Billboard Analysis

Whilst I was looking for magazine billboard advertising to analyse to gain inspiration for my own products, I found it difficult to come across billboards for magazines themselves so I selected a variety of billboards that advertise differing things and have analysed them.

This billboard is advertising the up and coming launch of a new sports channel, BT sport and that they are broadcasting many live Premier League mes. The aim of this billboard is to try and get people to go and watch/subscribe to their channel. The billboard includes images of 3 well-established and popular football players that apply their trade within the Premier League. They have used these players because they are instantly recognisable by the target audience and this will hopefully make them want to sign up and watch these players every week. The background is a sky/space look, which connotes that the players in the picture/BT sport are out of this world.

In terms of layout and images, the layout of this billboard is very organised having the star vehicles taking up the majority of the billboard so that they can be seen from far and attract the target audience and other passers by to look at the advertisement. The fact that the star vehicles are on a backing of space/the sky makes them stand out and it connotes that they are out of this world. The lighting effect behind the player in the middle makes him stand out. This may be because he was the best player in the league at the time and he is very recognisable so they will notice him first and look closer at the billboard. “Consumer practice developed as a pre-eminently feminine province” Osgerby. This quote is saying that the reader has developed this idea of males being able to pose for photo shoots has been developed by all of the female heavy companies around. This billboard applies to this theory because the 3 star vehicles are all male. This is something that is becoming more popular within sport. The text at the bottom left of the billboard is well positioned as it doesn’t cover the star vehicles and is low so that once you’ve caught the main image you will look down at the text and see what it is advertising.

In terms of colours there is a colour pallet of about 4/5 colours which is a common convention of billboards. The main colour is colour of the background, which is a smokey-white colour, with some patches of black/blue. The white in the background is a good colour to use because it makes the 3 colours of the kits on the players stands out further. These colours are good colours to have been used because they are colours of famous teams in the Premier League, the league that this TV channel is looking to broadcast. These colours will draw the attention of the target audience because they will recognise these kit colours and be drawn into seeing what the advert it about.

In regards to lexis, the lexis in minimal and there isn’t much text used. This is a common convention of billboards because they look to keep the writing to a minimum and let the picture sell the product. The main lexis that is first noticed is, “Every Kick Free.” This will draw the attention of the readers because of the word, “Free.” This word draws reader’s attention as they see that they are able to gain something for free. This will work for this target audience because they are C1-E and if they can get a luxury for free like this, so this will draw then in. The word “Kick” carries a semantic field involved with football soothe target audience will assume, along with the pictures that this is about their favourite sport. Below this, the lexis used under that masthead is very simplistic, but gets the main information across, having short snappy terms and conditions works for this type of advertisement is a convention because they are designed to just briefly advertise the product.

The second billboard I looked at is advertising Sky’s sports channels. The aim of this billboard is to raise people’s awareness to the fact that sky sports show live football, regularly.

In terms of images, there is one large image in the centre with 5 smaller images around the sides. The main image consists of a Premier League football player celebrating a goal. This star vehicle is a well known football player from one of the biggest teams in England. This will attract the target audience as they will see the player and assume that the advert is about there favourite sport/team/player. The secondary images are other action shots of football matches, goals being scored and celebrating players specifically. These images will attract the audience to the billboard because they are players doing the most exciting part of football and will interest the target audience. “Consumer practice developed as a pre-eminently feminine province” Osgerby. This quote is saying that the reader has developed this idea of males being able to pose for photo shoots has been developed by all of the female heavy companies around. This billboard applies to this theory because the star vehicles are all male. This is something that is becoming more popular within sport. There is mix of ethnic origins within this billboard and this is good because it will allow the attraction of a wider target audience as well as showing that the game of football is worldwide, as well as the company Sky. 

 In regard to layout, the layout is very structured and simple. This is a convention of billboards because they need to be easy on the eye and get the point across quickly. The layout has a large ratio of images in comparison to text. This again follows the conventions of a billboard because they are visual advertisements where people gain a small amount of information through the text after being drawn in by large images.

The colour scheme there is a colour pallet of two main colours black and white with other colours that include the colours of the kits the players are wearing and the colours of the sky logo. The black and white background is very simplistic and allows the brighter colours of the kit and sky logo to stand out more so that they are noticed first. The colours of the kits will attract the target audience because they are bright colours. Not only this, but the target audience will recognise the kit colours and be drawn to the images.

 The lexis use don the billboard is limited due to the nature of the advertisements The main lexis used is “Every goal matters” This will draw in the readers because goals are exciting and they will read this and be drawn is as there is somewhere that they can watch all of the goals from the football from the matches that the fans may have missed/not been able to watch live. The other lexis used reads “The home of live goals” this again shows that sky sports will show all of the goals, so whatever team you support you will be able to find the highlights of your teams goals. The word “home” makes it seem like the best channel home is where you live and it will show that goals originate from sky sports, which will then draw in the target audience because they will feel safe and that sky sports is reliable at showing their favourite sport, as it is the “home of live goals.” 

Billboard audience research

Billboard audience research

In order to get a good understanding of what my target audience want to see of my billboard I decided to create a survey and distribute it on social media where it would get answered by people that fit into my target audience.

The first question I asked was regarding age. 90% of respondents were aged 16 to 24. This was going to be the primary age that I target with my billboard. If I could can make a product that represents this age group as best as possible then I have a greater chance of my products being a success. I will have a secondary target audience of older than this age range as 10% of my responses fit into that.

100% of my respondents to this question were males. This means that they will be my primary target audience and I will be looking to represent them with my billboard as they will be the ones that will hopefully be buying my product if my billboard is enough to make them want too.

From the responses that I collected from this question I discovered that 80% of answers were from White Cornish people and 20% were from White British. This means that my primary target audience for this product is going to be White Cornish, with a secondary target audience of White British. I will need to construct my product so that it appeals to this target audience.

All of the responses that I got were from people that fall into the social class band C1-E. Therefore this will be my primary target audience.

In terms of sexuality, this questions shows that 100% of my respondents were straight and this means that I am going to make straight people my primary target audience and I will look to represent them where possible in order to make my product a success.

The next question asked whether or not the audience would like to see an image of my magazine on the billboard. 100% of answers said yes. This means that I will be including an image of my print product on my billboard as this will meet the demands of the target audience.

100% of respondents voted for a sporty, simple style of font. I will try my best to use a font that matches were the target audience want in order to represent them as best as possible.

100% of respondents said that they wish to see action/outdoor images on my billboard. I will use these types of images as evidently they will represent my target audience the best.

The shots that I will use will be medium shots as this is what the target audience have expressed that they want through answering this survey.

Billboard institution

With the creation of my billboard I strongly need to consider the best location for my billboard where it will be seen and attract and appeal to the target audience the most. The first three locations that I initially thought of were outside local sporting facilities (sports centre, local football pitches etc), near a large chain supermarket and in and around the local towns and cities, in various locations. I think it would be suitable for it to go near local sporting facilities as it while drawing a lot of attention from people that fit with my target audience and would lead to a greater chance of people that are interested in my genre noticing the billboard and purchasing my product. After I had decided a location I now needed somewhere to print my billboard. I used the internet in order to find a company that would do so.  I came across three printing companies that I highlighted as potential printers.  Mid Cornwall Printing, PJ Press and The Cornish Print Company. Depending on the quantity the price varied. For 50 billboards prices ranged from £350-£650 and fro around 400 billboards the price was going to be between £1200-£1400. I would need to choose the cheapest price in order for me to make the maximum amount of profit from my products and as Cornwall is only small, 50 billboards would be a sufficient amount.

The final thing I needed to take into consideration is the location cost. I will also need to budget for how much the location of my billboard is going to cost.

Website Creation Research

Prior to the creation of my website, I attended a dreamweaver workshop with a local university lecturer where I learnt The basic skills of how to create a website and use dreamweaver in order to create a good product.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORV1HOSgv2Q

I found this YouTube video regarding creating websites and found it really useful for when I came to creating my product as it taught me how to create a basic website and then I could develop my skill further to create a better website.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZARc_GdLE\

This is another YouTube video that enhanced my skills further and I felt after I had watched both of these videos and attended the workshop that my skills were suitable for creating a successful media product.

Website Audience Research

If I was to create a quality and successful product I would need to get my target audience representation perfect. As before, I made a Survey Monkey survey in order to gain some genuine and honest audience feedback that would allow me to analyse the responses to turn the answers into a product that would represent them and sell. I posted the survey to Facebook as my friends of Facebook fit in with the target audience.

The most popular age that was answered on this question of my survey was 16 – 24 years old.This means that this will be my target audience and in order to get the most views and for my website to be a success, I need to primarily target this age range. I need to consider a secondary target audience of 25-24 according to my responses.

The results from this question show that the majority of people that will be viewing and using my website will be White Cornish. This works for what I am trying to achieve as I am looking to put a regional slant on my products. The other responses were from White British people, this also is something that will help me as they will have heard of Cornwall and may have an interest in my product due to the regional slant, as they could be tourists who are staying in the local area.

The responses from the gender question showed that 100% of respondents were male which means that I need to tailor my website so that it is more appealing to males as they are going to be my primary target audience. I will include a secondary target audience of females so I will look to represent them too.

Around 90% of the responses that I collected answers fit into the social class band C1-E this means that this will be my target audience and they will need to be represented on my website in order for them to want to continue to visit my product and for it to be a success. I will need to consider a secondary target audience of social bands higher than this, as I did receive some responses that were higher and I want to appeal to the widest possible audience of people that I can with my product in order to make it a success.

All of the responses that I collected were of a straight sexual persuasion. This will be my target audience and I will need to take into consideration this when I am constructing my site as I want to make my target audience feel represented in all aspects.

This question got 100% responses that the colours wanted were black, white and gold. This will mean that the target audience wish to see these colours on the website and will feel most represented by these colours, I can assume this is because these are colours that represent Cornwall and that is the region that I am targeting with my product.

My results showed that I will need to include match reports, player interviews, equipment reviews, local league round ups and diet plans of football players on website in order to represent the target audience successfully. If I am going to have them visit and like my website these are the types of stories that I will need to include in order to make a website that they will enjoy and come back too.

The next question asked was about what was important to website users. The response that I received showed that 90% of people think that ease of use is the most important whilst 10% think speed is most important. When it comes to creating my product, I will need to primarily consider the ease of use of my website, and bare a second thought to the speed of the site. This will give me the best chance of making my product successful.

I asked what types of images that my target audience would like to see on my website and 100% of responses said that they want to see still images. This means that I will look to include still images where possible in order to represent the target audience as much as possible.

Now that I have done some in depth research into what my target audience want to see and what I need to include to make my product successful I am now ready to take the next step toward the construction of my website.