How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

The main purpose of our product was to provide information to the audience on child
internet safety and structure a very well organised argument for and against the subject
matter. My ancillary tasks were aimed to aid the main product in providing the correct type
of audience and also to advertise the product to let the audience know all about what the
documentary was going to be discussing and allow as much exposure as possible to provide
as much of an audience as possible.

In order to attract the correct audience, I firstly had to conduct some research into what the
documentaries main target audience was going to be. In order to do this I had to go back to
the results of the audience questionnaire that we conducted in our pre-production work.
The results of one of our questions show that the main age category that would watch our
documentary was people aged 16 – 20. This means that I had to create a newspaper
advertisement which catered for this age group and also create a vibrant but informative
radio trailer which would again attract this type of audience.

I firstly created my newspaper advertisement which would inform the audience of what the
documentary will be about but also appeal to them. I firstly had to create an eye catching
title for the advertisement, so I chose to use typography of blocked capitals in a white font;
this colour would contrast with the black background and would stand out from the other
writing as it was in capitals and in a large font. The pictures also added to the connotation of
the advertisement. I chose to use a silhouette of a hooded man and then placed a question
mark over his face, connoting that you could be speaking to anyone online, I then added a
picture of a little girl using a computer which shows that children of a very young age are
using the internet. I also incorporated images of various social networking sites which
showed to the audience that the documentary will feature information about such sites. I
also included the date and time of the documentary which gave informative information of
when the documentary was going to be aired to the audience. The name of the website of
the production team was also included for the audience to visit. One of the main and most
important features used on my advertisement was the ‘HCTV’ logo; this logo represented
what channel the documentary was going to be held on. This showed the audience of what
channel to go to, to view this documentary.

After completing the newspaper advertisement I reviewed the whole piece. I believe that
the advertisement will appeal to the target audience; this is because I think it is eye catching
to the audience with the contrast between the white and black used, and there is a sense of
mystery with the use of the question mark and the silhouette. The social networking sites
will appeal to our target audience because the sort of age group we are aiming at is the age
group that mainly use social networking sites. This piece can be easily read and understood
and is very informative but engaging for the audience.
My second ancillary task was the radio trailer. This radio trailer should primarily inform the
audience of what the documentary is going to be discussing and when it will be aired. But,
to create an interesting and entertaining radio trailer, I did have to follow a number of steps.
Firstly I had to make the sure that the duration was around one minute, this is so that the
audience have enough time to hear all of the information about the documentary but would
not bore the audience. I then had to make sure that the name of the documentary (Child
Internet Safety) was included within the radio trailer, this may seem obvious but people can
leave this out by mistake, so it is vital to remember this.

The scheduling of the documentary is another vital convention which I had to incorporate
within my radio trailer. This information is very important as it will be the main way to
inform the audience as to the date and time of when the documentary will be aired. As well
as the scheduling of the documentary, I also had to include who the documentary will be
featuring; this will attract a wider audience as it may include people who the audience wish
to hear speak, such as politicians and people of authority such as the police. Sample
interviews from the documentary have also been included by the featured speakers. This
gives the audience an insight of what the views will be from these guest speakers.

A clear voice over also needs to be included which will give structure and organisation to the
radio trailer. A clear voice will make it easy for the audience to understand what is being
said and a strong male voice will control the trailer. I have also included music which
identifies the genre of the documentary. The music is quite mellow, keeping intact with the
formality of the piece. The music had to also be quite catchy and exciting to keep the young
target audience entertained throughout the radio trailer. Lastly the whole trailer had to be
punchy, I did this by keeping the radio trailer flowing, allowing very limited time for gaps,
which again keeps the audience entertained throughout the duration of the radio trailer.

Overall, both pieces accounted for the target audience who we were aiming at by keeping
my advertisement eye catching and simple for the audience to acknowledge and
understand. I kept the radio trailer short and entertaining but also very informative for the
audience. Therefore, the combination of both ancillary tasks has been very effective for my
overall documentary; it has provided advertising for the documentary and contributed the
success of the media product.