Task 1 A - The Language of Advertising - AS2

Different Types of Magazines

Within the advertising and magazine industry, there are various genres that are published which have different target audiences, some examples of magazines are shown below, you can see the different techniques that they use on each cover and how it applies specifically to the genre.

                                           Sport                                                      Food

                                      Lifestyle                                                 Music
                           

                                            Teen                                                         Fitness

News                                                         Fashion

Why Are Language Devices Used?

Language devices such as:

Mode of address - This is the ways the text address the reader, for example; if they say 'you' they're addressing you, making the audience feel subjective to the author and grabs the attention. This is how the media interacts with their audience.

Alliteration - This is the occurrence of the same sound or letter; this is used to focus the attention on a particular section of text, it creates rhythm and emphasises certain words.

Power of 3 - This is used as humour because things that come in 3 are typically a funny gesture. It is an effective way of getting information across because helps the audience remember it.

Colloquial - This is used to set a different tone, its usually uses an informal and more personal tone which engages the audience even more because you're instantly connecting with your readers.

Emotive language - This is used to create emotion among the readers; words can provoke either positive or negative responses depending on what the topic of the magazine is.

Monosyllabic - These words are usually short and snappy therefore are effective to the reader.

Personal pronouns - Used to emphasise what the character is feeling, it shows that the person is sharing personal information with the audience.

Abbreviation - This is used to shorten a word or phrase so that it sounds more exciting.

Rhetorical questions - This is used to allow the reader to make their own decisions and by doing this it also emphasises the point that they're trying to make because you have to process an answer yourself.

Exclamation marks - These are used to display a strong or urgent feeling; they also express excitement because they add emphasis.

Repetition - This is used to reinforce a key idea and drive home a message to a reader.

Rhyme - This helps makes phrases more catchy and interesting which captures the readers attention. It also helps the phrase become well known because they may say it in casual conversation.

All of these techniques are used on the majority of magazine covers, but why?

I just used one as an example. The fact that I asked you a question and as my audience, it intrigued you in to thinking about the answer. That is the primary reason as to why magazine publishers use a combination of all of these techniques; to engage their audience and get them to want to read on further. This then maximises the company's profits if more people are buying the magazine and ultimately, the two goals both are based on popularity and profits.

Analyse Glamour Magazine

This glamour magazine is a good example because it uses a lot of the language techniques.
This Look magazine used exclamation marks in the quote 'Amp Up Your Look!'. There's also repetition within that sentence because the magazine is called 'Look' and it refers back to its name to engage their audience and keep them aware of what the magazine is called. The magazine also uses colloquial language, rhyme, personal pronouns and a rhetorical question all in one quote; "Are You A Rinsta Or A Finsta?". Due to the direct invitation of speech used ('You') it makes the audience feel somewhat special as if the magazine is talking directly to them. Abbreviations are used on the magazine cover where it says 'It's LBD Season!'. LBD is an abbreviation for little black dress and usually only people interested in fashion would understand this term which shows the magazine publishers reaching out to their target audience. The other techniques this magazine cover uses are: alliteration, power of 3, emotive language and monosyllabic. The example for alliteration is 'Best style & Beauty hacks' the repetition of the 'B' makes it easy for the words to be remembered as they roll easily off of the tongue. An example for power of 3 and monosyllabic is 'NYC, London, Milan' 3 well known places of fashion which also relates to the target audience. The last example would be for emotive language; 'The heath scare that's changed my life'. This changes the whole mood of the magazine, showing the audience that there is other things that go on in the world that would affect people.

Magazine of Choice

This vogue magazine demonstrates many advertising techniques such as: mode of address; the magazine cover says 'Dress up with YOUR hair'. This is directly addressing the audience and making it seem as if the magazine was made specifically for them. Alliteration; 'Fashions most fabulous florist' the repetition of the 'F's' emphasise the point that they're trying to make. This may be an opportunity to get someone's name out into the industry which is why they're trying to make their point stand out. Power of 3; 'Princesses, dresses and silver shoes' this was put in a group of 3 because they all relate to one another, there's also a slight rhyme with the endings of the words (es). Monosyllabic; the actual name of the magazine is monosyllabic 'VOGUE' and that's partly why the magazine is so famous because it has one syllable that just rolls of the tongue. Exclamation marks: 'Oh so pretty!' notice that this is one of the first things you see when you look at the magazine, not only because of the exclamation mark but because it is in a large font which makes the text stand out.  Rhyme; 'More dash than cash' - this is a catchy saying that anyone can easily remember, it is also slightly colloquial and they would also remember where they saw it which is why they used it on their magazine, they want to make their product unique and memorable to the customer therefore that's why they use all of these techniques to interest the audience and keep them interested. Baring in mind this is just the front cover and as the saying goes 'first impressions count'.

Task 9 - Referencing - AS1

Referencing

“The Media: An Introduction Edited by Adam Briggs and Paul Cobley.” “Chapter 17 Audience research by Ray Kent”. Longman 2002. ISBN 0-582-42346-5

* “The Media Magazine. The English and Media Centre.” “How I make things. Garth Jennings on making a TV commercial”. Issue 39 / February 2012. ISSN 1478-8616

“The Media Magazine. The English and Media Centre.” “Adjudicating ads. Claire Forbes”.  Issue 23 / February 2008. ISSN 1478-8616

“The Media Students Book 4th Edition”, “Chapter 9 Advertising and Branding”: Gill Branston and Roy Stafford: Routledge 2007: ISBN 0-415-37143-0

“Top 30 Programmes” :  Broadcasters Audience Research Board http://www.barb.co.uk/ www.barb.co.uk/viewing

“How we do what we do”:  Broadcasters Audience Research Board  http://www.barb.co.uk/ www.barb.co.uk/viewing

“Viewing data”:  Broadcasters Audience Research Board http://www.barb.co.uk/ www.barb.co.uk/viewing

“Five controversial TV and internet ads – video” - The Guardian www.theguardian.com › News › Media › Ad break‎ : 

“Advertising Standards Authority”: https://www.asa.org.uk/

 “AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction Second Edfition. Philip Rayner, Peter wall and Stephen Kruger.” “Part 4: Three Case Studies. Case Study 2: advertising and marketing.” Routledge 2005. ISBN 0-415-32966-3

 “Advertising | How to Advertise on Channel 4 and its platforms”: http://www.channel4sales.com/advertising.

https://www.youtube.com/

Task 8 - Sources Of Information In Advertising - AS1

Where You Can Find Information on Television Ratings and Why This Information Is Useful

You can find information on television ratings from reliable sources such as BARB. BARB stands for 'Broadcasters' audience research board' and around 11,500 individuals have BARB within their homes and this records what programmes they watch and who is in the room watching. The data is collected overnight and ratings are published at 9:30 AM the following morning for use by TV stations and advertising industries. This information is useful because it allows the industry to focus on the not so popular shows to boost publicity and hopefully boost their ratings. The reason some people may not be watching some shows is because they might not know that they're showing so knowing the ratings can help with this problem. Also it shows key strengths within the industry and it gives shows objectives, I.E getting a certain rating morning and if it drops, to change their regime.

What A Programme Profiles Is and Why An Advertising Company Might Find One Useful

Programme profiles is a breakdown of who watches the programme. This is useful to an advertiser because it allows them to target adverts to specific programmes. For example, the majority of people that would watch Downtown Abbey are women 50+ therefore the adverts shows during the breaks would be ones that are aimed to that audience. Another example would be if the a football match was on. The majority of people that watch the football are men therefore, the adverts that would show in the break would be things such as: Gillette, Razors, Nivea Men etc.

What A Rate Card Is and Why It Is Useful For An Advertising Company (ITV Media)

A rate card is how much it costs to put an advert on. Rates depend on hours, for example 'Coronation Street' is much more expensive than other programmes that are shown at a earlier, unsocial hour. This is useful for an advertising company because it creates competition in the sense that not all advertising companies can afford to pay the rates for their advertisement which allows other companies to then swoop in and take the slot.

What Information Can Be Found In An Online Advertisers' Information Packs (Channel4sales&ITV)

Both of these popular TV stations show the advertising industry what is new to their channel which gives advertisers the choice and the understanding of what audiences would be watching which they can then compare to what they want their target audiences are. They also include sponsorship and why they should choose their channel. Sponsorships are useful to advisors because it brings in money for the advertisers; they get money for trying to make money, basically. They also get publicity which makes whatever they're advertising more popular. 

Task 7 - Audience Research - AS1

Audience Research

Throughout the media industry the audience and their desires, preferences and opinions plays an important role. The entire media texts are made with an audience in mind. The producers can even make some money out of the audience, not always; sometimes. Therefore, it is important to understand what happens when an audience is introduced to a media text. Also, advertisers want to sell their products, so when they study their audience they will have a better understanding in trying to connect their product with the audience. That is why advertising industries gather information before they start producing a new advertising campaign. There are four types of audience research; descriptive, analytical, predictive and tracking
In the advertising industry audiences are carefully studied so that advertisers can understand exactly how to sell to them.

Audiences are divided and labelled into the following categories:

Standard Occupational Classification (sometimes called social grade by advertising companies)

This is a method of dividing and labelling consists of using letter codes to show their income bracket. I.E - A - Bankers, lawyers, doctors and other highly paid professions. B - teachers, graphic designers. C - nurses, office supervisors. D - skilled workers, tradesperson. E - semi/unskilled manual workers and finally F - students, unemployed, pensioners and casual workers. It is important to divide the audience into these letter codes so researchers give the correct information that is relevant to each profession.

Psychographics (a common attitude)

This method is when you divide audiences depending on the common attitudes within the audience. This includes: personality, values, interests, attitudes and lifestyles. Within this category, the publishers focus on the audiences interests activities and opinions. This is important again so the publishers know their audiences and understand them in a deeper way.

Geodemographics (where they live)

This is another method on how to get a clear target audience. This is when the publisher focuses on where the audience lives and is based on two rules. 1) People that live within the same area are more likely to share the same characteristics rather than two people from two different towns and 2) two neighbourhoods can be placed within 1 category because although they live in different areas, they may still have similar personalities. This is important to publishers because they could publish different adverts in different towns depending on the attitudes of them.

Age

Age is important when it comes to audiences because interests and occupations depend on the persons age. For example, 16 year olds aren't going to care about gardening, however, people that are 50+ are more likely to have a greater interest within the matter.

Gender

This category is important, although some people may like to categorise some aspects as sexist; it is the truth. Girls and boys have different interests, for example, girls would be more interested in makeup rather than football and vice versa. That is why it is important for publishers so they understand the generation and interests of the generation at hand.

How Information About Audiences Is Gathered By Advertising Companies

Information about audiences is gathered through 4 basic types of research. These 4 types are: descriptive research; describes the audiences characteristics. Analytical research; understands 'how' 'why' and 'what' motivates the audience. Predictive research; considers 'what if' situations and questions the audience. Tracking research; long-term research.

Usually a audience research agency, such as BARB (Broadcasters Audience Research Board) sample a population and monitor them over a period of 7 days. The data that was received is then spread across the whole population, based on percentage sample. All individuals ages 4+ are measured by BARB to get an overall idea of what to publish. The advertising agency pays the television station a certain amount of money based on its viewers.

BARB research:

Ofcom research:

Ofcom carries out research on the markets that they regulate. This includes things like their communications market report, annual report into the consumer experience, etc. Their research helps keep others informed on the new technology developments and the impact on the things that their markets regulate such as: TV, radio and on demand, telecoms, internet and many more.

Audience measurement panel is how many people are within the audience. Whether that be how many people are watching TV, listening to the radio or reading the newspaper. This helps producers understand their audience because if they're losing viewers they will change what they're advertising in order to regain interest in people. However, The Panel is just a representation, it's not exactly accurate because each person represents a number of people in the universe (particular country/area) and if 1 person represents the universe that means that every person represents 10,000 people which isn't correct. In contrast, it is impossible to interview every single person on the earth to get an exact preference so therefore, it is the most accurate way to go about it. if you want a representation of the world.

Task 6 - Methods Of Research - AS1

Why is research important?

Before planning a new advertising campaign it is important to conduct research. This is because in order to advertise a new product, you are going to need to know what the audience are in need of or what their desires are so then you are able to provide the correct information that will help them understand your business and draw in customers. Doing research will also help you understand the audience as well as them understanding you. The understanding of your audience will include: their age, their interests, their living area. These are important so you know how to conduct your advert.
There are 4 main categories, them being: Primary research, secondary research, quantitative data and qualitative data and three different purposes of why the research is carried out, them being: audience research, market research and production research.

Primary Research

Primary research examples are: carrying out questionnaires, surveys, internet forums and interviews/group research. Primary research is when you carry one or more of them examples to find out specific issues from your target audience and all your research is original data personally produced by the researcher. Researchers might use primary research to ensure they can trust the information that they are given and so they personally can interact with the audience and come to their own conclusions. An example of when to use primary research would be if you are trying to find out how what sort of music 15-18 year olds listen to using a questionnaire/survey.

Advantages:
- Greater control on how the information is collected.
- Focus' on specific issues.
- Being able to explore secondary research.\

Disadvantages:
- Expensive because the information has to be independently collected without an insight of any data prior to their research.
- Time consuming due to the fact that primary researchers start with no existing data so they have to find everything out from scratch.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is data originally found by someone else that is usually used alongside primary research. Secondary research is usually published in pamphlets, newsletters, trade publications, magazines and newspapers. People may choose to use secondary research when trying to educate other people whereas primary research is when you are trying to find out research for yourself. An example of when secondary research is used would be in magazines when you read about celebrity lives and all the 'rumours' that are said about them; rumours are secondary research.

Advantages:
- Easy because you are using pre-existing information.
- Cheap because you don't have to pay to carry out your own research.
- Quick.

Disadvantages:
- You aren't aware of who did the research and how honest/accurate it is.
- The research could possibly be biased
- Inaccuracies cannot be checked

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is research that contains numbers and measurements. Quantitative data is usually shown as a set of numbers, displayed as charts/graphs and it can also be measured. This method of research is usually used to find out basic information about their targeted audience i.e questions such as: 'how old are you?' or 'how often...?' and these questions often feature in questionnaires. Quantitative research is useful for when you are trying to discover the number side of your research and because it is based on real data (facts) rather than opinions.

Advantages 
-Large samples, Large quantity of data.
-Easy to administer

Disadvantages 
-Difficult to design a suitable questionnaire that reveals the desires of your audience.
-Mostly get asked closed questions (yes/no questions)
-Not knowing whether the participant understands the questionnaire.
-Not knowing whether the participant is being honest.
-Closed questions cannot be adapted.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research helps you find out how people feel. They use open questions so they can elaborate their answers which makes their responses personal to the participant and they can't be measured. It's important to know what your audience is thinking. Qualitative surveys are usually in focus groups or could be a one-to-one interview.

Advantages
-You can ask subsidiary questions, to get in touch with your audience.
-Find out personal information about your audience.

Disadvantages
-Small sample
-Time consuming
-Not representative
-Based on opinions rather than facts

Purposes 

Audience Research 

Audience research is when the purpose of the research is solely to find out more about your audience. There are four basic types of audience research and they are: descriptive research; describes your audience and their characteristics, i.e how old they are etc, analytical research: seeks to know what motivates your audience, why that motivates you and how it motivates you i.e 'Why did you buy the last Justin Bieber album but not his latest?', predictive research; considers 'what if' situations, i.e 'if we changed the name of our company, in what way would that affect us?'
tracking research; long term research that monitors changes taking place over time i.e 'how has the pattern for subscription season ticket sales changed over the past three years?'. Audience research is useful because in order to have a successful poll you need to have an understanding of your audience in one way or another, it also makes the participant feel as if you care about them rather than just your data.

Market Research

Market research is when you gather information about consumers needs and preferences for a product. Questions they may ask are: 'What other products are on the market?' or 'What can be done to improve out product?' etc. Research made by companies to understand what is needed in the market, that when you may use market research, that way you can learn about how to adjust your product to your audiences preferences and you can get rid of any competition within the same market. They are useful because it helps both the consumer and the provider, the consumer because they are getting what they want/need and the provider because they are selling it to them.

Production Research

Production research is used to gather material to allow a company to develop new products and ensure the whole process will run smoothly. In order to do this they investigate the technology and personnel available.  You may use production research if the audience research goes well and the market analysis is favourable a media company may decide to launch a new product within that market. They are useful because they allow companies to develop new products.

Task 5 - Regulation - AS1

Advertising needs to be regulated. Regulation takes place through two main bodies, the ASA and Ofcom. The ASA stands for advertising standard authority which was established back in 1962 by the advertising industry as a response to the complains about non-broadcast advertising. The ASA are responsible for 3 things, them being: the content of advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing in the UK, they ensure the advertising standard remain high by administering the Advertising Codes. The ASA are there in order to respond to public complaints of advertisements that may be misleading, harmful or offensive; they also conduct surveys of sensitive sectors. ASA cover all media advertisements. The second form of regulation for advertising is Ofcom and they are the commutations regulator which means they cover TV, radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobiles, postal services, plus the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. Ofcom duties are to ensure that the UK have a wide range of communicational services including high speed broadband, a variety of genres in association with high quality TV and radio programmes to appeal to a range of tastes and interests, they deal with offensive/harmful content and make sure that people who watch TV and listen to the radio are protected from this content, they protect people from discrimination in TV and radio programmes and from having their privacy invaded i.e when peoples faces are blurred in a documentary. Ofcom respond to complaints by reviewing it against the criteria (code of conduct) to ensure the complaint is valid. Any adverts that breach these codes will have to be amended or withdrawn and the advertiser will not be allowed to use this approach again. An example of codes for TV advertising would be environmental claims, they need to be up to date and not false information this also leads into another code which would be misleading the audience and prohibited advertising.

          An example of particularly controversial advertisement would be the Maria Stopes abortion advert. The advert was deemed inappropriate because the audience interpreted the video as a promotion for abortion which is a sensitive subject for many viewers. As a result of this there were 1.088 complaints which was then dealt with by the ASA who then thought it was clear that the advertisers were promoting their post-conception service and offering advice on their hotline. It was ruled that the advert was neither advocating one course of action over another. However, in addition to the complaints there were over 3,600 other objections received some prior to the broadcast and some via petitions. As a result the complaints were not upheld.  

          An example of a recent that has been removed from the air would be the 'Beach Body Ready' advert. This advert was deemed unsuitable because it gives off the impression that in order to have a 'beach body' you have to look like like the model in the advert and this made women feel uncomfortable with their bodies and due to the concerns over its weight loss claim. There were over 360 complaints mostly because it was said that the advert objectified women. The ASA met with the company to discuss its health concerns and decided that the advert would be down within 3 days. The advert is shown below:

Task 4 - Analysing A Television Advertisement In Detail - AS1

Apple Music Advertisement

The apple music advertisement is in the style of famous faces due to it using celebrity endorsement and featuring faces such as Taraji P Henson, Mary J Blige and Kerry Washington. Due to the nature of this advert being a music advertisement i would say the target audience would be teenagers and young adults as they are the people that often interact with music the most in this generation; also, they are the people that are most likely to know the people in the advert because cinemas target audience is, although more broad, still for the younger generation more than the older generation. In an emotional sense, this advert triggers excitement because you see the people in the advert having fun, laughing, listening to music; as if the music is bringing them together which makes the audience want to purchase the app because you can listen to anything at anytime with anyone and have a good time. This advert uses a brand identity and this would be 'Apple'. Throughout the advert it shows various Apple products such as the Macbook,iPhone and Dr Dre Beats which encourages the audience to buy some of their other products too; you won't find a Samsung in this advert because it is specifically for Apple. There aren't any persuasive devices used in this advert.

There aren't any special effects in this advert however, in relation to the camera work the director has used he uses a lot of long and wide shots. He uses long and medium shots as well, only close ups on the actual product to focus specifically on what they're trying to sell and its associates because usually apple music is complimentary to the apple iPhone so therefore they would be selling more than 1 product within 1 advert.

Initially the advert begins in the form of an eye line match because the camera is showing what she is looking at which is the Apple Macbook. Straight cuts are used throughout the entire advert, the sound computer graphics have been used to enhance the music in the background that all of the women are dancing to. There is bright lightening throughout the advert due to the natural source of light used.