Select a question to answer


  1. 1. Digital presence
  2. 2. The rise of YouTube
  3. 3. Media consumption habits
  4. 4. Audience uses for a variety of TV platforms
  5. 5. The growth of smartphones and online advertising
  6. 6. The popularity of social media brands

1. Digital presence

What are the five advantages for an established magazine like Attitude for cultivating a digital presence according to this link?

http://digitalmagazinepublishing.net/digital-magazine-publishing/advantages/

  • Increased magazine distribution on a global scale.
  • The ability to deliver content across multiple platforms and devices.
  • Lower production and on-going publishing costs.
  • Open new sustainable revenue channels through advertising and ecommerce.
  • The ability to instantly direct potential customers and traffic to your content.
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2. The rise of YouTube

Read the article link below and answer the following questions:

https://www.raconteur.net/business/create-a-channel-and-get-a-following

  • What device has provided a key ingredient to the success of YouTube?
  • What does Dominic Smales, the founder of Gleam Futures, suggest is the marketing appeal of YouTube stars like Zoella and Alfie Deyes?
  • Smartphone ownership, partially because it enables an ‘always on’ culture - smart phones mean that video is accessible anywhere and at any time.
  • The appeal of Zalfie to potential advertisers is the personal connections that they have forged with their audiences - those connections, driven by social media engagement, give them a great deal of audience influence. Products that partner with these online vloggers can gain a great deal of ‘credibility’ as a result of any subsequent association.

Read more on why YouTubers have found success using this link:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/03/why-youtube-stars-popular-zoella

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3. Media consumption habits

Read the following article that summarises the findings of a 2017 survey by OFCOM and answer the questions below:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/07/ofcom-young-people-watch-a-third-less-broadcast-tv-as-they-move-online

  • How, according to OFCOM, are young and old audiences consuming media differently? Quote statistics to evidence your answer.
  • What effect is this trend having on traditional and non-traditional media producers?
  • Viewing of broadcast TV by children (four to 15 years old) and 16- to 24-year-olds fell by 33% between 2010 and 2016, whilst the over-65s have marginally increased their consumption of traditional TV. A clear generational gap is forming, the Guardian argues.
  • Traditional media is moving services to online/on demand platforms, whilst streaming services such as YouTube are beginning to dominate the media landscape.
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4. Audience uses for a variety of TV platforms

Look carefully at the table of data below that identifies audience uses for a variety of TV platforms:

Figure 1.10: Reasons for using services: adults 16+

  Live broadcast / recorded TV Broadcasters' on-demand and streaming services Subscription on-demand and streaming services Pay TV services Facebook / YouTube
Base 1233 1578 997 555 945
Family time 35% 24% 31% 27% 14%
Alone time (I can watch anything I want to watch) 55% 50% 55% 35% 49%
For background noise 20% 8% 9% 9% 9%
To keep children entertained 9% 5% 9% 9% 7%
For de-stressing/unwinding 44% 33% 42% 29% 33%
To learn something new 34% 24% 14% 13% 23%
To keep up with the news/to keep up with what’s happening around me 57% 19% 8% 15% 16%
To keep up-to-date with the storyline/to keep up with a programme 51% 42% 29% 24% 13%
To keep up-to-date with the latest sport 26% 9% 3% 18% 6%
For company 13% 7% 5% 6% 6%

Source: Use of on-demand and streaming services CMR research 2017 – Populus
Q12. You said you watch programmes/films for the reasons below, which services do you use for this?
Base: shown in table

(Table taken from OFCOM Communications Market Report, 2017: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/105074/cmr-2017-uk.pdf)

  • For what purpose is live television primarily used? How does this compare with media available on digital platforms (Facebook and YouTube)?
  • How do different platforms compare in terms of their use as ‘family time’ viewing?
  • How does the narrative content of your set products underline the trends described above?
  • 57% of traditional television viewers used TV for news consumption and engagement with contemporary events, whilst only 16% of Facebook/YouTube viewers did so.
  • Whilst 35% of traditional TV viewers suggested that they consumed TV media as family time, only 14% of YouTube and Facebook viewers responded in a similar fashion.
  • The narrative content of Pointlessblog and Zoella exemplify solo audience engagement through their personalised connection to the audience, whilst also avoiding content that is news related. Online platforms tends to utilise a lighter mix of content
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5. The growth of smartphones and online advertising

Look carefully at the table of data below that describes the growth of smartphones and online advertising spend from 2010 to 2017.

Figure 5.1: UK internet and online content market: key statistics

UK internet and online content market 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
1Internet take-up (%) 75 77 79 80 82 85 86 88
1Smartphone take-up (%) n/a 27 39 51 61 66 71 76
1Tablet take-up (%) n/a 2 11 24 44 54 59 58
1Laptop take-up (%) 51 55 61 62 63 65 64 64
1Consideration that the smartphone is the most important device for internet access (%)       15 23 33 36 42
2Total digital audience (million) n/a n/a n/a n/a 48.2 47.5 50.3 50.4
3Digital advertising expenditure (£bn) 4.8 5.4 6.0 6.6 7.6 9.2 10.3 n/a
3Mobile advertising expenditure (£m) 94 219 554 1,044 1,642 2,678 3,866 n/a

Source: 1Ofcom consumer research, 2comScore MMX multi-platform, UK, data for March 2015, March 2016 and March 2017; 3IAB/ PwC Digital Adspend Study
Note: Caution is advised in comparing values before and after February 2011 because of a change in comScore methodology.
Note: Revenue and expenditure figures are adjusted for CPI (2016 prices).

(Table taken from OFCOM Communications Market Report, 2017: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/105074/cmr-2017-uk.pdf)

  • What has happened to smartphone take up between 2011 and 2017? How does this compare to tablet and laptop consumption?
  • What happened to digital advertising expenditure from 2010 to 2016?
  • In what ways does the advertising and narrative content of your set products provide concrete exemplification of the trends above?
  • Smartphone take up has grown hugely from 27% to 76% of the UK adult population.
  • Digital advertising expenditure nearly doubled in the six years between 2011 and 2016 from £5.4 billion to £10.3 billion.
  • Set texts offer exemplars of the financial models used by contemporary media companies - they are free-to-view - financed through commercial advertising, with content designed for a variety of viewing platforms with an emphasis given to smartphone consumption. All set products are marketed via social media exposure and integrate some form of audience feedback to make full use of web 2.0. The relatively safe editorial content of some of the set products ensures that potential commercial advertisers can enable ‘brand safety’ if their products are linked to them.
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6. The popularity of social media brands

Look carefully at the table of data below that describes the popularity of social media brands in the UK during 2016/17:

Figure 5.24: Digital audience of selected social networking sites: March 2016 and March 2017

Source: comScore MMX Multi Platform, UK, March 2017
Note: comScore entities used were [C] Facebook.com, [P] Linkedin, [P] Twitter, [M] Instagram.com, [P] Pinterest.com, [P] Snapchat, Inc, [C] Google+.

(Table taken from OFCOM Communications Market Report, 2017: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/105074/cmr-2017-uk.pdf)

  • What does the graph tell us about the popularity of social media platforms in the years 2016 and 2017?
  • If you were to enhance your web visibility through social media what platforms would you want to invest in to market your product?
  • All social media platforms increased their audience reach from 2016 to 2017 with the exception of Linkedin and Google+.
  • Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are the market leaders in terms of social media engagement - it would make a great deal of commercial sense to target those sites if Attitude, DesiMag, Zoella or Pointlessblog wanted to develop their audience reach.
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