What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My audience feedback has re-enforced the concept that todays society relies upon the idea of the consumer as not only 'always right' but also always looking for an easier route to receive gratification from their purchases.

Our expectations of media products have risen dramatically in tandem with technological development, to an extent the previous generation could not have anticipated. Slogans such as 'Impatience is a virtue' demonstrate the necessity for media products to converge various technologies to continue to appeal to consumers.

http://showcase.brandrepublic.com/syzygy-group/ourwork/impatience-is-a-virtue-website

I have recognised the true importance of social media and its capabilities to make the music industry into something completely revolutionary. From the focus groups I questioned, I realised that out of 25 people aged 17-21 (my niche audience) 90% would go onto Youtube to find a video once they were informed of a new band/group of their preferred genre. When I asked how most people discovered new VIDEOS 30% said they found them linked to their current video playlist on Youtube, 60% said via social networking sites, and a final 10% said word of mouth. I found this backed up my revelations from my own audience feedback having uploaded my videos to Facebook, Vimeo and Youtube. Facebook gave me the most immediate feedback in comment form;

whilst my video Youtube gained over 10 times more viewers than on Vimeo, yet I believe that this would have been affected by the direction of viewers to the video from my Facebook account. 

All of the feedback I received was positive, apart from two comments which both picked up on the same desire;

'I loved your video, it was really interesting and different, but I did want to see more of those ending shots, they were amazing' (age 18, student)

'It was so cool, the shots of hair flying about at the end were really good, did you take more of them?' (age 17 student)

In this way, I was pleased that I had ended the video with the shots most appreciated by my audience, having been fortunate enough to have the facility of using a high speed camera for these shots they were much higher quality than the rest and I was very pleased with the effect of the warm low key lighting in them also. However, to please my audience, I added more clips of those particular scenes to the website design, but on reflection would definitely incorporate more of the shots into the final product were I to re-produce the piece. Strangely, the beginning of the film, which I felt was a little less professional in comparison to the rest was not commented on negatively and instead seemed to have had the desired effect in hooking my audience. 

In this way I learned that the finish of the video made a massive impact on how they watched it, many comments concentrating on the 'amazing colour and attention to detail' (age 22, graphic designer) in the shots. 

I was also grateful to receive some feedback on my remix covers/digipak;

'Wow, really cool, how did you do that?' (age 17, student) I felt that this demonstrated that the cover was working as it was intriguing my audience and encouraging them to take a closer look at the contents. 

'The slogans are interesting I want to see the website now' (age 17,student) was a particularly pleasing comment, as it exemplified the impact promotion can have on a brand/label and subsequently the success of the artist. 

I also managed to get the reaction of some of those in the creative industry, including two contacts from two different post-production companies and the earlier comment from a graphic designer,

(age 29, Post Production company, London) 'Great Stuff!'

and 

(age 22, Rushes Post-production, London)'Nice one! Moving in on our music video territory are we?'

I was pleased with these comments from those in the industry despite the fear of some sarcasm being present!

The overall reaction my website design was also very positive and many approved of the blog feature and sharing links, most of them commenting on the idea of uploading their own remixes as a really different concept that they would be willing to use.

In conclusion, I have learned a significant amount from my audience, the most important people of the whole creative process. I have reflected on my products and realise that their relative success in being so well-recieved was ultimately down to the research and preparation in working from the things that didn't work for some products and replacing them with the more desirable features of others. I also attempted to appeal to our experimental natures and willingness to 'try something new'  without such a cliche to begin with. My audience feedback has encouraged me to continue challenging and commenting conventions in my work and to not be afraid of making bold and controversial visualisations and audio commentaries that may directly attack some, as many of my audience believe these comments are also valid to them.