Audience Feedback to the Advertisements

As mentioned in my previous post, I would be allowing friends, family and school peers to view my two designs of a magazine advertisement, promoting the debut album of the band Amber Rhythm. This task helped me to to decide which advert I would develop and then become my final design.

My results show that out of the fifteen people questioned, 9 preferred my second design to the first design, where only 6 people chose this.I then asked all of the candidates a range of questions on both design to gain the critical feedback I needed in order to develop the advertisement. These were:

1. What aspects of the advertisement did you enjoy?
2. What did you not enjoy about the advertisement?
3. What would you improve on the advertisement?

1. For the first question and the first design many of the candidates stated that they enjoyed the fact that the advertisement adhered to many of the conventions of magazine advertisements. They picked out "...the release date, shop retailer and information of what the album was released on very professionally done..." which only enhanced their enjoyment more. Secondly the image of the artist was picked up, and some candidates "...recognise this image from the album cover..." This showed that I successfully created a synergy between the two products and that it would be recognisable to the audience when viewed in a shop etc. The musical notes in the background were another popular idea with most of the candidates as it was used on the digipak cover but also because it links to the band's name but also their overall image in music. For my second design feedback on this included that this advert was the one that defined the link between itself and the digipak, "...although the image isn't from the front cover it is still included in the digipak and the background colour scheme is also the same making this the more effective poster..." The band's logo being placed in the center of the advertisement was said to be eye catching and authorative as to some this is the most important aspect to gain their attention. Another candidate stated that "...while the first design looked more pop/rock, I prefer the second design due to its simplicity, and that it isn't so "in your face". Also as the image of the artist is looking away, something that I picked up myself in Florence and the Machine's advertisement poster, means that "...there is an air of mystery to the band, but it looks like she is inviting you in "on the sly". Finally, the quoted reviews were enjoyed by most of the candidates as they felt it made the ad look more professional but also it adhered to conventions of an advertisement.

2. Aspects of the first design many candidates didn't enjoy were that the colour scheme was too dark and "...wouldn't catch my eye unlike a brighter colour in the background..." The fact that it did not carry any synergy with the digipak turned off one or two candidates as well. The speech bubble was said to be a good idea as it made the poster look a lot more fun, but not much was done with it and it seemed to "float" there without doing much. For the second advertisement, while some liked the simplicity, others felt that it was too plain and there needed to be "...more action in the background like the first design..." Others noted that they thought the image of the girl was good in its effect, but she seemed to be floating in anymonity, which wouldn't be appealing to an audience. One person told me they would of liked to have seen the speech bubble replicated in the second design as they felt the logo again was just "floating". One other candidate said that the website for the band's font was far too small, and it is "...an important factor when advertising so it should be made much bigger for audience members to pick up on..."

3. For the third and final question I only asked what could be improved for the second design as it was the more popular. Points that were stated included improving the background scenery more, by taking the technique from the first design and importing the musical notes onto the second to "...jazz it up..." but to also enhance the genre of Pop/Rock. Also a few pointed out that the image of the artist should blend in more, rather than just floating anoymously. The website font should be made bigger as said in the last question.

Taking on board what has been said in this feedback I will make more developments to my second design in order to improve it further.