The document discusses research conducted on the target audience for J Cole's music. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube showed that his most engaged fans were aged 18-25 and enjoyed upbeat hip hop songs. Feedback was gathered from fans on these sites to learn more about what they liked and expected from a J Cole music video. Test animatics and drafts of the music video, magazine advert, and digipak were shared with target audiences to refine the creative work based on their recommendations. Key lessons included taking audience advice on pacing scenes to the beat and removing confusing elements. Color themes and symbols important to J Cole's brand were also incorporated based on fan research.

1. What have you learnt from your audience
feedback

2. Target audience
There were a lot of factors that we did not take into consideration
when establishing our target audience. So to be sure we decided
to go onto sites such as MTV, Roc Nation and Westside where
they had dedicated sections for J Cole. This was helpful as there
were spaces for people to leave comments and we were able to
find out the rough ages of those interested enough to comment.
The fan pages and magazine adverts that were dedicated to J Cole
also helped as this was a more in detail profile of his fans and the
people that enjoy his music
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube were very helpful in us being
able to determine our target audience. Once on these social networking
sites we saw a common theme amongst teenagers to post and share videos
of their favorite songs which were usually upbeat Hip hop songs. After
choosing our music video we dug deeper into these sites and established
that the audience for genre was 18-25. It could have been lower but as
parents are reluctant to allow their younger children to have these accounts
we can not be sure, however the videos are usually heavily packed with a
lot of sexual content so the target audience we have identified is
representative of that.
On Twitter it was much easier to see exactly who enjoyed J Cole's music, as
there is an follow button that people press if they enjoy what someone
posts or comes out with, and J Cole was a very popular member on twitter
amongst the younger generation.

3. Target audience research
These are images that relate to the various
forms of audience research I conducted
from tour dates and fan photos to twitter
retweets, and YouTube hits in order to get
a clearer idea of J Coles fans. The best
form of research in terms of the internet
was his website where there is a section for
fans to ask questions and communicate
with the artist, thus meaning we got a clear
idea of our target audience.

4. CHARACTER PROFILE AND
FEEDBACK
This is the character profile of our star of the
music video but it is also the profile of one of the
many people that J Cole’s songs are aimed at/to.
Many of J Coles songs consist of a lot of pain in
the lyrics and there is always a track amongst the
album that all of his fans in particular can relate
to. This person in particular is almost built for the
song Crooked Smile as the song is about
overcoming your insecurities and realising that
you are just as good as everyone else if not better.
These images are words of support from fans
over twitter. Through my research I found
that one of the things that the fans love most
about J Coles songs is that they can always
feel the emotion from the song, thus enabling
them to connect and relate to it. Weirdly, this
response was frequent amongst both the male
and female audience even though the
common misconception is that males do not
express their feelings. This served to add to
the cliché that music connects people in a
way like no other.
This is an interview of two people who fit
into our target audience range of 18-25.
This interview outlines favorite
genre/artist, concepts they would expect
to see, and just a general overview of
their thoughts about J Cole. This helped
us as we were able to take their thoughts
into consideration whilst making our
video, meaning that we were able to add
elements which we knew would appeal to
our target audience.

5. ANIMATIC FEEDBACK
We asked another two people who fit into our target audience
what there initial reaction to what our animatic feedback was.
The aim of this was to find out what elements they thought
were successful, what elements appealed to them and what
they thought needed improving in order to make our music
video a success
After watching the animation the audience felt that the
‘lyrics matched the animation’ and that they were very
illustrative of the lyrics. They understood the concept of
the video and thought that this was something that they
would expect to see in a J Cole video. They also found that
there were more positives than negatives thus meaning it
was successful.
The Montague of the teeth is
very clever and effective as it
links with the title of ‘Crooked
Smile’
The concept of the video is
really good and the message
of the girls insecurities is put
across very well
Some scenes drag on a little bit
too long, perhaps you should try
to use quicker cuts to go with
the beat of the song
Its good as the story relates
to a lot of people in the
target audience
The use of the OK magazine then
cutting to her looking at herself in
the mirror was very effective as it
highlights her insecurities
In order to appeal to the target
audience, we felt that we should take
inspiration from the ideas expressed
by the audience. Therefore, whilst
planning our video we decided to take
the advice of making the scenes shorter
by ensuring that it cuts in sync with the
beat. This was a very welcome and
effective improvement as this sped up
the action in the video and made it a
lot more upbeat and lively, as well as
pleasing the target audience. Although
hip hop music can have a dark tone
when the lyrics are not joyful, we
decided that we had to have a use of
color as this is what attracted the
younger audience. However, we did
not want to overuse color as this would
have strayed too far from the genre.
Luckily, we found that our audience
preferred narrative based structure so,
we were able to use a contrast from
dark to light to good effect in our
video to show the character
overcoming her insecurities and going
from a place of loneliness and darkness
to a place of hope and acceptance.

6. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
We showed our music video to several people who fit our
target audience and asked them for their feedback
After receiving feedback from our
audience we were not too confident that
we had met their expectations of a J
Cole music video. When quizzed on
what they liked they expressed that they
enjoyed the raw emotion that was
conveyed through the final scene in
which the character is by herself but
then slowly joined by her new friends.
However, they expressed a few faults
with the video. Technically there were a
couple of scenes that were blurry and
the camera was out of focus which
meant that it did not have a professional
feel to it. We took this advice on board
and filmed the sequence again but this
time making sure the auto focus was
working properly and that all the shots
were centrally framed, thus giving it
more of a professional look and looking
more like what the audience expect.
Another fault expressed about our video was a contradiction
of the animatic in which the audience did not understand
some of the sequences of action. After much deliberation, we
decided that the audience know best and as a result decided to
remove the skate park section and add in more footage of the
main character as advised by various members of our target
audience. This was a very successful move as the video then
appealed more to our target audience and we received a lot
more positive reviews.
In order to continue appealing the
target audience through the digipak
and magazine advert we decided to
use inspiration from some of the
feedback.

7. Magazine Advert
Once we started the production of
our magazine advert we were torn
between what design we should go
forward with as well as what font
would be most suitable
We made different designs of the
font and positioning of the text
which we then compared with real
media texts and asked for feedback
on which design was best and why
Through our audience feedback I
found that the devil symbol was one
of the most representative and linked
with J Cole so we decided to have
this image on the magazine advert.
Most hip hop magazine adverts had
the name of the artist, album name
and song on it so we decided we
would follow the conventions and
do the same which made for a
professional look to our magazine
advert
We constructed different images
of the devil face and when we
asked for audience feedback we
got advised that a mix of the
elements of the title, outline of
the face and the smile would all
fit in well and give it a sense of
originality, so we decided to
follow this. This turned out to
be very effective and we learned
that the ‘audience always knows
best’
Through more research that
we conducted we found that
over all genres of music they
usually have a rating on the
magazine advert and the
record label symbol so we
decided to follow suit in the
hope of making it look
professional
Whilst strolling through the J Cole fan pages and his
official website we found a key theme of black and
yellow in his work so we decided to follow this In our
magazine advert and have a yellow line inside a black
background. This worked very well and it also proved to
be an element of synergy as this colour theme is kept in
the digipak as well, making the products easily
recognisable as J Cole’s

8. Digi-pak
We were given clear
indications that the
Montague of the teeth was
very successful in the
video so we decided to
implement that in our
digipak as either the back
cover or one of the inside
panels. The feedback we
received also highlighted
the affection for the
chorus due to the ability
for the audience to relate
to it and feel sympathy for
the character some
decided to make sure that
we had a panel in he
digipak with these specific
lyrics.
Our audience also told us that they
loved the emotion on the face of our
main character and the element of
unhappiness in ‘crooked smile’ but
we were not able to put her face on
the advert as she was not the artist
so we decided to have a dismantled/
cracking mirror effect of a face on
the advert which related to the
‘crooked smile’ and unhappiness
emotion that the audience enjoyed in
the video.
We were torn between what image
to use for the front cover of the
digipak as all of them conveyed the
message we were trying to get
across. After getting feedback from
the audience we decided to go with
the first image as the audience felt
that it looked more appealing,
whereas some of the others looked
like images for a horror movie not a
hip hop video. They also stated that
it could be something that J Cole
would potentially have on his
digipak cover.
The biggest lesson I have learned
from audience feedback is when
you can’t make a decision the
audience definitely will be able to
and 9 times out of 10 it is the
correct one.