Examples of media research institutions

One of the largest and best known research institutes is Nielsen. Nielson research includes television, films, newspapers and radio. Nielsen offer a number of areas that they can conduct research into including advertising effectiveness, marketing performance and promotional strategy’s. For each area they conduct a number of test to increase accuracy, for example when carrying out research in advertising effectiveness they:

• Find out what audience the advert is reaching
• Compare how much one company is spending on advertising against another
• Improve advertising strategy’s  
• See if the improvements have made the brand more memorable and likeable

Another example of a media research company is SKOPOS which operates in mostly European countries, and again carries out research in areas such as PR evaluation, brand evaluation and website evaluation. 

Clearly the fact that there are many different research companies shows how competitive media companies are and how vital research is to help companies to sell their product, otherwise these companies wouldn’t exist. 

BARB and RAJAR audience ratings

1) This week the most viewed channel was BBC1 with an average of 25,744,000 people viewing per week. 

2) The most popular programme in recent weeks was ‘New Tricks’, it may have got such a large viewing because they have recently released a new series, which is likely to bring in more viewers. 

3) BARB produces the official viewing figures for UK television audiences. They do this to allow TV channels, advertisers and interested parties to asses how certain programmes or adverts have performed. To collect the data BARB uses a panel of private homes and has a box installed that monitors what television they have been viewing. The homes are selected to make sure that all the demographics in the UK are represented fully. The information from the sample is then multiplied to represent the whole population of Britain. The information is then released as viewing figures each day, and then later consolidated figures are produced that take into account time shift viewing. 

4) BBC radio made a reach of 35,880,000 in June 2013, compared to commercial radio making a reach of 35,064,00 in the same month. Therefore the BBC makes a larger audience reach. 

5) Fire Radio South Coast has the least average hour per listener, at only 2.3. The most average hours per listener lies with the Magic 999 (Preston) with 14.2. 

3)

Rating are important to TV broadcasters because it allows them to see how successful their show is, and allows them to see if it is making enough viewers to stay on the air. 

It also allows them to see if there show is reaching there target audience that they are aiming for.

They are also important because they allow advertisers to see if there advert has reach a suitable amount of people, and also gives them an idea of where to advertise if they want to reach the most amount of people.

Audience Research Segmentation Examples

a) Men 16-34

The demographic of this group is young Males aged between 16 and 34.

The geographic of this group isn’t stated on thinkbox, this therefore means that where they are based is’t relevant to this group.

The phycographic of this group is that they tend not to watch television a lot, but when they do they tend to enjoy programs that are the genre of sport, comedy or factual. They also tend to watch television only later at night, or ‘post-pub’ as it states on the think box website.

Men 55+

The demographic of this group is older Males, aged 55+

The geographic of this group again isn’t stated to is not relevant.

The physcographic of this group is that they they tend to have a lot more free time than the younger male audiences, meaning they have more time to consume media content. They also tend to enjoy game shows such as countdown and pointless, as well as a lot of news programming. They also tend to enjoy special interest programs like documentaries and sport. 

Women C2DE

The demographic of this group is Woman of a mixed age group.

The geographic tend to be women living in the United Kingdom.

The phycographic of this group is that they enjoy watching television, with almost 20% admitting they are TV addicts, and as a result enjoy having a large amount of channels and programming to choose from. People of this group also tend to share there television viewing with there children, as a channels such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network are highly viewed in this group. This group also tends to use the interactive options of there television a lot more than the Male C2DE group.  

 b)

For the Male aged 16-34 category I think that the phycographics are quite accurate, I agree with the fact that they tend to only watch television late or ‘post-pub’, and also tend to enjoy comedy shows. However, I disagree with the statements that they tend to enjoy sports based content the most, as I think that comedy shows would be watched more a lot more frequently then them. I also think that they would tend to enjoy drama series (such as Utopia and Breaking Bad) which aren’t even mentioned in the phycographics of this group. Therefore I think that these phycographics are very generalised for this age group, possibly not fully representing this group. However I know that they have to be generalised as everyone is an individual and everyone in this age range will never fit into a group. 

How and why do media companies define audiences?

Media companies define audiences in a number of ways. One way that companies do so is through the use of demographics. Demographics are the basic facts about a person, for example there gender, age, occupation and race. Audiences are often broken down into certain categories which use a number of these facts. For example one use on the ‘thinkbox’ website is Males aged 16-34 and Females aged 55+. They can even be put into a classing system, which uses a persons occupation to class what kind of product they would be interested in. For example someone who is in the A class (higher management, royalty) are likely to enjoy different things to someone who is in the C2 class (skilled manual workers). This give the media company the basic break down of an audience and allows them to apply what they think will appeal to that audience. This way of dividing audience is the simplest way and has some flaws. just because people share the same information,  for example a White 20 year old Male, doesn’t mean that they share the same interests, and can be leading completely different lives. However, in some consequences this would work, if you where selling a new car you would obviously know that your audience are all going to be above the age of 18. This information is quantitative.

A more advance way of dividing audiences is by using psycographic profiling. This doesn’t focus on the ‘facts’ about people but more on their views, interests, attitudes, opinions and lifestyle. The media company will look at all this information and then try to understand more about how that person may think, by doing this they will be able to manipulate their product to make it more appealing to the group that they have chosen. This type of information is qualitative 

 The best way to find out about an audience is to use both these techniques together, doing this will give you a lot of facts about that audience but also an insight into how their mind works therefore giving you a better understanding of audience when compared to using one technique alone.

Media companies will want to define their audiences in these ways because it means that they can know exactly what type of person their product will appeal to, and then focus in on that group by making it even more attractive to them. For example, if they are trying to sell a hair care product they will know to target it to Women aged between 16 and 40 who care about their appearance rather than Men aged 60 - 70. This saves the company pitching the product to the wrong people in the wrong way, boosting sales and saving money on false marketing.

A good example of the use of audience division, here is a table that shows how much advertising space is prices on ITV: 

What do media researchers want to know about audiences?

• Preferred genres, actors, plots, locations tastes and preferences.
• Demographics, psychographics and geodemographics
• Habits and hobbies
• Media consumptions patterns
• Audience Appreciation Index (measurement of how much an audience enjoys a certain show)
•  Viewing figures

Quantitative Research Task

1. 

The most cinema tickets where sold in 2002 at just over 1,500,000,000.The least cinema tickets where sold in 1995 at just over 1,000,000,000. Tickets sales dropped after 2002, which is around the time that the internet began to really take off. With the rise of the internet piracy became a real threat from the movie industry as there was no real need to pay to watch a film in the cinema as it became almost instantly available on the internet.

2.

The two most successful creative types where contemporary fiction with 3,993 films made and the second most successful was kids fiction with 323 films made.

3.

To make the most gross profit you should make a film MPAA rated PG-13, which average a gross profit of $42,384,195 and hold a market share of 45.08%. From this we can see that younger audiences have a huge impact on the amount of money that a film will make, as we can see that films that are rated NC-17 only make an average profit of $3,470,142 and hold only 0.04% of the market. 

4.

The top five earning American films of all time are, Avatar, Titanic, Marvels The Avengers, The Dark Knight and Star Wars E.p 1: The Phantom Menace. From this we can see that most of these are from the action and sci-fi genres, clearly showing that these are the most popular genres of film. Also, all these films have

5.

The films that have a larger budget seem to just about break even from the US gross, but gain a lot of gross from the Worldwide Gross, so in other words its seems that the more you spend on a film the more you earn. This is with the exception of ‘John Carter’ which failed to make to make any profit.

The Nature of Media Research

Production Research

Can you get the rights to use the story if its not your own idea?

• Have you specifically asked for permission from the author to create a film from their idea?

What locations are you planning to use?

• How long will you need to use each location for? (Quantitative)
• How many different locations would you need? (Quantitative)
• What time of year would be best to film in that location?
• Would you be able to get permission to use that particular location?
• Would the location be accessible for a complete film crew (ease of access)
• Is there an electricity supply available for the crew to use?
• Can things be changed in the location e.g painting or new builds? 

What staff would you need to hire?

• Would you have a whole production team, or just a few members?
• Would they all be available to work for the entire project?

What equipment would be needed?

• Would you need to hire equipment such as the camera?
• Would there be any specialist equipment you would require, for example a dolly and track?

If the story is non-fiction or a documentary would it be historically correct?

• Have you fully researched the time that the film is set?
• What kind of attire would the actors have to be wearing?
• Would the locations used be suitable?
• What kind of props would you have to acquire?

Would any post production be need?

• How much would be needed?
• How long would this take to do?
• Would you have to hire any specialists to do it?

Market Research

Have there been any previous films that are of similar genre to this one?

• Have they done well, e.g have they made a profit or a loss? (Quantitative)
• Is there any in production at the moment?
• Has that genre peaked, e.g are they not doing so well any more, are they still popular?

Does the film have a unique selling point?

• Is there something that will make the film different to previous releases? 

When are you planning to finish and release the film?

• What time of year are you planning to release? e.g in the summer, when young people are off school
• Are there any highly anticipated films releasing at the same time that may cast a shadow on your release?

Where are you planning to release the film?

• Are you going to get it into the cinemas or straight to DVD? Could you use a newer medium such as the internet or mobile stores?
• Which medium will suit your film best?
• Have these other places of release made as much money as a cinema release? (Quantitative)
• If it was released in cinemas first would it available on other mediums later?

Would the age rating of the film affect how many people it will research?

• Is it suitable for children? or is some of the content too mature?
• If it was an 18 would it limit the amount of people who see it?
• If it was put on a lower rating would it constrict the original idea of the story?
• What countries would it be released in?
• Would it be accepted by all audiences or could it offend certain cultures in different places in  the world?
• Is there certain countries where it would do better than others?
• Would it only be available in the language it was filmed in or would it be subtitles or dubbed?

Production Budget

How much is the film going to cost you? What is the negative cost? (Quantitative)

• How much is it actually going to cost to produce, for example wages for all of staff, equipment and locations hire, electricity usage, post production, catering and expenses such as travel and fuel. (Quantitative)

What happens if the film runs over budget? (negative pick-up) (Quantitative)

• When a large production company (such as Warner Brothers) buys a film before its made they will give the producer a budget to spend, and this it the only money they will provide. The extra money will have to be found and will cut into the amount of profit that the film will make. This is why research must be completed accurately, to insure the negative pick-up is kept to a minimum. 

How much is the film going to cost to market? (Quantitative)

• How much is it going to cost to market the film to an audience, for example what are the total cost of the posters, trailers, interviews, TV and cinema adverts going to cost to make a distribute to the correct places?

How much profit will the film actually make? (Quantitative)

• This is the amount of money that the films makes after all the negative costs and pick ups have been exceeded
• This money can be made from a variety of sources, for example box office sales, DVD sales, Television showings, merchandising and memorabilia