Market research: target audience...

'Children's television' can be considered as a rather vast age range. You have the programmes/channels aimed at younger viewers, such a Nick Jr, Cbeebies etc, then the older viewer's counterparts; Nickelodeon, CBBC, etc. So obviously there are a lot of age brackets to consider when thinking about target audience age for our piece.

Also, within these age ranges are subcategories; gender, hobbies, demographics etc. For example Disney channel have recently split their one main channel into two new channels. The first channel is focused on arguably the shows which would appeal more to a female audience, and the second is the more male audience orientated shows. Gender has such a massive impact when considering our target audience because obviously to achieve maximum fan-base, you want to try and include both genders equally. This is why Joe and I have decided that whatever gender our main character is, they will have an accomplice (family member or friend) of the opposite gender. In doing this, we are trying to include both genders. A good example of this in current children's television is Peppa Pig. The story lines heavily feature Peppa (a girl) but also her younger brother George (a boy).

TA: 4 - 7, both genders                                                        TA: 2 - 5, both genders

                                          TA: 'teen' girls                                                                                   TA: 'teen' boys        

It has become apparent that the younger children's programmes try to appeal more to both genders where as the older/teen programmes have a more specific gender-based following.

Joe and I have decided that our target audience will be children age 1-4 years old of both gender. (Obviously we understand that viewers not in our specific TA may watch the show, but it is crucial to have a TA in mind when creating a product, so you are able to cater for the TA's needs specifically. This is why we have chosen a quite small age range (1-4) because we feel if you try to broaden this (e.g. 1 - 7) your audience will possibly have conflicting needs and you can therefore not meet the needs of all your audience if they conflict heavily. We feel that trying to appeal to both genders however isn't such an issue. As I've previously stated, it is apparent that most younger shows appeal to both genders by featuring an accomplice to the protagonist of the opposite gender.)

Relating our ancillary products to each other...

From brief 6, Joe and I decided to accompany our OTS with the front cover to a magazine for the series and a DVD cover for the series. 


For a successful and stable brand identity, products need have a certain level of recognition value. To obtain this we will need to achieve continuity between our ancillary products. There are key aspects which need to be considered and we will ensure the following components are consistent throughout:
•font
•colour scheme
•logo(s)
•additional information
•characters

Notice how this Peppa Pig Magazine cover (left) and DVD cover (right) share certain components to sustain the continuity:
• the Peppa Pig logo
• background and colour scheme
• the depicted characters
•font used for other text


In conclusion, to achieve continuity and consistency within our products, we will ensure to consider these aspects.

Market research: common plot lines and 'stock characters'...

Although our brief does not mention having a plot line in mind for our product, Joe and I felt it would be good to have an awareness of the kind of plot featured in children's programmes, and therefore if there are common plot lines, and if stock characters are present. 


Plot lines
From research, I've found that most plot lines can be split into four categories.
1. Celebration
2. Educational/Learning something
3. Recreational
4. Making choices for a good lifestyle 


For example the episodes of the three programmes I based this part of research on (were 'Peppa Pig', 'Bob the Builder' and 'Postman Pat') were all able to be roughly divided into my proposed categories.


Examples


1. Celebration
- Peppa's Christmas
- Mummy Pig's Birthday
- Bob's Birthday
- Bob's White Christmas
- Postman Pat's Birthday
- Postman Pat's Magic Christmas


2. Educational/Learning something
- Bicycles (Learning to ride them)
- The Playgroup (George's first day)
- Bob's bugle (Bob learns to play a bugle)
- Scoop's stegosaurus (Learns about dinosaur bones)
- Postman Pat and the Tuba (Pat learns to play a tuba)
- Postman Pat and a Job Well Done (Pat talks at career day at the local school)


3. Recreational 

- Tree House (Grandpa Pig makes Peppa and George a tree house)
- Best Friend (Peppa's best friend comes to play)
- Travis and Scoop's Race Day (A race to see who's the fastest)
- Dizzy's Birdwatching (Dizzy watches a birds nest when the eggs hatch)
- Postman Pat Clowns Around (Pat becomes a clown for the day)
- Postman Pat Goes Football Crazy (They play a football match)


4. Making choices for a good lifestyle 
- Daddy Pig Gets Fit (Daddy Pig decides he should get fit)
- Recycling (The family visit a recycling centre)
- Bob's Barn-raising (Bob helps the farmer to raise his barn before a storm hits)
- Tea Set Travis (The gang do lots of recycling)
- Postman Pat and the Stolen Strawberries (Pat helps a friend in need)
- Postman Pat and the Go-Kart Race (Cheating isn't nice)






Stock Characters
Characters in children's programmes tend to have a protagonist around the same age as the intended viewer and the character's family/friends/peers. However, from show to show, do we see any similarities between characters?


(Stock character: a character which is representative of a bigger demographic. For example, in children's television, they may feature an Asian character to show diversity.)


Balamory: 

Josie Jump: race


               Penny Pocket: disability

Archie: wears glasses

Little Bill:

(As the protagonist's family in 'Little Bill' are black, the stock character rolls would appear reversed to 'Balamory'.)

                                                  Andrew: race

Kiku: race             Bobby: wears glasses

Noddy:
(As 'Noddy' is set in 'Toytown', a lot of the characters are toys and therefor it appears to have fewer stock characters than 'Little Bill' or 'Balamory', however there are still a couple of examples.)

Dinah Doll: race






                          Miss Pink Cat: Nationality 
                                               (French)














Joe and I have decided that our programme will feature 1 character (of a similar age to the T.A) and they will have an accomplice (family member/friend) of the opposite gender. (We made this decision because if the character is a similar age to T.A, a stronger bond between character and viewer will form. Also, to try and avoid favouring a gender in our piece, we will have the main character's accomplice as the other gender, to try and appeal to both genders of viewers.)

Market research: format etc of show...

When looking at current successful children's television programmes, there are 3 areas in which I will focus this post. 
1 - length of episode (this may depend on target audience as younger children tend to have shorter attention spans). 
2 - level of interactivity (some programmes are interactive with their audience by speaking to them in present tense and asking for participation, some are educational and some are merely entertaining). 
3 - target audience (in the brief it merely states 'children's television programme' it does not specify an age range, therefore we may want to explore different aged target audiences; however we are focusing on younger children's programmes for our product).




Dora the Explorer
- Average episode length: 30mins
(OTS: approx. 40secs)
- very interactive: 
e.g - Dora addresses the audience as if they were there at the time of the event
and - Whilst teaching viewers basic words/phrases in Spanish, Dora asks for audience participation by getting the audience to repeat the words/phrases.
T.A: 2 - 5 yr olds.






Peppa Pig

- Average episode length: 5mins

(OTS: approx. 15secs)

- educational: - teaches audience, for example about new life situations, via Peppa's (alongside her family and friends) experiences. This is also known as didactic learning. (Didactic learning is teaching a lesson, often including a moral.) However, it isn't considered 'interactive' as audience are merely looking in on Peppa's life; as apposed to being a part of it.

T.A: 1 - 6 yr olds.

In the Night Garden

- Average episode length: 33mins

(OTS: approx. 2mins)

- entertainment: - It's been argued that because the 'In the Night Garden' characters and situations bare little resemblance to real life, added to the fact that the characters cannot speak and the only speech in simple narration, children aren't taught anything (with the exception of learning about this 'pretend world' the characters live in), merely entertained. However this programme is praised for promoting creativity in children as it allows them to believe in 'pretend worlds' etc.

T.A: 1 - 4 yr olds.

Joe and I have decided that our 'format' will be didactic. There will be a moral learned by audience, through the characters learning the moral, which in turn will educate viewers. (Our primary aim is to educate and entertain the viewers by means of them watching the protagonist go through certain situations where they learn something new.) We felt it was important for our viewers to learn something from our text, as at this age of our TA (1-4yrs) the child is not in compolsory education and therefore the only way they can 'learn things' is by interactions with carers/family/friends etc or by media.

Pitch of our ideas for brief 6!

A Brief Introduction to my Brief Introduction to my Brief Introduction to my Brief Introduction to my Brief Introduction to my Brief Introduction to my Brief on Prezi