Audience Research Analysis

 As part of the process of creating an advertisement, it was essential to carry out audience research. This is because I wanted to gather some fundamental knowledge on how people stayed safe online and also their opinions on cyberbullying. This was done by completing two very different methods of research, the first was a Vox Pop, this is when I pose the same questions to a variety of people. Second was a focus group, this is a large group of people who discuss their answers with one another. I also created a questionnaire which I gave to 20 different people, all of different ages and lifestyles.

First of all I created a Vox Pop and my answers were very revealing. I asked the participants what their opinion on cyberbullying was and they all believed that it is wrong but unfortunately it still happens in today's society. Then I asked them what media platform do they watch advertisements on,  the majority watch adverts on the television as they're more frequent on this media platform. Furthermore I wanted to know what television channel do they watch the most, the results were varied as each volunteer gave a different answer. They included; E4, ITV, MTV and BBC Three.
Moreover, I asked them whether advertisements on cyber-bullying should humorous or serious. All of them thought that they should be serious because it is such a serious topic. Lastly, I found out that the participants all watch television between 7-11 and more specifically, 8 o'clock. 

By completing this Vox Pop, I gathered some initial ideas in which I could place my advertisement. However, I needed more information into how people stayed safe online and what makes a successful website on anti-cyberbullying so I created a focus group. 

I gathered a group of people within my target audience and asked them a variety of questions. Firstly I asked them how do they stay safe online, all of the participants said that they keep their passwords private and they they change their privacy settings to ensure complete protection. Here is an evidence of this answer.

Secondly I wanted to know what they thought was the best way to stay safe. They had different views on the matter which were to keep passwords private, to not give out any details about yourself and for parents to help protect their children by keeping them off certain websites. In addition, I wondered what they thought websites should do to attract people who are 16+. They all believed that bright colours should be added and also for interactive features such as games to be used. One volunteer said that websites should use simple language which would help children to understand the content. Another question was 'do you think 16- 30 year olds still go on anti-bullying websites?' a majority of the group believed that this age range would have grown up and wouldn't need help to solve an issue. However, a point was raised about there never being an age where you grow up from being bullied as it can happen at any age. Finally I asked the group, 'if you could set up a website to advise people to stay safe, what would you do?' they said that they would have a video explaining the top tips on how to stay safe online, they would use a range of statistics on the consequences of staying cyberbullying, they would also use bright colours and visual aids to attract the audience.

My last piece of audience research was a questionnaire, I asked 20 volunteers 16 questions because I wanted to know their lifestyles and also their beliefs towards watching television. This is a blank copy of my questionnaire:

These are some of the important results from my questionnaire:

I thought that these results were the most important because they give me the scope to create an advertisement. For example the results from the age question is crucial, a majority of the people who took the questionnaire were between 16 and 20. This coincides with my target audience and this overall shows that a majority of the answers were made by people within my target audience and so these results would show a true representation and so my advertisement would be valid because of the successful research. Furthermore over half of my volunteers were students and this allows me to make a clear and correct judgement for my advertisement placement because of this occupation and so people who are students will potentially be within my target audience. Additionally, over three quarters of the people I sampled watch television between 20:01 and 22:00, this allowed me to then pinpoint a specific time to place my advertisement because of the amount of people who watch it. Also if many of my participants watch television between this time, then it is very likely that people will see my advertisement. Lastly, their platform preference was the television. Also their top three most favourable television channels were ITV2, MTV and E4.

By completing various types of audience research it has allowed me gather knowledge on how to create a successful advertisement. In terms of actually creating a cyber-bullying advertisement, I now understand that bright colours should be used to attract an audience and also for simple language to be used. Additionally, I have formed many conclusions on when and where to place my advertisement and this has been helped by thorough audience research.