LO1: Task Three: Audience classification

Audience classification

Explain how to find out about audiences and how the categorisation systems are used in audience profiling 

Regulations

Advertising Standards Agency

The Advertising Standards Agency is the UK’s regulating body for all advertisements. The agency takes action on reviewing and responding to complaints. The responsibility also include, taking action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements taking the general public as priority. They evaluate advertisements on the basis of the UK advertising codes; if the advertisements have breached the UK codes, they may be asked to rectify, re-film or be withdrawn. 

Ofcom

Ofcom is an organisation that regulates all media which is broadcasted to the general public such as media from TV, radio, print and the internet. Ofcom is for the benefit of the public and is not for commercial purposes. Ofcom protects the general public from scams, harm and misleading information.

Audience information

Audience measurement panels

Audience measurement is when you measure how many people are in an audience. When looking at certain types of media for example radio and television, you focus on who is listening to the radio and who is watching television. Audience measurement helps broadcasters find out who are watching/listening by looking at the demographic and psychographic information.

Ratings

In media, ratings give broadcasters the information on what is popular, whether it is television or radio. The information is gathered by a poll, the results are then presented. The results can be based on the how good the programme is or how many viewers the programme has. Ratings define the amount of viewers a programme may have. You are also able to see what the mass audience are interested in.

Face-to-face interviews

Face-to-face interviews are interviews when the interviewer and the person being interviewed is present. Face-to-face interviews are used to gain information; this is also known as primary research as you are gaining the information yourself. You are able to gain a lot of information of good quality, as you are able to filter what you need and what you don't need. When having a face-to-face interview, the conversation can be partly spontaneous; you are able to ask extra questions that may come into mind during the interview. You are able to find out exactly what your audiences opinions and interests are.

Focus groups

Focus groups consist of a group of people usually between 4 and 14. The people in the group are brought together to discuss a certain topic, a moderator is present. Focus groups include discussions instead of responses to formal questions. You are able to gain a wide range of views and opinions as each answer is different. Through focus groups you are able to generate ideas from the responses you have gained. You can collate the data you have collected into graphs and tables.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are usually paper based. They are a set of formal questions used for the purpose of gaining statistical research. Questionnaires are used to provide specific information about a certain topic. When trying to provide something for a certain audience, you are able to find what information is needed by designing questions that answer specifically answer the information needed. 

Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB)

BARB stands for 'Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board'. BARB is an organisation that collates the viewing figures of television in the UK. The data shows the regional and national levels. The information presents how well channels, advertisers and campaigners have performed. People who have participated with the research have a box on top of their TV that tracks what they are watching. Data is collected during the night and is presented to television stations and the advertising industry around 9:30am the next day.

Sources of information 

Rates cards

Rate cards are documents that are provided by a newspaper or another print publication. They feature an organisations rate for advertising. They also include, information about demographics, policies, deadlines and fees.

Advertisers’ information packs

An advertisers' information pack contains all the information needed to plan your own advertising. It includes rate cards, publication dates and insertion dates.

Research agency websites

http://theresearchagency.com/ is a website that enables businesses and brands to produce research.

Audience classification 

Standard Occupational Classification

It is a system that separates people by their occupational background. Media companies use this classification to identify the audience they are targeting towards. Majority of the audience is ABC1 grade. A corresponds to 'higher managerial and professional'. B corresponds to 'intermediate managerial and professional'. C1 corresponds to 'supervisory, clerical, junior managerial'. C2 corresponds to 'skilled manual workers'. D corresponds to 'semi-skilled and unskilled workers'. E corresponds to 'state pensioners, casual workers'.

Psychographics

psychographic research consists of considering the audiences attitudes, beliefs and interests. 

Geo-demographics

Geo-demographic research consists of considering the age, gender, class and ethnicity of the audience. Also, it considers where the audience is from for example their nationality.