Report

Choice
I have chosen to go with a game trailer rather than a movie trailer. This is
because I am more confident and have more experience with games than
I do with movies. The trailer that I have chosen is for the game Battlefield
1.

Quantitative Audience Research

BARB
BARB is responsible for delivering the
UKs television audience measuring
system. The research covers 5
questions: Who is watching? What are
they watching? When are they
watching? Which screen are they
watching on? And how did the content get to the screen? A meter is
attached to every television set in the BARB panel homes. The meters are
also connected to laptops, desktops and other computer devices that
online TV viewing can be monitored on.
BARB is useful for when a new game trailer has been released and needs
to be shown to the largest target audience it possibly can. This is so that it
can get as many views as possible and become popular, so that the
company will generate more money when the game is actually released.
BARB is useful because it measures the audiences for each channel or
program, meaning that they know who watches what channels, which can
help with advertising and showing a game trailer. Battlefield 1 is a war
based game, which means that their main target audience will be teenage
and young adult males. BARB would be used to see which channels that
this audience watches most, so that the game trailer can be shown on
these channels. This is so that it would be suitable to be shown on these
channels but also so that it gets the largest amount of views from their
audience as it possible can.
RAJAR
RAJAR is responsible for setting the research specification, the awarding of
the research contracts to third party suppliers and the overall control,
management and delivery of the service.
Board decisions in RAJAR require the
agreement of all of the shareholders. This is
because it is structured as a deadlocked
company. RAJAR is a JIC (Joint Industry
Committee) that represents, in addition to the
BBC and the commercial sector, the interests of the wider advertising
community.
ABC
ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) is an industry body for the measuring of
media. They bring the industry together to agree measurement and
process Reporting Standards that define what counts and determine best
practice. Reporting Standards are constantly evolving to keep pace with
industry developments. They offer independent audit and compliance
services, delivering certification, which verifies that data and processes
meet industry-Reporting Standards.
ELSPA/UKIE
UKIE (The Association for UK Interactive
Entertainment) is a UK trade group representing
video games industry. It used to be known as ELSPA
but it rebranded in 2010. UKIE members include
Microsoft, Google, and Virgin Media. It is the only
trade body for the UK's games and interactive
entertainment industry. They are a not-for-profit and are passionate about
games, games businesses and their place in the world.

All of these different companies were probably useful or used for when
Battlefield 1 released their trailer for the game. This is because they are
all about showing different media to an audience and measuring the
amount of people that watch it. Measuring the size of an audience is
always useful for when a company are releasing a game trailer, as it gives
them an impression of how successful the full game will be when it is
released.

Qualitative Audience Research

Focus Groups
A focus group usually consists of a small number of people within the
companys target market. They are brought together and led through
discussions of company and brand topics. Some of the benefits of a focus
group are: A focus group is usually more useful when results of research
are unpredictable and when the researcher is
looking for more open feedback, Also allows
people to express ideas and share feelings that
dont come out in a survey or paper test, Topics
and discussions are more free-flowing and people
can use comments from others to motivate
recall. Some of the drawbacks are: Influential
members can often affect the expressions of
others within the group, People are more reluctant to express negative
ideas in a face-to-face setting rather than in an indirect research format.
Focus groups can be really useful when it comes to releasing a new game
trailer to the public. This is because they get a wider range of opinions
and feedback for something that is about to be released. This means that
the company will know if their trailer is suitable and if it makes people
want to buy the game, before actually releasing it. It may also show them
if they need to change or improve any areas of the trailer so that it is
more entertaining to watch.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires are a method to collect standardized data from a large
amount of people. There are different ways that a questionnaire can be
used. They can be: Filled in by the person taking the questionnaire, Asked
in a structured way by the interviewer, Posted to a sample group and be
returned by a set date and time, Administrated in a group (e.g. a school),
Telephone questionnaire or E-mail questionnaire. The questions involved
in a questionnaire can be: Open ended, Closed, Fixed-choice and Likert
scale. Some of the advantages of questionnaires are: They are practical, A
lot of information can be collected from a large group of people, Can be
carried out by the researcher without the validity and reliability being
affected and The results can usually be quantified easily and quickly.
Some of the disadvantages are: It lacks validity, You cant tell how truthful
someone is being, You cant tell how much thought has been put into
someone answering the questionnaire and People might read the
questions differently so their responses will be different.

How many hours a week do you play games?

0 1 to 5 6 to 10
11 to 15 16 to 20 21+
What genre of games do you prefer to play?

Competitive Casual
Occasional

My first question that I had on my

questionnaires was How many hours a week do you play games? I
thought that this was a good idea for a question as it would get a large
range of different answers for it. This is because everyone wont play the
exact same amount of hours a week, they will all play different amounts,
depending on what their hobbies are. The most popular answer that I got
for this question was 21+ hours. This shows me that the majority of
people that answered my questionnaires play more games than the other
people that answered them, like the ones who answered with 0 hours or 1
to 5 hours. However, it wasnt a more popular answer by a lot, it was only
more popular by one person. This shows me that if I did a questionnaire
like this again I would need to do it with a larger amount of people, so that
there would be more difference within my results.
The second question that I have chosen to analyse is question 3. This
question was What genre of game do you prefer to play? I included all of
the popular genres for the answers of this question so that all of the
people would answer it with at least one. I chose this question as I thought
that it would give me a large range of different answers, as everyone
plays different types of games to each other. However, as I thought, the
main answer that people chose was FPS and Sport. I thought that these
would be the main answer as these are the most popular types of genres
for games that people play.
What type of gamer would you say you are?

Competitive Casual
Occasional

The next question that I have chosen to

analyse is question 4. This question was What type of gamer would you
say you are? The answers that could be chosen for this question were
Competitive, Casual and Occasional. I chose this question and these
answers as I thought that it would give a good range of results. It also
gave me information on which type of person is the most popular for
gaming. The answer that most people went for was that they are a casual
type of gamer. This had 7 people choosing this answer for this question.
The other 3 people all answered with competitive. This shocked me as no
one answered saying that they are only an occasional gamer. This might
mean that I may have been lucky with the people that answered the
questionnaires as they all played games.

Audience Profiling
Socio-economic Status
Socio-economic grouping is how high up a person is in society and what
their income is. With my target audience being teenagers, they are
classed as students and so this means that their income wont be very
high. The average income of a student is usually the minimum wage,
which is 6.50 per hour. This means that the trainers will have to be made
in a way that they can be sold at a cheap price, so that students will be
able to easily afford them. A good idea is to make the shoes so that the
students can buy them as well as putting 3 weeks worth of pay aside, if
they get payed weekly.
Psychographics
Psychographics is the study of personality, values, opinions, attitudes,
interests and lifestyles. Because this area of research focuses on interests,
attitudes, and opinions, psychographic factors are also called IAO
variables. Psychographic studies of individuals or communities can be
valuable in the fields of marketing, demographics, opinion research,
prediction, and social research in general.
Geo-demographics
Geo-demography includes the application of geodemographic
classifications for business, social research and public policy but has a
parallel history in academic research seeking to understand the processes
by which cities evolve and neighbourhoods are formed. It links the
sciences of demography, the study of human population dynamics,
geography, the study of the locational and spatial variation of both
physical and human phenomena on Earth, and sociology. In short, geo-
demography is the study of people based on where they live.
Geodemographic systems estimate the most probable characteristics of
people based on the pooled profile of all people living in a small area near
a particular address.
Age
Age is important when it comes to creating an advert for a product.
Keeping the age of the target audience in mind helps when youre thinking
of ideas for the advert and actually creating a product, so that you can
base it for that age group, rather than for children when the age group
could be adults. The age group also changes the times that the advert
might be shown on television. If the age group that the product is aimed is
children, then the advert will be shown in the middle of the day or the
mornings, as this is when most children might be watching TV. However, if
the product is aimed more at adults, then the advert might be shown in
the evening or at night, as adults tend to be awake and watching TV later
than children.
Gender
Thinking about the gender is as important as the age group. The gender
that the trainers are aimed at will completely change what they look like.
It can be a lot easier to pick one gender and then design a brand of shoes
for that gender, rather than trying to design a brand of unisex shoes. One
example of a girls pair of trainers are the childrens Lelly Kelly. These
are designed to be pink or other colours that are classed as a girls colour
and usually have sequins and glitter on them. An example of a pair of
boys trainers are Sketchers. These are designed to have duller colours on
rather than pinks and purples and the dont have anything on them like
sequins or glitter. They also usually have designs on them that are aimed
towards boys, like sharks or just jaws and a set of sharp teeth. The overall
design to them are usually bulkier than the girls shoes, as girls are
stereotyped to be more gentle and elegant. Also with Sketchers, the buyer
usually gets a free car or robot toy with them.
Sexual Orientation
The first homosexual on television appeared in the early 1970s, when
Martin Sheen and Hal Holbrook took the role as a gay couple disguising
their love, in the TV film That Certain Summer. A few years afterward,
television premiered the first television show centred around a gay couple,
and due to this controversial subject matter, ABC network required a
mature audience warning prior to the viewing. It took almost twenty
years for producers to begin including LGBTQ characters regularly in
television shows. Friends, the massively popular sitcom, shot to the
number one spot for primetime television and was nominated for 62
Emmys. One unique element to the show involved a main character, Ross,
who is recently divorced from his wife after discovering that she is a
lesbian. This storyline continues throughout ten seasons, with a special
episode dedicated to the marriage between Rosss ex-wife and her female
significant other.
However, I feel as this wont change anything within the game trailer that
I have chosen. This is because I think that the sexual orientation of a
person shouldnt matter for when there is a game released. The game
should be able to be played by anyone, not just people who have a certain
sexual orientation. If a game or a game trailer was like this, it would be
classed as being homophobic which wouldnt be good for its popularity.
Regional Identity
Regional Identity refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone is
from. It could refer to a general area such as north or south, a nationality,
such as English or Scottish, or specific towns such as London or
Manchester. A sense of belonging and patriotism is important to many
people, not only for their country but their town or city. Captain America
represents the American people capable to do anything, having a hero
from your home makes you proud. Batman is said to be the worlds
interpretation on America, cold and dark but Superman is Americas
thoughts on itself, light and powerful.
Mainstream
With a mainstream audience, they tend to follow different trends that
become popular throughout the media. These can usually generate a
successful production. The main example in which this can be seen is
when movies are released. The theme or style of the most successful
movies that are released will be related to each other or they will meet
the trend at that time, so that they can generate as many sales as they
possibly can.
Alternative
Producers may have a concept and after testing it with a focus group have
found that it may appeal to a new market with a few changes. Trial runs
are important and can make the idea more likely to succeed when it
comes to the broadcast. The Big Bang Theory originally had a different
actress playing the role of Penny, which after being shown to a focus
group was swapped for Kaley Cuoco.
Niche
Some productions are aimed at a specific market and so understanding
the audiences likes and dislikes is even more important. This covers all of
the topics above to know the audience and feature the elements they like.
Television channels tend to show similar kind of content so when trying to
reach sports fans getting the content displayed on an appropriate channel
(Sky Sports) can aid viewing figures.