Erin Stephenson is researching existing products to help with her final major project focusing on promoting a photographer's exhibit. She looks at the TV show Gossip Girl for inspiration as a character exhibits art and the target audience belongs to the upper middle class. By analyzing scenes involving art galleries and exhibits in the show, she hopes to understand how to attract attention from her target market. Erin also researches the York Art Gallery's Instagram presence to get ideas on promoting exhibitions through social media, including geotagging and hashtag usage. She conducts surveys and interviews to learn more about potential attendees' preferences regarding art viewing and exhibition timing.

1. Research
Erin Stephenson

2. Gossip Girl
When looking for existing products to research into for my FMP, one
show that I thought of which would help me was Gossip Girl. As the
main focus of my product is to promote a photographers exhibit, this
show came to me as inspiration because a character in the show
exhibits art and the majority of characters in this specific show belong
to the upper middle class which is also my main target audience which I
am aiming my product towards. By looking into this show, it can help
me find an understanding on why these exhibits draw attention to this
class and figure out how I can do that with my own product.

3. Gossip Girl - Character Research
As mentioned before, there is a
specific character that I am looking
into to give me some inspiration. The
character is Lily van der Woodsen.
Series Information:
 Status: alive
 First Appearance: Pilot
 Last Appearance: New York, I Love
you XOXO
 Portrayed By: Kelly Rutherford,
Brittany Snow (teenager)
A character I also looked into who
owns an art gallery of his own is
Rufus Humphrey. He is able to
attract an audience of multiple classes
to the work he sells. He also has a
very interesting character progression
as he works his way to a higher class
however still remains the same.
Series Information:
 Status: alive
 First Appearance: Pilot
 Last Appearance: New York, I Love
you XOXO
 Portrayed By: Matthew Settle

4. IMDb page
‘Privileged teens living on the upper east side of new York can hide no secret from the
ruthless blogger who is always watching.’
Creators: Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz
Stars: Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley etc.
Genres: Drama | Romance
Certificate: PG
Details:
Official sites: CWTV | ITV (UK)
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 27 March 2008 (UK)
Filming locations: Brooklyn, New York City…
Technical Specs
Runtime: 42 min
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Colour: Colour
Aspect ratio: 1.78 : 1

5. Gossip Girl – Scene Analysing
As this research is tv based, I wanted to look into a few scenes specifically to
get a better understanding of location use and see a visual representation of
someone purchasing or observing work at galleries and exhibits.
1x01
The first scene I looked into was one of the pilot episode in which we see
Rufus’ small gallery of work. In this scene, the audience sees a few of the
works being displayed which can be described as abstract but also have a
luxury feel to them. The area in which this gallery is located in the show is
Brooklyn in a ‘run-down’ building.
2x10
Another scene which I looked into involved a photographer (Aaron). In the
show you do see him presenting his work however in this scene I chose, we
see him working and taking the photos in which he later uses of serena. As well
as this scene I also looked into the ones in which his work was shown as the
way in which he presents his photos and digital work is very creative and
interesting.

6. York Art Galley
As my product is based off of promoting work to the public for an
exhibit, I thought it best to actually look into some galleries and exhibits
and see how they attract an audience through social media. Being in
the York area I also thought it would be fitting to research into my local
art gallery as well and look into how they are represented on social
media.
This will help me when creating my product because since the core
focus of my FMP is to promote a gallery/exhibit looking into a local
galleries promotion will help give me ideas on how to promote my own.

7. York Art Galley
The first place I went when researching this was to their Instagram, this meant
looking at the official page, hashtags used and the top photos that have been
tagged with the gallery’s location.
By looking at the social media, it gives me an insight on how they present
themselves online and also how they attract an audience to come to their
location.
By geotagging their posts to York, this means that their content will appear
under the location constantly.

8. York Art Galley
As I am looking into their Instagram profile, one thing I also wanted to look into
was the hashtags they use to find reach and a wider audience. Looking at the
hashtags they use, they mainly use ones associating with different styles of art
such as landscape, portrait etc. By using hashtags in social media posts, it
broadens their reach and as a result, attracting more people to their page.
One specific hashtag used is York. This hashtag will help attract people to the
location if they are also in the area. As Instagram can check your location,
posts from local businesses’ and events will commonly appear on peoples feed
so this hashtag will help attract people in the area.
When the photo was posted, there was the hashtag relating to the day. The
hashtag Monday morning is a very popular hashtag and specifically when
looked under shows wide creativity and peoples productivity.

9. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched products
have?
Something that my researched products have in common is they both
revolve around art. One being a tv product and then the other being
social media pages to promote an art gallery and their exhibits.
However they both come together showing how physical and social
media promotion works when relating to art.
What aspects of the research will you include within your
on work?
An aspect of of my research that I will be including in my work will be
using Instagram’s promotion strategies meaning hashtags, stories and
so on.

10. Questionnaire Analysis

11. Survey Monkey
• A way in which I gathered intel and opinions from an
audience is by carrying out an online survey. This
allowed me to ask people specific questions and gather
their responses to help me when creating my products.
• As the target audience I am trying to reach is 18-mid
20s, having some of my peers in college fill out the
survey was suitable however I also needed to cover the
other end of the age bracket so I also asked a few other
people to fill it out also.

12. Survey Monkey Questions
1) Have you ever visited an art exhibit or
gallery?
2) If you answered yes, how did you find
out about this?
3) Do you prefer to look at art digitally or
in person
4) Would you ever consider attending a
photographers exhibit?

13. 1) Have you ever visited an art exhibit or
gallery?
• From this question, it shows a very
even split between people who have
attended an exhibit/gallery and
people who haven’t in the past.
• This shows as a result that trying to
attract an audience to this ‘event’
needs to not only appeal to people
who have previously visited an
exhibit, but also people who haven’t
attended in the past in order to reach
my full audience.
• When creating my products I need to
take into consideration that part of
my target audience wont have
attended one in the past so I need to
make my products appeal to as
many of them as possible.

14. 2) If you answered yes, how did you find out
about this?
• The responses from this question show that the
majority of people have discovered the event
through flyers, apart from the individual
responses
• This means advertising these events gather a
bigger audience through print pieces.

15. 3) Do you prefer to look at art digitally or in
person
• With these responses, it shows that
people prefer looking at art in person.
• This could be because more types of art
are physical based, however digital art is
taking bigger steps with the evolution of
technology.
• A reason as to why people might prefer to
look at art in person is because they can
look at it closely and zoom in on the finer
details.

16. 4) Would you ever consider attending a
photographers exhibit
• This question shows that anyone who took
part in the survey, would consider attending a
photographers exhibit. In the explanations,
the general idea people were saying is that
they like photography and some have an
‘appreciation for the art of photography’

17. Interviews

18. Interviews
For my interviews, the intel I am aiming to gather is to help
me find more specifics on my audience
1. Do you see yourself attending an exhibit in
the near future?
2. If you were to attend, would you bring other
people also?
3. What is your favourite art style
4. Do you like the result of vintage cameras?

19. Interview 1
• Do you see yourself attending an exhibit in the near future?
Personally no. I would love to however the times that these exhibits are
usually running is when I am doing other things, if the times were
different then possibly, yes.
• If you were to attend, would you bring other people also?
Absolutely! The more the merrier, and also, you can discuss the
artwork with multiple people.
• What is your favourite art style
My favourite art style is abstract as the possibilities can be endless.
Also people can interpret the same art in different ways
• Do you like the result of vintage cameras?
Not really no. I am someone who likes the way in which newer models
look, that clean cut look is just amazing.

20. Interview 1
• Observation:
They are not a fan of vintage camera looks, would love to attend but
don’t have the time
• What this says about my audience:
Have other priorities apart from just going and looking at work, busy
people
• How will your product appeal to this
audience:
• Will advertise different times, that way more people can attend
• A variety of work, not solely vintage so it appeals to a wider scale

21. Interview 2
• Do you see yourself attending an exhibit in the near future?
Definitely, I always try and go to the local ones as often as possible
• If you were to attend, would you bring other people also?
Yes, I like to bring my friends and family along with me that way we can
all experience it together
What is your favourite art style
I don’t know if it is a specific art style but I love landscape work.
Scenery work is very calming to me and I love how they can go from
simple to extremely detailed.
• Do you like the result of vintage cameras?
I wish I could say yes but I haven’t seen enough of the look to form an
opinion of it.

22. Interview 2
• Observation:
They like to attend exhibits and galleries with other people. Their
favourite type/style of art is landscape work however they didn’t specify
using which media – could be paintings, pencil, photography and so on.
What this says about my audience:
They want to attend them more often, tend to only go to local events as
its convenient for them.
How will your product appeal to this
audience:
• They want to see more vintage work, mix it in the variety. This could
be vintage film strips and the photos can be altered in editing

23. Bibliography

24. Bibliography
1. IMDb Gossip Girl (2020) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397442/
2. Lily Van Der Woodsen information
https://gossipgirl.fandom.com/wiki/Lily_van_der_Woodsen
3. Rufus Humphrey information
https://gossipgirl.fandom.com/wiki/Rufus_Humphrey
4. Survey Monkey https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/H6Q5ZHP
5. Gossip Girl . 2009. Gossip Girl S02E10 Bonfire of the Vanity HQ. [online].
[Accessed 30 March 2020]Available from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57CIdSH4zyI
6. Rufusandlily. 2007. Rufus/Lily – 1x01 (Part 1/1). [online]. [Accessed 30
March 2020]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki7sBm26FFc&feature=emb_logo
7. York Art Gallery. 2020. York Art Gallery’s Profile. [Instagram]. [Accessed
31 March 2020] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/yorkartgallery/
8. Geo location https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/682642/york-
art-gallery/