Research into target audience.

1. Target Audience
From the brief of the “Smile” Campaign from Mind, they described their target audience as people in our
community who are aged 15-25. Because of this I decided to learn more about my target audience by creating
a survey for them to answer. I received 11 responses from my survey where I asked questions such as their
age, gender, how often they get stressed, what they do when they get stressed and what they enjoy doing in
their spare time. This survey was anonymous, meaning that people could answer and we wouldn’t know who
said what, therefore the participants were more likely to answer the questions honestly.

2. Analysis
From my research you can see most of my target audience are 16-20 years old, with one person being under 16
and one being older than 20, overall, they are still fitting our target audience of 15-25.
Also, out of the 12 that completed the survey, 3 of those were male and 9 were female, showing that females
dominate our target audience. This could technically alter the campaign as although it needs to be inclusive, it
may need to be more aimed towards females, as they are more out target audience, as shown by this survey.
With the ”spare time” question, participants could answer more than once, this was so we could see what they
all enjoy, if they enjoy doing more than one thing and couldn’t decide on one specific answer. With the top
answers being watching films or TV and seeing friends and the least common answer being exercise. This tells
us more about what makes our target audience happy, showing us what doesn’t make them stressed and what
could help them be happier. Therefore, we could use aspects of the answers to this question in our campaign.
The “How often do you get stressed?” question showed that the majority do get stressed with 4 answering
almost always, 5 answering sometimes, 2 saying never and 1 not at all. This says to us that most of our target
audience do get stressed and on a regular basis, therefore this campaign is needed to help those people.
When asked what causes them to get stressed, the participants had the option to choose more than one
answer, as from my research into mental health it shows that there can be several causes, not just one. The
main answers for this question was education with 8 votes and work and family with 6 votes each. From this we
know not to remind the viewers of our campaign about these issues as this could cause them to stress which we
do not want to happen. We could however mention ways of how to deal with stressful situations that happen
because of these aspects, now that we know what is causing them to have problems and is negatively impacting
their life.

3. The answers for the “How would you describe your mental health?” questions varied with 4 answering okay,
3 answering good, 3 answering bad and 2 saying very bad. Overall more people seem to be struggling from
these answers as half of the responses answered “bad” or worse. This highlights the need for the Smile
campaign and how many people in our target audience are mentally in a bad place and could be needing
help.
When the participants were asked if they consider themselves to have a mental health disorder, two thirds
answered yes (8 out of the 12 responses). I specifically stated that the disorder didn’t have to be diagnosed,
this is because the person answering the survey may be struggling with a mental condition but don’t have
anyone to talk to about it to reach out for help and therefore don’t have a formal diagnosis. The fact that
over half of the answers stated that they do, shows how many people in the 15-25 age range are struggling.
For the “What do you do to make yourself feel better?” question the participants could choose more than
one answer, however these answers were quite mixed. Only 3 voted to talk to someone about their
problems, 9 voted to see friends to make themselves feel better (which doesn’t necessarily men they talk
about their problems with their friends) and 9 voted to have time alone. Overall this shows that people
generally choose not to talk about their problems to others, and therefore prefer to keep their issues to
themselves. This shows how people in our target audience may need to speak up about their problems and
this campaign could help them to do so. However, I understand how difficult that may be for them, yet
opening up to someone may help them to get help and support from others, so they don’t feel as alone and
isolated.
When asked if their mental health affects their everyday life, only 2 voted no, 3 voted sometimes and 7 voted
yes showing that 10 out of the 12 who participated have their lives negatively impact by their stress and
mental health, highlighting how many are struggling and how in need this campaign is.

4. As shown from the "What do you do to make yourself feel better?" Question, only 3 voted to talk to
someone about their problems, I knew the votes for that response would have been quite low, which is why
I decided to ask a follow up question of, "Who do you go to when looking for support?". The reason I asked
this question was to see if they did talk to someone about their emotions who that person would be. For
this question you could choose more than one answer as I knew people would probably talk to more than
one person. The majority answered friends with 7 votes, 5 said family (however two personalised their
answers saying their dad and brother, therefore there is 7 votes for family), two said their boyfriend and
two said a mental health organisation. This overall shows that the participants talk to the people that they
are closest to for help and support, rather than people who they don't really know well, such as the people
at mental health organisations. Also, from my research I found out that there is roughly a 6-month waiting
list to receive counselling from Mind and people only receive this help if they have reached out and have
been taken seriously, showing that only few are lucky to get professional support as it can take some time
to get it and that’s if they are brave enough to reach out to someone in the first place. This question also
links to "What causes you to get stressed" as even though 6 people voted family and 4 voted friends, many
would still go to those people for support.
Finally, I asked the participants if they were employed, this was to help with my other question of "What
causes you to get stressed?" As if they don't have a job and aren't looking for one, that will not make them
stressed. However, if they do have a job or are looking to find one and are struggling to do so, this could
cause them to get stressed.

5. Target audience profile
• Aged 15-25
• Majority are female
• Enjoy watching TV and film, seeing friends, reading and any hobbies
• Majority get stressed quite often
• Education, work and family are their main causes of stress (most are employed or
looking for work)
• All described their mental health differently, however no one described it as
"very good"
• Two thirds said they have a mental health issue
• They either spend time alone or see their friends when stressed
• Mental health effects their day-to-day life
• Go to friends or family for support