What have you learned from your audience feedback?

1. What have you learned from your
audience feedback?
Katie Needham
Audience feedback from our trailer is hugely important as it
allows us to identify what aspects of our trailer were popular
amongst our target audience, as well as what they didn’t like.
This information allows us to reflect on our work and identify
areas we would have done differently with hindsight and any
improvements we would like to make. For my audience
feedback, I have constructed an online survey through Survey
Monkey and sent it to 30 individuals with a copy of the trailer
and the ancillary tasks. The variety of questions will
demonstrate our audiences opinions of our trailer; certain
questions have a space to leave further comments - this will
show us feedback in greater depth and detail.

2. I deliberately sent the questionnaire to individuals between the age 16-24, as
this was my target audience and therefore it is the reaction of this age group
that I needed to investigate and research. There were also several individuals
that answered the survey despite being older than this target age group. This
broader range of results can show whether they would also be interested,
despite not being the age group, therefore creating a more versatile and
successful soap opera. Survey monkey allows me to view the results
individually, and the respondents of the older ages all said they would be
interested in watching the soap – demonstrating that the trailer appeals to a
variety of age groups as well as the target audience I had.
When sending out the surveys, I tried to make the ratio of male to
female as equal as possible. This was because I am not aiming my soap
at one gender in particular and so am interested in the reaction of both
genders equally. Being able to see the responses of the male and
female individuals with this question allows me to consider how the
different genders reacted to the trailer and if there was any difference
in opinion between the two genders. It was especially important for me
to know the gender of the person answering the questions due to the
fact I incorporated gender stereotypes in my piece, and this may cause
the genders to react differently to the trailer.
This question revealed that the techniques I used in the editing and
filming stages created a ‘well made trailer’ in the opinion of my target
audience. It was helpful that I had previously asked them to state their
gender as I could tell which gender preferred the soap trailer – for
example I would be able to see if a higher percentage of girls stated it was
well made in comparison to the boys, as that would reveal I needed to
incorporate more themes aimed at men to make it a more equal target
audience. 100% of the responses stated it was a well made trailer,
showing that I don’t need to make any improvements or changes to make
the trailer better in terms of being well made.

3. It was important to me to ensure my target audience felt it was appropriate and
suitable for the age range I was aiming my trailer at. If there were themes and aspects
that were too mature for my target audience, it would exclude the younger viewers
from watching my soap and make it less successful and not suited to my target
audience. In addition, if it was too ‘young’ and ‘immature’ for my target audience then
it would exclude the older viewers that I was aiming my piece at. If either of these
cases were revealed through this question, I would need to remove mature themes or
remove immature aspects to make it more suitable and appropriate for the age group I
am targeting my piece at. 100% of the responses thought it was suitable for the age
group I was targeting my trailer at so there is no need to make any changes.
This question gave a direct piece of feedback around how well the soap trailer made
audiences want to go on and watch the actual soap. The main purpose of trailers is to
advertise an upcoming show and to make audiences curious and intrigued so that they
increase the viewers they get for the actual show. Therefor if a trailer makes audiences
want to watch the full show, it has achieved its main objective and is a successful
trailer. I am very pleased with the response to this question as it shows 100% of the
responses this question received enjoyed the trailer and would want to watch the soap
– demonstrating that I created an intriguing and interesting trailer based on my
audience research at the start of the project.
In my audience research at the initial stages of the project, a common theme was that
audiences felt bored with current soaps and felt that all the storylines and characters
were extremely similar and repetitive. It was for this reason that I undertook research
into how I could incorporate a unique aspect to my piece, which ended up being
illogical verisimilitude by having my characters as a ghost. It was one of my biggest
aims to make my trailer unique to meet with the needs of my target audience and I
undertook a lot of research into illogical verisimilitude in soap opera and how
audiences have reacted to it in actual soaps previously. It is for this reason that I
included this question in my survey, I was interested to see if the illogical verisimilitude
was taken well with the audience and whether it had made it unique and different
enough so that it was an interesting trailer. 100% of the responses said it made it
different and unique, I am very pleased with this response as I spent a lot of time and
effort to incorporate a unique aspect into my piece.

4. Previous questions had already demonstrated whether or not the audience liked
the trailer, however I incorporated these questions to gain more detail around the
favourite and least favourite pieces of the trailer so I could reflect on my work and
find out what I did well and what didn’t work so well. A strong percentage stated
they didn’t have any least favourite aspects which I am really pleased with as it
shows some respondents enjoyed all aspects of the trailer. The two options that
people stated were their least favourite was the characters and the titles/font.
Upon reflection, I would do further research into the types of font that is currently
used in soap opera and how audiences react to different types and which ones
are more popular than others. I tried keeping the font simple and professional
looking to make my products suit the BBC platform, as a lot of the things they
show are more professional and simple as opposed to exaggerated and dramatic
– however upon reflection maybe as my target audience is younger they would
prefer more interesting font.
One of the favourite aspects of my trailer was the music, therefore I know it
suited the atmosphere of the trailer and audiences liked it. Therefore I
wouldn't’t make any changes to the music. A strong amount of responses liked
the characters, however there were also responses that didn’t like the
characters, this could potentially be linked to the gender stereotype and so
from this I will do further research aimed at males and females separately to
see if people of different genders reacted differently to the characters’
storyline and gender stereotype.
At the planning stages of my project I chose to keep my trailer fairly vague and
leave a lot of unanswered questions in order to draw the audience in and make
them curious enough to go on to watch the soap. However one of my biggest
concerns with making it so vague was whether audiences wouldn't’t
understand the brief storyline and would be too confused that they would turn
off. The main plot for my trailer, although it was brief and vague was that a
relationship had broken down with violence and that the husband had killed
the wife. A small portion of the responses stated they didn’t know the
storyline, which leads me to consider that I could have made the trailer more
detailed. However the majority of responses left their answer, indicating they
knew the plot. All answers included the words domestic abuse and murder,
demonstrating that the main aspects of the plot were understood by the
audience – therefor I am happy with the response to the question.

5. This question revealed the biggest thing that audiences didn't like
was that the magazine didn’t stand out. In the next question they
said it intrigued them to watch the soap – demonstrating they didn’t
necessarily dislike the cover but just felt it didn’t stand out
significantly. Upon reflection I would incorporate brighter colours
into my magazine to make it stand out on shelves better. A fair
portion of responses did think the magazine cover stood out well,
and so I don’t think it was hugely unsuccessful in standing out,
however there is a big enough percentage that said it didn’t to make
me want to make changes and improvements.
The aspect of my magazine cover that advertised the soap trailer
was the photo of the to characters in the middle on the
background of clouds. Therefore I wouldn’t change this aspect as
it was the aspect that was successful in drawing audiences in to
want to watch the soap trailer. I am happy that overall the cover
intrigued the audiences to watch the trailer and soap as the main
aim of the ancillary products is to draw attention and viewers to
the soap and this demonstrates that the cover had done that well.
A fair percentage of the responses to this question stated they
wouldn’t make any changes which I am happy with as this shows
they were fully happy with it. The further comments all stated
something similar to ‘needed to stand out more’ which correlates
with the previous question and indicates I should incorporate
brighter colours to make the magazine cover stand out better.

6. I set this question in my survey as I wanted to assess how
successful and popular my poster was amongst my target
audience. I am really happy with the response to this question as
100% of responses felt the poster intrigued them to watch the
soap, which ultimately is the main aim of an advertising poster.
This response indicated that the colours, themes and layout of my
poster went well with the trailer and was appealing to the
audience. The cloud effect with the cropped out characters
created a dark and mysterious feel to the poster, which links well
with the general feeling and atmosphere the trailer creates –
dark, eerie and mysterious.
I am really happy with the response to this question.
100% of my target audience that answered the survey
wouldn’t make any improvements to the poster which
demonstrates it is popular amongst the target audience
and that I don’t need to make any changes to make it
more popular and more suited to the needs of my target
audience.
It was really important for the trailer, poster and
magazine cover to blend well together and look like they
suit each other – by using similar photos/colours/fonts.
This is important as it creates an image for the soap and
makes certain themes in the three products
recognisable and familiar to my soap opera – this helps
to advertise the product more efficiently.

7. In addition to the questionnaire, I decided to interview several
members of my target audience to discuss my trailer with them in
more detail. In my piece, I incorporated the stereotype that in
domestic abuse, the male is the perpetrator. This is a negative
stereotype that males are more violent, aggressive and abusive than
women. I chose to conform to common actual media products by
having the male as the abuser and using the stereotype rather that the
countertype. The countertype would have been to have the women
abuse the man as this is not stereotypically what happens and is not
what is shows in popular media products such as existing soap opera.
It was a deliberate decision to incorporate this stereotype as I felt it
would have made my soap trailer too unrealistic and different to
audiences as I also incorporated illogical verisimilitude. The
combination of a strong countertype and illogical verisimilitude may
have made my trailer too different and dissimilar to soap opera that
my audience currently watches and this may have put people off
wanting to watch my soap. Due to the fact I have a gender stereotype
in my trailer, I wanted to investigate the reaction and opinion of both
female and male audience members to see whether this negatively or
positively affected the opinions of either gender.

8. Interview with a male, aged 18:
Katie: “How do you feel about the male being the domestic abuse perpetrator as opposed to the victim?”
James: “its what I normally see on TV so it feels more familiar to me, I don’t know how I’d feel about seeing it the other
way around it’d be weird to me”
Katie: “Would you prefer it to be either way?”
James: “Like it wouldn't’t bother me that much either way, it wouldn’t make me stop watching a soap but I think its
just more familiar and normal to me for it to be the woman as the victim”
Interview with a female, ages 19:
Katie: “How do you feel about the male being the domestic abuse perpetrator as opposed to the victim?”
Lucy: “I would prefer to see more variety and less gender stereotypes in soap opera because 90% of the time you see
the woman depicted as helpless and the victim. However I do feel like it is more familiar and normal to see the
stereotypes, and at the end of the day if a soap is trying to tackle such an important issue like domestic abuse then
that’s the main thing for me – it doesn't’t bother me too much that gender stereotypes show the woman as the victim.
These interviews demonstrate that incorporating this gender stereotype affects the female and male audience
differently. I interviewed more than two people however I felt these interviews best reflected the general opinion or
each gender. The majority of the men were happy with the woman as the victim, most of them describing it as
‘familiar’ and ‘normal’ to them. However the stereotype caused slight issue amongst the women in the audience, as
most of them expressed how they would prefer things to be more equal amongst the genders and how they are
depicted in media. Neither gender demonstrated any strong feeling around the stereotypes in my piece, mainly
because they're used to seeing this in media and so it isn't shocking or outrageous for them – therefore I don’t see the
need to change my piece and change the gender roles. However, the interviews have highlighted the importance of
considering how different groups will react to different aspects. For example a heterosexual person may not care about
a negative gay stereotype in soap, however a homosexual individual may take great offence to a negative gay
stereotype. Within my piece, I tackle gender stereotypes and so it was important for me to investigate how the
separate genders reacted to this. If I had discovered that this gender stereotype of women as the victim had caused
great offense amongst the female side of my target audience, it would have caused me to change the gender roles in
my piece to accommodate with my target audience and not exclude any potential viewers for my soap opera.