A)
I am planning on advertising for the second episode of Yorkshire Lasses, which is a young adult drama focusing on four main teenage girls and the various aspects of their life. The intended target audience for soap opera will be mainly of a female gender, between the ages of 18 and 25. This is due to the main characters of the show being of this gender and age, therefore meaning that they will be relatable and have similar issues to the viewers. The NRS social grade of the target audience will be ABC1C2, this is because the topics and genre of the show can appeal to a large range of people, but with more of a focus on the lower middle class due to the accents, location and issues raised etc. The show will also be open to attract a variety of ethnicities.
For my advertising campaign I plan on having a trailer, poster and billboards. This would allow me to fulfil the purpose of the advertising campaign which is to make people aware of Yorkshire Lasses and gain potential viewers. It is important to have my advertising campaign across multiple platforms so it can reach a high percentage of the intended target audience. I will need to have two trailers for my advertising campaign, this is because of the explicit content of the program being advertised. One of would have to be clean of inappropriate content do it can be played before the watershed. For the trailer I plan to have all of the characters that will feature in the episode and the trailer will be distributed on TV and online on sites like YouTube and Facebook.
B)
Key milestones for filming advert.
All location scouting and casting finished by January 22nd
All paperwork finished by the end of January 30th
Filming starts February 1st
All filming completed by February 20th
All editing finished by March 11th
Broadcast date will be March 28th
Gantt Chart for campaign schedule:
Location and set designs:
Since the advert will be made up of clips from filming Yorkshire Lasses the filming locations will be the same as the main production for Yorkshire Lasses.
Cheryl's house (Kitchen)
Nail bar
C)
When it comes to the legal side of creating the trailer I have to follow the rules and regulations of the ASA and Ofcom. Ofcom has ten rules that all media that is broadcasted on TV and Radio must follow, the ones that effect me are:
Section one - Protecting the under eighteens
Section two - Harm and offence
The principle of section one is to ensure that anyone under the age of 18 is protect from any material that is deemed inappropriate for them. Children must be protected by appropriate scheduling from material that is unsuitable for them, appropriate scheduling is judged according to:
The nature of the content.
The likely number and age range of children in the audience, taking into account school time weekends and holidays.
The start and finish time of the programme.
The content of the show won't be too explicit, the main content of the show focuses on the lives f four teenage girls and for it to be successful it needs to be realistic and include some topic controversial topic that some people face today. The content would be most suitable for people who are 16 and over since they are old enough to understand the problems that are portrayed on screen and to understand that some of the content are created for entertainment purposes so shouldn't be copied. To protect the children from this content it is best for the Yorkshire Lasses to be on screen after the watershed. Taking into account school time and holidays this would be the best time as the most children would be going to bed at this time.
The ASA has more rules and regulations as they focus more on advertising, they have 33 adverting codes but the effect me are:
04 - Harm and offence
05 - Children
32 - Scheduling
The Yorkshire Lasses advert must not be harmful or offensive and they must take account of generally accepted standards to minimise the risk of causing harm or serious widespread offence. Since its an advert, there shouldn't be any problem with harm and offence as any offencive material can be edited out for the trailer.
When it comes to 05 - Children, the content of the advertisement that is likely to be broadcast and the likely age of the audiecnce must be considered to avoid unsuitable scheduling. The Yorkshire Lasses advert is suitable for young persons ( 17 and older ) but some of the content could distress younger children so scheduling could be an issue. The advert can't just be scheduled for after the watershed as it won't generate enough viewers for it to be successful. Insted there would need to be multiple slots in the schedule where the advert can be played where the number of young children watching TV would be at its lowest.
The main aim for this advertising campaign is to build brand awareness, their intended target audience must first recognise that they exist. A lot of the advertising that Skins do is to maintain they brand awareness and increase their ratings. Their campaigns also persuade people to watch their show, by tailoring their advertising campaigns to what their intended target audience would like it would engorge more people to want to see what there are advertising.
B) Target Audience.
The intended target audience for Skins would be people in the age range of 18 - 24 and 50/50 spilt between males and females. This down to the synopsis of the show, which is about teens who have just started their first year of college and it shows the audience what kind of things they get up to within their two year period. This appeals to the target audience because they can relate to a lot of the things on screen. A lot of the viewers experience escapism with skins as it allows them the have an insight into a life that they might not be able to live because of their own circumstances. This campaign is designed for an A,B,C1,C2,D this is because the TV show showcases a range of different lifestyles through their characters that can relate to a wide range of people. The creator understand that for this to be as realistic as possible they would need to include people from all walks of life.
C) Representation.
One of the things that is repetitively used in the advertising campaigns for skins is the party scene, there is usually one of the main characters seen around a group of intoxicated teens surrounding them. This is one of the stereotypes that are created over the years from teens how have acted like this is the past. A lot of the advertising campaigns for skins use the stereotypes that have been pin on teens as the representation for the TV show so that when people seen this they will know immediately what it belongs to.
D) Campaign message.
The main message behind the campaign is to show people the deeper meaning as to way the younger side of the population behave the way that they do. The show covers a lot of sensitive topics which includes death, abuse, sexuality and drug use and how that affects different people.
E) Audio-visual advertisements used in the campaign.
The trailer for Skins works together with all of the posters that make up the advertising campaign, the series of posters that were released show a range of characters in different scenarios and the trailer connotes to the intended target audience the transition between each poster and justifies the content on the poster. All of the posters for Season 1 had come from the TV trailer, therefore the whole advertising campaign in linked together. The trailer showcase all of the main characters at a house party taking part in drug use and excessive drinking and as the night goes the mood begins to change, this is relaxation of the characters future. Everything starts off well for the group until you learn more about them and the darker side of their live begins to emerge. A lot of cross-cutting is used in the trailer to dictate the pace of the trailer, the meaning behind this is to connote how the plot will develop and how quickly things change for the characters. The characters are also represented through the use of music in the trailer, the song is called standing in the way of control by Gossip who are a rock band who are known for their funky punk style of music and their brash behaviour. This mirrors all of the characters for Skins. There are a lot of close ups in the trailer which is used for detail such as the charatcer's emotions, these are very common in dramas and in soap operas. The close ups are also used for distinguishing main characters. Major characters are often given a close up when they are introduced as a way of indicating their importance.
F) Relevant legal and ethical issues.
There are a lot of ethical issues with the advertising campaign with Skins as it portrays a lot of antisocial behaviour and since it is an ad non of the content on it can be justified until the TV show comes out. One of the main problems with this is that all of the content appeals to the intended target audience so it does complete its purpose as an ad however, since it is out in the public on billboards and buses many other people see it too. This caused come of the posters to be pulled from the public as some where placed in sites where there were children around. All of their advertising campaigns has had an effect on the target audience, it has given rise to the term 'Skins Party' referring to night of heavy drinking and the drug use. During the first year of its release a girl in Durham threw a house party, it was advertised on her Myspace profile as "Skins Unofficial Party" referring to the party in the first series with the subtitle "Lets trash the average family sized house disco party." Two hundred people turned up, breaking into the house and causing over £20,000 of deliberate damage. These incidents have happened all over the UK which have been linked to the show all under the name Skins Party.
G) Regulatory bodies.
A lot for the advertising campaigns for Skins have been pulled by the ASA for being too inappropriate for the public with most of their offences falling under the 'Harm and Offence'. This rule states that the Marketer should take into account the prevailing standards in society and the context in which the ad is likely to appear to minimise the risk of causing harm or serious widespread offence. This poster was one of the ones that had received the most complains about from the public, it features two of the main characters, Michelle and Sid surrounded by couples apparently taking part in an orgy.
The ASA said the image could cause serious or widespread offence and that it was inappropriate for poster sites that could be seen by children. Because this they had ordered channel 4 to stop using the poster after receiving 42 complaints. The ASA dismissed further complaints that the 'o' poster condoned underage sex and that the images would encourage children to copy the behaviour. Channel 4 said it did not mean to cause offence and the second series of Skins clearly showed the 'consequences of their irresponsible'. There was also another poster that had received a number of complaints which shows the character Tony lying submerged in a bath however, this one was dismissed by the ASA as it wasn't breaking any of their rules.
M1
The main print based advertisement that was released for Skins were film posters. There were nine different types of posters for the nine main characters of the show. Each poster represents the personality of each character. One example of this is in the picture above with the girl above (Michelle Richardson), when around her parents she is quite and polite. However secretly she enjoys going out to parties and it is very often that she will wake up the next day with no idea of what happened the night before.
This is one of the billboards for skins, this was targeted towards the current viewers of the show as the billboard was three faces of the previous cast. To people who have watched this before know that this is a continuation of some of the more favourable characters on the show as they look more aged from all of the previous adverts. Since this was the last season there was no point in trying to reach out to outside their intended audience as they would have to go back through ten years to when it first begin to understand what is happening now and also, this is mainly to provide closure for people who have been with the show for the start who want to what was the final outcome for these characters.
This is one of the posters from the advertising campaign, it features Tony (one of the main characters) submerged in a bath with his eyes open. The image foreshadows what happens to him later on the in series where by he gets hit by a bus and towards the end of the series he ends up bed ridden looking lifeless. The important information like the title and the release date are put in bold, with this standing out from the rest of the poster it makes it easier for people to see as they past by. People are always on the move so they only see the poster for a few seconds so it is vital for this information to stand out. The colour of the text has the same colour scheme as the E4 logo and that is so people know that what channel skins will be on. Colour is one of the first things that people see therefore even if people miss some of the text then they would know to check the channel for the advertised show.
