After many ideas, such as emails, twitter and through phone calls, I found a method which is very relevant to the film industry. I decided to carry out the research through the mobile technology, using particular applications of instant chat, for example BBM (Blackberry messenger and Whatsapp. These applications allowed me to access all my phone contacts that have a blackberry or an iphone, and on my contact list that was around 70%. In my opinion this method is very easy and it catches people at a time which is free for them. For example if I sent out a broadcast message, my contacts can reply whenever they want, if they want and how they want. They can even send me pictures of what they think is a bad or great film magazine cover. This method was also very unique and suitable as my target audience is of a younger age, who are more socially active through media technologies and platforms, weather the case being via mobile or web 2.0, Therefore considering my target audience, a questionnaire seemed an old fashioned method.
Films such as cloverfield also used mobile SMS to carry out their viral marketing, which was sucsessfull. Technology is everywhere and new methods highlight how easy and fast it is to carry out tasks such as viral marketing, and in this case audience research.
In order for this to work, I would need to capture the answers of my short questionnaire. I did this by downloading an application called MUNCHED. This is where you are able to `munch’ what is on your phone screen and save it, exactly like a print screen on the computer.
Once I had this application, I began setting up a broadcast message on my blackberry messenger, which is shown on the Munched screen catchers below. This broadcast message can be as long as you like and it sends to whoever you like. I made five quick questions for my audience contacts which would be individuals aged from 17-25. I purposely made a quick questionnaire as it would be more appealing to instant chat users then a long paragraphed message. Myself as well as allot of other users find these long broadcasts a turn off. So for a good result and response rate, I kept questions short and sweet, this way I would gain quantative results and research that would help me create my magazine cover, and receive a decent response rate.
Below are the answers I received in my audience research. This is a sample of the many results i received through BlackBerry messenger and Whatapp messenger.
The last answer is through the whatsapp application for iphone users.
Overall this audience research has given me some insight before i start to create my magazine cover. I have gathered that individuals between the ages of 17-25 do not read film magazines too often. Out of those i asked, only one seemed to buy it 2 or 3 times a year, and that was as frequent as it got. My second question asked, do you enjoy reading reviews about films, and all my respondents answered yes, so from this i will ensure I include film reviews as a feature on my cover. In terms of pricing the answers averaged out to around £3, this is the price that the audience is willing to pay; therefore i will set my magazine at that cost. My forth question asked what features would you like to see in a film magazine. This was a vital question as i was interested in knowing what others would be interested in seeing. Overall the respondents felt that film reviews, interviews, screenshots, summaries, ratings and upcoming films and news were great features that they would be interested in reading. My fifth and final question asked if a cover should be busy or simple. The majority of people I asked felt a busy cover would be better because there is more to read and the cover grabs their attention, more so then a simple cover. However a few respondents said a simple cover would be most effective as it creates suspense on the dominant image.
This audience research has been very successful and i have achieved my main goal of gathering insight on a few things for the magazine cover. Such as pricing and features which i was eager to research.
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