Print Advertisement Audience Research

For my print advert getting an idea of where to place the advert is a priority. Once more I presented my target audience with a form to fill in about their news reading habits. The following trends became clear:

Firstly, my target audience does consume news media - and the majority of it is online based:

Results for whether they consume news media

From which source news is gathered

In addition to this, I wanted to find out whether my audience used their smart devices (tablets, phones) to view the news. This is because I have to consider the possibility that an advertisement may not reach the correct audience if it is a printed news paper - especially in this day and age.

People who owned a smart device

Response to whether they use it to view online news

What this response indicated is that although a majority do have smart devices, they tend not to use them to view online news.

Finally, I sought to find out what type of news paper my target audience favours. As a more educated middle class audience, I did not expect the lower end of the tabloid spectrum to rank highly in the results. This theory was vindicated by the results received:

So my summary is that my advertisement should be placed within the Guardian newspaper, both in print and on their website - as this would maximise exposure. Smart devices are negligible as the majority do not browse on them.

Practise Shots for Print Ad

In preparation for the production shots required for the print ad, Blaine and Myself ran a few test shots to gauge any issues with the task, to familarise us with the poses needed and to see if it is feasible to get the angle needed.

The Sketch I am working from is as follows:

 I am taking parts of the shots in different photographs to give a degree of flexibility in the positioning - and to work within the constraints of house layout.

The first shot was a mid-shot completely side on to the subject. This is the one closest resembling the above sketch:

I felt this worked well, however the low angle of the shot gives an impression of power to the subject that should not exist, as the advert is intending to demonstrate the TV Channel as the source of power / inspiration rather than the viewer. Therefore, another shot was taken from an eye-level thus neutralising the shot:

This rectifies the problem, but I feel this is too steep an angle. From this I am going to ensure in the final one that I have a shot at an angle between the two to keep it neutral and in the correct perspective.

I also experimented with how close the subject should be. The above were taken at the furthest zoom, I repeated the shot with an increased zoom:

 This I feel is the strongest. You can see the expression and the angle its taken from is neither too low, nor too high.

For the final shots, I now have an indication of what sort of angle and zoom level to capture to place the user in the advertisement so they do not create mixed messages and so they are in the correct perspective.