The document discusses the effectiveness of combining a main product (a trailer) and ancillary texts (magazine and poster) to promote a new soap opera. It argues that presenting the show across different media platforms allows the author to reach a wider audience and reveal different elements of the show. Key themes of mystery, chess, and teenage pregnancy are conveyed through clues in the products to attract young viewers. Including social media links and the BBC logo associates the show with a popular channel and allows young, internet-savvy audiences to access it online through multiple devices. Overall, the combination of products appeals to target audiences' interests while capturing attention through varied presentation of the show's elements.

1. How effective is the combination of your main product and
ancillary texts?
My main product and ancillary texts work effectively together to promote my soap opera ‘Black
& White’ as I believe they are capable of attracting my target audience, 16-24 year old males
and females (Hartley), into discovering more about this brand new show. The soap opera genre
is popular and generally associated with a specific group of people, typically middle-aged
women. However according to BBC Two, their reach to younger viewers has dropped and their
audience would like more challenging of contemporary issues. Therefore I believe I have
created a soap opera that would appeal to a younger demographic, as the inclusion of
contemporary issues is something presented in my trailer, specifically through the use of our
key themes – teenage pregnancy and alcoholism.
Personally, I think that the combination of my trailer, magazine and poster has been successful,
as they have formed an effective symbiotic relationship based on the consistency shown
throughout my products. I believe that by promoting my soap across three different media
platforms it has allowed me to suffieciently advertise the new show as it gives me the
opportunity to reach a wider audience and broaden audience attraction. An example of the
combination of my texts include my presentation of cross-media convergence through the use
of social network links, this therefore allows my audience to access more information about the
soap opera through Facebook and Twitter. Plunkett (2008) said that UK media power players
were going “straight to their audience via the web” and I have done the same thing by
publicising my product through social media. I’ve used synergy in this way since my target
audience can be identified as early adopters which means that they are more familiar with
social media than any older generation and use it more. Therefore they are more likely to learn
about new TV shows that will appeal to them through social media than anywhere else.
Furthermore, the use of a logo as a form of brand affinity is presented through all my products
which is effective as it is easily recognisable and creates the soap opera’s own personal identity.
It is also used as an enigma clue (Barthes) to signify the three storylines that overlap in our
trailer containing our three protagonists who experience some sort of “disequilibrium”
(Todorov), where it is implied that this is caused by the hidden character who plays chess.
Also, the colour scheme of black and white is prevalent in each product to emphasise the theme
of chess and the binary opposition (Levi Strauss) of these two distinct colours in order to
convey to the audience that a game is being played with the main characters that they are
unaware of. Therefore, the audience will become ‘survivors’ (Maslow) and want to know what
the outcome of the game will mean for the characters.
Overall, this means that the social network links, logo and colour scheme of black and white all
play key parts to my products as they allow me to effectively attract my target audience in a
variety of ways and create my soap operas own original identity.
My products represent the themes of mystery and chess as they are the main features of our
narrative. The theme of chess is particularly evident in my trailer and poster as there are shots
in the trailer of the hidden character moving the chess pieces, and my poster uses a close up of
chess pieces on a chessboard as the main image; which adds to the mysterious element of my
soap opera. This theme is less obvious in my magazine front cover however as the three main
characters are presented instead. Though I believe this is more effective at attracting my young
target audience because by using convergence to present my product through three different
platforms, I am able to reveal different elements of my soap opera through each one so the
audience can fit the pieces together to get an overall idea of what the show is about. For
example, there is also a slight hint towards the theme of teenage pregnancy in the show
through my magazine front cover as the female character is shown covering her stomach with

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and
ancillary texts?
her hand. Furthermore, this theme offers a “window into the world” (Wendy Helsby) of what
some of my target audience may be able to ‘personally identify’ (Katz) with, which may
encourage them to watch the show.
It was also important that the BBC Two logo was present across all of my products so my target
audience would associate my soap opera with the channel as it is well-known in television. In
addition, this channel association was essential as the BBC offers the iPlayer streaming service
which has been greatly successful due to its availability on a variety of different multi-media
platforms such as smartphones, iPads, laptops and even on video game consoles such as the
Xbox One and 360 along with Sony Playstations 3 and 4. Due to the fact that my target audience
is young people who tend to be digital natives rather than digital immigrants like older
generations, they would be more familiar with and more likely to use platforms like their
smartphones and video game consoles to access programmes in this channel, which allows
them to watch their favourite shows whenever and wherever they want at a simple click of the
button. Therefore, by associating my soap opera with this channel in my trailer, magazine front
cover and poster, it effectively appeals to my target audience who are most likely to discover
this new show through web 2.0 and even encourage them to watch it.
In conclusion, I believe that the combination of all three of my products is effective at capturing
the attention of my target audience as they allow me to appeal to their interests in different
ways such as the themes and characters presented and how they access the show e.g. through
the internet like most young audiences nowadays use.