Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback was crucial when making our media products (music video, website and album) because we needed to know whether MiraJax will appeal to our fans and whether or not they will be inclined to listen to more of MiraJax's music. In order for our duo to be successful, all of our media products have to reach and appeal to our target audience in a way that leads to MiraJax earning profit (e.g. selling albums, tour tickets, merchandise, etc).

I will go on to explain our target audience, secondary audience and tertiary audience in the diagram below.



In order for our target audience to gain anything from our products in the first place, we needed to look into a theory of how to appeal to audiences. One that we found particularly useful is the 'Uses and Gratifications' theory which is explained and then applied below.

Whilst constructing each media product, we decided we would get audience feedback throughout so that we could make the changes suggested by our target audience in order for our final products to be as appealing as possible. Audience feedback and the changes we made for our music video, website and album are listed below.

Music Video

We asked a member of our target audience to watch our rough cut video before we went on to film and edit the real video so that we were aware of all the improvements we needed to make. The member we chose is a 17 year old female who enjoys listening to electropop. Our rough cut video can be seen below.

   

Initial Feedback

We then asked her to give us feedback on it, stating some of the things she liked but mainly focusing on the improvements that we could make. Her feedback can be seen in the video below.

Improvements we made

We took on board the improvements that she mentioned and worked on making our argument scene clearer. In our rough cut, the argument lacks continuity and seems a bit rushed. We worked on this by trying out different camera angles in the real shoot and sticking to the editing rules. We also focused on coming up with a scenario that could be improvised, so that it didn't seemed staged or unnatural. The rough cut and then the changes we made in the real video can be seen below.

             
             

We also worked on adding more movement to our studio shots because as our target audience member mentioned, the shots were to static and looked dull and boring, however she was able to gain entertainment as mentioned in the uses and gratification theory, by watching the colourful studio set ups. We used a dolly in the real shot to add variety to the shots and make them more visually interesting. The rough cut and then the changes we made in the real video can be seen below.

             
             

We then created a survey using 'Survey Monkey' to collect some final data and see if our music video was successful overall. Ultimately we wanted to know if people liked the video and whether or not it promoted our duo well. Alongside this, we wanted to find out if the target audience we had in mind is the audience that our video actually appealed to.

The link to our survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NMSM5GT

We asked the following questions:

• What is your age? (Multiple choice)
• What is your gender? (Multiple choice)
• What music genre(s) do you listen to? (Multiple choice)
• Having watched the music video, which genre do you think this song falls under?
• Having watched the music video, would you like to know more about MiraJax?
• Having watched the music video, is there anything you would change?
• What message do you think the music video is trying to portray?
• What would you rate the music video out of 10? (Multiple choice)
• How well do you think the music video works with the song track? (Multiple choice)
• Did the music video make you want to buy the album? (Multiple choice)

From these questions, we found out that yes, our music was successful as the data shows that our audience liked the video and our duo were promoted well.

Final Feedback

Evidence to show our audience liked the video can be seen by the ratings it got out of 10 as shown on the left. The average score for our music video is 8.75 out of 10, going by the eight people that took part in the survey. This is a solid score that as a group we are very pleased with. When I asked someone who took the survey why they rated it so highly, they explained that they felt they could relate to the artist, something which is also highlighted in the uses ans gratification theory.

Evidence to show that our duo were promoted well can be seen by the amount of people that wanted to get to know more about them and would buy the album based on the video. As demonstrated by the picture on the right, 6 out of 8 people wanted to get to know more about MiraJax, suggesting that they were promoted in a good light and are able to build a fan base.

Something that did surprise me, were the results to the question three, which asked people what music genres they mostly listen to. Judging by all the positive feedback for our music video, I was expecting most of their answers to be 'electropop'. However, as can be seen in the photo on the left, electropop was the least common music genre. This shows that our duo actually appeal to a slightly wider target audience than we thought as fans of different music genres still thoroughly enjoyed our song. This works in our favour as having a wider target audience means that MiraJax will have a bigger fan base and have a better chance at earning profit.

Analysis of final feedback

Overall, we are very pleased with the final audience feedback as it proves that we made a successful music video which appealed to many people aged 16-24. Audience feedback played a huge role in the process of making the video as it enabled us to listen to what our audience thought and then make adaptions according to their opinions. When thinking about the uses and gratification theory, it is clear that our music video incorporated these elements. Our audience were able to gain entertainment from the studio shots (as seen in Flo's interview), and they were able to relate to the artist or feel some kind of connection to them (seen in the survey results as many people wanted to know more about MiraJax).

Website

We aimed to create a website that is easy to navigate, has many purchasing and interactive opportunities and allows for the audience to gain insight in MiraJax's style and brand as whole. Throughout the process of making our music video we took audience feedback to see what people liked and what we could improve upon.

Initial Feedback

One of the main things that things that people liked was the behind the scenes video which allowed for them to see Mira and Jack acting like their normal selves and how they are together when not filming. Another thing that people liked was the visual idea - lots of different colours and photos which made the pages more interesting. An example of the background across two different pages can be seen to the right. On the top page, the background is neon lights and on the page beneath, the background is our logo in monogram print.

Improvements we made


One main thing that kept coming up in our audience feedback is that they wanted quick links to our social media accounts and so we had a bar for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook that remained on the right side of our website across all the pages - can be seen on the left. The idea that they wanted social media links could be due to the surveillance and personal identity aspects of the uses and gratification theory - our audience may want to see what MiraJax think of certain issues, as well as gaining further understanding of them as individuals because the audience view them as role models.




Our Instagram page that the button links to from our website can be seen below.

Final Feedback

Once we'd finished creating our website, we got some final audience feedback from Max, a male aged 17, who scrolled through our website and commented on what he liked and what further improvements he would make. This video can be seen below.

   

Analysis of final feedback

From this, it is clear that our website was an overall success as Max liked all the pages and only had some minor improvements. Our website mainly takes into account the diversion factor from the uses and gratification theory as we wanted to include as many elements as possible to make the website fun and interactive. A few of the things that Max pointed which help make our website entertaining are; the photos, the purchasing opportunities and the behind the scenes video. The main improvement he mentions is to be able to scroll through the photos, In hindsight, I would have liked to do this in order to make it easier for our viewers to access the photos, but ultimately I am happy with the final product.

Album

With our album, we wanted to show the artist on a personal level, using close up photos of their face, as well as mid/long shots to give a sense of their image and style. We also wanted to create synergy across all our media products so we used the motif of a split screen that can be found in our video, and stuck to the motif of lights that can be found on our website.

We conducted some audience feedback to see if our idea was liked by our audience and whether they had any constructive criticism. The main thing we were concerned about is whether the album cover was aesthetically pleasing and would make members of audience want to buy it.

Initial Feedback

We created a flatplan for our digipak which can be seen on the right, to outline our main idea for the front and back panels. We then showed this to Josh, a male 18 year old, who advised that the album covers seemed too repetitive and would rather see something different on the back panel. He did however like the idea of the split screen faces on the front.

Improvements we made

Taking this advice on board we changed the back panel to a mid shot of Mira and Jack and used a promo shot we took of lights as the background photo for both the front and back. We also made the faces on front equal so that two thirds of each of their faces were showing. Once we created our final digipak we conducted an interview with Georgina, an 18 year old female, who told us what she thought of our final product. This can be listened to below.

Final Feedback

Analysis of final feedback

We were thrilled with the final feeback we received from Georgina as it shows that our album cover was very successful with our target audience. She liked the visuals a lot meaning the most important aspect to us was a success. This aspect was also to do with the diversion element of the uses and gratification theory. It was vital that all three of our products entertained our audience as this is ultimately what will engage them and make them want to stay connected to our duo - we wanted each product to entice them further and remain a fan.