ZING – Website

To see the Zing website, visit:

http://zing.sewellpark.com/index.htm

ZING – Listings magazine pages

Click on the images to see them larger.

Prezi

This is Prezi by Lee Payne last updated 27/4/10:  http://prezi.com/od9slfyz-bw-/media/

Evaluation of Zing website, newspaper advert and listing pages

I have come up with a TV channel called ‘Zing’, the sort of channel that I would like to watch if it was real. My idea was for a channel aimed at teenagers and young adults (ages 16-24). I created a website for my main task; and a newspaper advert and a double page spread from a listings magazine  as my ancillary.

The website had pages for the channel’s schedule and for information to contact its operators. I believe the target audience would want to do this because Zing would be very interactive – firing off an email to the channel’s controllers would more than likely get a reply and in some cases lead to noticeable changes on screen, in the form of new programmes or presentation. This target audience, I know from experience, finds it very important to be able to feel like they are having an input and a say on what they are watching. They like to feel as if they are being heard. The generation that I am targeting – born in 1986 at the earliest – now see interactivity as an expectation instead of a bonus. It also includes a short video, a mock-up of a home video involving two members of the target audience discussing, with plenty of outtakes, what they’d like to watch on a channel made for them. This video should appeal to my target audience because they can relate to the pair featured in it, and they also appear natural and amusing. By relating to the people in the video, the target audience should feel like ‘if these sort of people are watching this channel, then I think I’d like it too’. The video, being improvised, did not require a storyboard, so it sort of ‘freed the chains’ and made it more natural.

The newspaper advert lists some of the programmes on the channel, some of its slogans and details on how to watch it (channel numbers, etc.). These are conventions of television channel advertising (more examples of TV channel advertising can be seen on another blog post). The main image of the advert is two of the target audience smiling and looking relaxed, again attracting and enticing the target audience into ‘joining them’ and watching the channel. Everything is aimed at getting more viewers. The poster also features a direct mode of address with both of the people in the photograph looking straight into the camera. This makes the advert seem more personal to the consumer, and appealing.

In the course of my feedback, it was suggested to me that the newspaper advert should maybe have an ethnic minority in the photograph, to ensure that the channel caters for everyone and no one is excluded. After considering the options, I decided against altering the photograph. I felt that changing the photo to feature someone from an ethnic minority would be too tokenistic and politically correct. Zing would not exclude anyone from viewing. I just did not believe that it needed to be spelled out so explicity. On the channel level, I would reaffirm this by including music videos from all over the world in programming.

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Zing’s slogans

My TV channel has 3 slogans to launch with:

‘Life At Full Throttle’ – carried on the logo of the channel, so seen the most. Describes the lifestyles of the target audience (care-free and fast) and shows that the channel reflects that.

‘Television Just Got Interesting’ – a turn of a popular phrase, shouting out to the target audience on the website and newspaper advert that what they have been waiting for has finally arrived.

‘At Last. A Channel For People Who Are Too Young To Be Bored With The 9 To 5.’ – describes how the wait for a channel dedicated for people who are not middle aged but also not at school age has been long and tedious. ‘9 to 5’ suggests routine – and Zing is trying to portray itself of not befitting a routine and, like its audience, leading an interesting, exciting life.

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The listings magazine pages give information about how the channel came about and what its aims are, a launch night schedule and also a teaser as to the possibility of new exciting programming coming to Zing, in this case, live football. A photograph depicts a young woman rollerblading and peering into the camera. This direct mode of address, as before, draws the readers’ eyes to the page and appeals to them. The audience may think: “this young, care-free person is enjoying herself, and she watches Zing – so then I’ll watch Zing too – it’ll make my life better.” This part of it strikes Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, as the audience is attempting to fulfil their potential by watching the channel.

I chose to work on a channel for young adults because of what I perceive as a complete lack of any half-decent TV output for this group. Children are well catered for with CBBC (both a channel and slots on BBC One/Two), CITV, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. The only service remotely for this audience is BBC Switch, but I find it extremely patronising and the sort of thing I would have switched off and left behind at about 13 or 14 years old, due to how the presenters were too try-hard and how the programming was too far-fetched to be appealing to my audience. This is why one of my programmes, Channel 4’s Skins, is so popular with the target audience – because it shows what really happens. None of the characters fly off into space at any time.  I seem to think that the BBC believe after you have started doing your GCSEs you should settle down in front of the Antiques Roadshow. I thought this was wrong and my idea for a channel was based on catering for the needs of 16 to 24 year olds.

I wanted to take all of the shows that are watched by this audience across all channels, such as Peep Show on Channel 4 and Mock The Week on BBC Two, and put them all on one channel that was available to as big an audience as possible, which meant putting it on Freeview – not just a subscription channel on Sky or Virgin Media. I understand that money might not be abundant for a 16 to 24 year old. At the lower end of the target audience there might be a lack of choice as to whether they have satellite television or not. The channel also had to be non-patronising at all costs. I noticed that the reasons behind this patronising feeling coming from other services was older people trying to ‘be like’ the target audience, which they just can’t do when they are pushing 30. The solution to this would be an array of presenters who fit the target audience, probably between 18 and 24 years of age.

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The stars of Zing

Zing’s schedule will carry such programmes as Peep Show and Mock The Week, but how popular are they with the young adult target market?

Mock The Week – the BBC’s highest rating comedy show. Regularly attracts more than 5 million viewers for a new episode. Shown at 9pm on Thursday nights.

Peep Show – Channel 4’s Friday night point-of-view comedy currently holds its record audience of 1.9 million. Shown at 10.30pm on Friday nights.

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I made a point of ensuring that the synergy between the main task and the ancillary was as strong as possible, that the newspaper advert and listings magazine pages were not just afterthoughts at the end of the project. Therefore, I made certain that all parts of the project shared a consistent design. The advert and listings magazine pages also feature the website address.

This design was persevered with based on research into other channels such as Dave. Dave in particular uses an old-fashioned wallpaper design as the background to its break bumpers. See the other blog post, ‘Research for Zing’, to see more on how Dave has moulded my channel.

The font I have used on the poster is Trebuchet MS, a classic font. It is clear, rounded and stylish and fits neatly with my overall scheme of bright, enthusiastic colours.

The project was not without its problems, mostly caused by technology. The biggest difficulty I had was attempting to place the video in working order on my website. It required complicated .flv streaming technology that I had to learn to use, but eventually I managed to get it to work. In the future I would be able to use these skills I have learned to make better websites.

Zing newspaper advert

The Zing newspaper advert* I have designed is intended to inform, excite and whet the appetite of those from my target audience who come across it.

*click on the blue text to view the advert. The file may be scanned. Wait for it to be scanned, then click ‘Open’ when prompted.

Stephen Fry – should he be on Zing? Yes!

Stephen Fry's presence on Zing has been questioned, but he's staying.

I have had comments on my planning for my TV channel, Zing, questioning the appeal of broadcaster Stephen Fry appearing in front of a target audience of 16-24 year olds.

Personally, I think Stephen Fry appeals to all. Young or old, fat or thin, short or tall, Marcus or Rosie. This can be highlighted by the fact he is the voice of the Harry Potter audiobooks and provides his vocal talents on the PlayStation game LittleBigPlanet.

The chalk and the cheese: Simon Amstell, formerly of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, clearly appeals to the youth of today.

Zing – my newspaper advert

The brief for my production said that I had to make two ancillary tasks with the main task. One of these ancillary tasks is a newspaper advert that would cover a full page. To date, I have made two drafts of the advert for Zing, the latest one being this:

The second, and latest, draft of the Zing advert. The photograph will be replaced by an image of Marcus and Rosie for the final product.

The main feature of the advert is a photograph of an example of the TV channel’s target audience (16-24 year olds). In the first draft, the image showed just a teenage girl, which may have excluded males from watching. This image has now been replaced by one of a young man and a woman, looking happy and vibrant. I inted to change this to a photo of my classmates Marcus and Rosie for the final version.

Elsewhere on the advert, I list the programmes that are shown on Zing in the channel’s colour scheme of yellow, green and red, alongside the logo. The background of the advert is in the style of a green retro wallpaper. Viewers of the Dave channel, which launched in October 2007, may recognise a similar wallpaper used on their break bumpers.

The advert also features a statement, ‘At last. A channel for people who are to young to be bored with the 9 to 5. Zing has arrived.’ This statement deliberately omits exclamation marks, which some might argue may hold a place in this instance, but I feel this would appear too cheesy and cliched and so I used dismissive, matter-of-fact full stops to make my point. Most new TV channels have a slogan they use when they launch, as well as the one they use permanently. Mine would be ‘Television Just Got Interesting’ to complement my permanent slogan, which would be ‘Life At Full Throttle’.

Getting Zing onto Freeview

New channels being added to Freeview is a rarity. The prospective additions to the free digital TV service have to be in constant liaison with the regulator Ofcom for a considerable period of time before they get the all clear. If I was to try and get Zing onto Freeview, I would have to take into account a number of issues:

• First of all, do I want Zing to be an independent channel or part of a network? Personally, I would choose a network. Being part of a network would give the channel some stability (financially) and would give it a degree of trust from the loyal viewers of the other channels run by the network I am joining. UKTV (who operate channels such as G.O.L.D, Dave, Watch and Eden) would be my personal choice. Ofcom would approve of the fact that my channel is reliable and I won’t crash and burn off the air in a matter of months.
• Second, what do I want my channel to be? Do I want it to be a Public Service Broadcaster (PSB)? If I did want it to be a PSB, I would have to adhere to a number of strict regulations such as nationwide coverage (the current target is 98.5% of the population) and local news. A channel such as mine, aimed at young people, would rather there were no restrictions such as this, that it was a channel for them to be free and ‘let their hair down’. So I wouldn’t make it a PSB.

For a channel to be added to Freeview, it has to be awarded a Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) licence. There are only a certain number of these licences, and they are not handed out freely. To be awarded one, a pitch has to be made showcasing the benefits of my channel to the service and it is best to do this when another channel has dropped out.

Planning: Zing – life at full throttle

I am working on the launch of a brand new TV channel aimed at the criminally underserved youth market. My target audience is both male and female, ages 16 to 24.

The name I decided on for the channel was Zing. I chose this name because it represents a youthful freshness that I believe would strike a chord with my target audience and is also slightly unorthodox, something I feel this audience would respond to.

This is the logo my channel would carry as its on-screen identity and on its advertising.

The colours are designed to add to the unique, modern feel of the channel. When you think of ‘zing’, one of the first things that comes into your mind is likely to be ‘lemons’, as in zest. The yellow on the logo represents these lemons. The green covering the ‘Z’ is there to put emphasis on the letter, as a ‘short’ version of this logo would just carry this letter. The slightly mellow yellow at the top left continues the fresh theme.

The font was constructed by using Myriad Pro, by erasing the ends of some of the letters. This gives the logo its own identity and professionalism.

Being a channel for young people, I would fill the channel with dramas such as Skins and comedies such as Peep Show and How Not To Live Your Life as well as a range of quizcoms like QI and Mock The Week.

I would run the channel on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) – Freeview, Freesat, Sky, Virgin Media, and BT Vision. The aim of this would be to reach as big an audience as possible.