Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Overview of what was covered in the above video:

I aim to attract my audience using Uses and Gratifications theory. I have contained entertaining content for the reader by listing many features about current indie artists and news that would be interesting to my audience. This further entertains my audience as I have included a variety of images. Having the band on my front cover not only establishes the genre of the magazine but, due to their recent success (as mentioned in the article), also attracts the band’s fan base.

The content also informs the reader, as the content of the article provides them with information about the band, how they were formed and what they think about their music. Furthermore this allows the reader to identify with the band, as it gives them more personal knowledge of the band members and how the band functions. Also, the band is represented as being ‘normal’ in terms of their personality (their talent is sensationalised rather than the people themselves). Therefore, this allows the reader to relate to them and encourages them to read the magazine.

Finally, the magazine offers social interaction to the reader, with social network icons and a twitter name displayed largely on the contents page. This gives readers a sense of community, which would encourage the reader to regularly buy the magazine to remain part of this ‘community’. The magazine has content which readers have written or that they can get involved in and this also satisfies the reader’s need for social interaction. The reference to social networking continues throughout the magazine to the double page spreads, in which a small selection of pictures from Tigerilla’s Instagram feed is presented. The magazine’s involvement in social networking will attract my target audience because young adults spend a lot of time using these.

I have also attracted my audience through the use of a big, current, up and coming indie band on the front cover. As an indie-pop magazine, having a band that people recognize establishes the genre. As they are new to the industry, this appeals to fans of the indie genre because they will not know so much about them. This is particularly important as a young target audience can easily find out most information about popular bands online (on their Wikipedia page, for example). As a new band, there will be less known information about who ‘Tigerilla’ are and how they came to getting their ‘big break’.

Also, I have used sell lines that are a little bit ambiguous, not particularly stating an artist or band. However, each sell line is about a specific feature in the magazine about an artist or band. This will raise the potential reader’s interest because they want to check inside the magazine to find out who the sell line is about. This is particularly true for indie fans, as they are interested in things that are different or unique.

I have also attracted my audience through the use of social media and the magazine’s website. Throughout the magazine, on the cover, the contents page and the double page spreads, I have placed reminders that the magazine makes use of social media. The website is displayed in the corner of every page next to the page number, along with two tweets in the banner along the bottom of each page. This attracts a young audience, as they are likely to be frequent users of social networking sites themselves. Publishing tweets from the readers encourages them to get involved with the magazine on social media (e.g. using the hashtag ‘#indievisual’ or tweeting the magazine’s twitter account). This will attract an audience, because they feel they can get involved in a community of people who are interested in the same genre of music that they are.  I have mentioned that Indievisual has a Spotify account on the contents page, both at the top and in the editor’s note. Spotify is becoming an increasingly popular way to share music. Therefore, as this is a new trend, this attracts my audience because they are likely to be interested in new technologies and trends due to their age.

Another thing that will attract my reader is that there is an opportunity to win 2 tickets to see Tigerilla on tour. The opportunity to win something is often an attraction in itself to many readers. However, as these tickets are for Tigerilla’s tour, this will further encourage anyone who is a fan of the cover stars to purchase the magazine.