Assignment 1 Plan: Select an advertising campaign of your choice and analyse it in terms of intended target market, message and media. PDF

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Select an advertising campaign of your choice and analyse it in terms of intended target market, message and media.
A plan in relation to BBC Sherlock holmes...

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Principles of marketing: assessment 1 plan BBC SHERLOCK Marketing strategies have changed dramatically over the last 10 years, with the internet giving marketers a new medium for promotion and distribution and a plethora of strategies which target, attract and actively engage audiences.

Target audience: Sherlock has an already established fan base as the series is a modern adaption to the popular novel which has been regenerated through the Sherlock movie in 2009 starring Robert Downey Junior. This new vamp to the Sherlock Holmes brand increased sales of the original novel by 180% 1. This positive audience response to Sherlock Holmes from the 2009 movie suggests that the audience would like to see more of Sherlock Holmes related media, leading them to the British-Broadcastingcompany-made series. THIS WAS TRUE TO THE TV SHOW! Star appeal: In the series, Sherlock Holmes is played by Benedict Cumberbatch who appeared in ‘Atonement’ and other successful blockbuster Hollywood movies. Dr John Watson, played by Martin Freeman starred in ‘The Office’ and ‘The Hobbit’. This will attract a wider target audience as the fans of Cumberbatch’s and Freeman’s would be drawn in to watch the British series. The Sherlock series is created by the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) which is a Government ran company who have established themselves as producers of quality dramas. This positive brand image connote that the series Sherlock will also be a high quality drama which can attract more viewers to the show. BBC has a national coverage of viewers since it is a Government owned company. This means that everyone in the country who owns a television can view the content shown on the channel. Like other television series, Sherlock had a trailer broadcast which hammocked between two existing successful programs. This clever scheduling technique allows the trailer to be seen by viewers of a similar genre which will increase the likelihood of successful viewing figures. In the trailer, the genre was identified as a crime and detective genre through the use of visual codes as we see many iconographies which are conventional to this genre such as a magnifying glass, police tape, forensic suits and science equipment. Enigma is created by the trailer as there are many questions in the dialogue such as “who are you?” and “What do you do?” which was accompanied with low lighting. The mise-en-scene created enigma which Barthes suggests that audience look for in media texts. The enigma created by the trailer will attract more people to view the series. The characters that we see in the trailer presents a hint of binary opposition; good vs evil. This captures the audiences’ interest as the audience unconsciously want the good side to triumph over evil as Asa Berger suggest. At first glance, Sherlock is marketed at middle-aged, well educated men as this series is a male dominated show with all main characters being male, which reflects the original novel which the series was adapted from. However, this can also be a marketing technique to appeal to a female audience as Cumberbatch and Freeman have a strong female fan base. Therefore, Sherlock has targeted a wide audience through its extensive market techniques which can reach a large volume of viewers. 1 https://web.archive.org/web/20100815050142/http://www.thebookseller.com/news/125685-no-shitsherlock-as-tv-adaptation-boosts-book-sales.html

Media Like other television series, Sherlock had a trailer broadcast which hammocked between two existing successful programs. This clever scheduling technique allows the trailer to be seen by viewers of a similar genre which will increase the likelihood of successful viewing figures. In the trailer, the genre was identified as a crime and detective genre through the use of visual codes as we see many iconographies which are conventional to this genre such as a magnifying glass, police tape, forensic suits and science equipment. Enigma is created by the trailer as there are many questions in the dialogue such as “who are you?” and “What do you do?” which was accompanied with low lighting. The mise-en-scene created enigma which Barthes suggests that audience look for in media texts. The enigma created by the trailer will attract more people to view the series. The characters that we see in the trailer presents a hint of binary opposition; good vs evil. This captures the audiences’ interest as the audience unconsciously want the good side to triumph over evil as Asa Berger suggest. The series has also been featured in print based media in television magazines such as “Radio Times” in 2012. This magazine includes interviews with the main character which shows transparency (Berger) to the audience. The magazine also includes a photograph of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson on the front cover which draws the attention of fans and also those who are already interested in TV. This image is a low angle shot which makes the two characters appear dominant with direct mode of address that directly engages with the audience. The background is iconic as we see the cosmopolitan setting of London city which appeals to a British audience. Sherlock is marketed through many media platforms as discussed above from TV trailers to print based magazines. In this modern era, marketing techniques would fall short if businesses did not take advantage of the World Wide Web. The series has its own webpage hosted by the BBC which offers interactive sites such as Dr. Watson’s blog where the audience can interact with the fictional character. This creates a sense of community as Dyer suggests audiences look for in media texts. The website sustains the engagement of audiences even when the show is not broadcasting through video clips to create enigma or to find out more about the characters. Sherlock is also actively on social media sites such as Facebook which has accumulated over 6.2million likes on the official Sherlock page which provides a forum for fans to discuss the show, creating a further sense of community. This allows for ‘free advertising’ on Facebook as when a fan writes a post on the Sherlock page, friends of the fan who wrote the status can see their post which familiarises them to the television series A teaser trailer for Sherlock Series Three, which created quite a fan frenzy on Twitter about Sherlock’s return to the small screen. ‘Oh My God! #SherlockLives’. The screen becomes flooded with an array of hashtags as the excited fans spread the message across social networking sites. The trailer ends with Sherlock on top of a building with the program’s chosen hashtag #SherlockLives to entice viewers to tweet and share away. it is no real surprise #SherlockLives trended instantly on Twitter. With over 3.4 million views on the video “#SherlockLives-Sherlock: Series 3 TV Trailer – BBC1” YouTube and the activity online, this is a well-executed and engaging marketing campaign that utilised the power of social media and the humble hashtag.

Sherlock is also marketed through the appearance of the main cast members (Cumberbatch and Freeman) on the highbrow chat show, ‘Andrew Marr Show’ which discusses current affairs and politics which suggests an educated audience. Cumberbatch and Freeman were interviewed and Cumberbatch shared his personal experiences such as catching pneumonia whilst filming Sherlock and also informed the audience that “It was a nightmare but fun to make” the series. This creates transparency to the audience. The interview discussed the modern nuances that Sherlock presented such as the gay undertones in the relationship between Watson and Holmes which reflects the more open-minded society. This markets Sherlock as modern and contemporary which widen their target audience to a younger generation.

Message

Success of marketing The BBC series has also won many television awards such as the BAFTA for Best Drama and Best Supporting Actor in 2011 and nominated for 4 Emmys2, gaining publicity and credibility which suggests the high quality and popularity of the series. As each series progresses the viewer figures increase. The pilot episode, ‘A Study in Pink’ attracted 8 million viewers in the UK and this figured increased by 34% to 10.7 million in season 23. These figures show that the large scale marketing has been successful both in the domestic and international market as one of the top 5 sellers for the BBC.

This new vamp to the Sherlock Holmes brand increased sales of the original novel by 180% 4. This positive audience response to Sherlock Holmes from the 2009 movie suggests that the audience would like to see more of Sherlock Holmes related media, leading them to the British-Broadcastingcompany-made series. THIS WAS TRUE TO THE TV SHOW!

2 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1475582/awards 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sherlock_episodes 4 https://web.archive.org/web/20100815050142/http://www.thebookseller.com/news/125685-no-shitsherlock-as-tv-adaptation-boosts-book-sales.html

MENTION

CUSTOMER LOYALTY. EPISODE ENDINGS AND THE OVERALL SERIES PLOT

Product, place, promotion, price

1. Demonstrate an understanding of how marketing adds value to organisational activities. 2. Identify and explain a range of key marketing concepts and models / 3. Discuss how organisations can use the marketing mix to influence consumers and customers. 4. Apply basic marketing models to specific organisational and product/market demands./ 5. Communicate effectively via presentation and in writing...