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re-film or be withdrawn.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.
