Below I have listed my specific area for investigation:
1. An initial introduction to the brand and target audience of each brand.
2. Search engine optimisation, e.g. when using Google it was difficult to locate the official web pages for Basil Brush and The Simpsons due to consumer-made sites. The Simpson’s official site was much further down the Google ranking.
3. Website – this will be completely deconstructed.
a. Is the website animated? E.g. Peppa Pig website has an animated village as the home page.
b. Is there option to shop online – increasing revenue for the brand?
c. Gallery to upload work – a sense of interacting with the user.
d. The option to watch previous shows online creating a reliable service for the user.
e. E-books. Reading online.
f. The games online – they entice the user to stay on the site for longer, helping to drill the brand into the mind of the visitor for a longer length of time.
g. News/ competitions – how are these promoted? Is a newsletter used?
h. General assessment of the success of the webpage – is it easy to navigate – use of colour and text and how this appeals to the target audience.
4. Television. Analysis of the television shows themselves –
a. What time is the show broadcasted? E.g. early morning before school/ after the watershed etc.
b. Brief analysis of what adverts appear between the programmes – are these relevant to the target customer.
c. Who sponsors the show? What does this tell me?
d. How many viewers.
5. How does the brand make use of YouTube?
a. Uploading different series of the show.
b. Unintentional promotion by fans – e.g. video responses or recreations, e.g. a recreation of the Green Giant advert using Peppa Pig toys, or the ‘daddy pig eats George’ video which has over 69,000 views.
6. Billboards – none found so far. Discuss why this may be.
7. Magazine/comics.
a. The type of free giveaways in these magazines.
b. The price of the magazine – e.g. is it affordable with pocket money for the child.
c. The offer of subscription (clearly targeted at the parent).
d. Competitions included within.
e. Promotional offers included within
f. Quality of magazine – user of colour/paper.
g. Circulation figures.
8. Merchandise – this is a massive field within itself, so give an overview of what products are available and whether they are suited to the specific target audience, or aimed at an older secondary audience, e.g. purses, key rings also brought by teenagers/ adults.
9. Special events.
a. The characters each have an official mascot which can be hired for special events.
b. The characters usually visit children-orientated attractions, for example: Gulliver’s, Twinlakes Family Theme Park, Great Central Railway, Grand Opera House, Spa Valley Railway, Woodlands, and Wheelgate Adventure Park.
c. It is up to the theme park/venue to promote these events.
d. I will obtain figures as to the number of people at such locations to monitor the success.
10. Blog – Basil Brush has his own blog which seems to be personally updated by Basil.
a. I will look at the frequency of the blog entries (e.g. only two blog entries so far this year) and the type of information contained within.
b. Basil also has a video blog.
11. Twitter.
a. Who exactly is this aimed at? Peppa Pig’s target audience are not frequenters on Twitter, therefore this is aimed at the parents.
b. The relationship built via Twitter will be discussed, e.g. the type of information contained within the tweets. Are the tweets promotion-focussed or used to express the personality of the character? E.g. Bart Simpson: “HEY! listen to this new DRAKE song he's awesome man!”
c. This form of promotion seems more relevant for The Simpsons. This is demonstrated as each Simpson’s character has an individual twitter account.
12. The use of celebrities.
a. E.g. Peppa Pig joining forces with Melinda Messenger to host a charity event.
b. The Simpson’s extensive list of stars used as characters and voiceovers: To Tom Jones, Ringo Starr, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Meryl Streep, Aerosmith, Katy Perry, Green Day.
c. Convergence occurs as Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder has appeared in an episode, lending his voice and animated face, this aids the promotion of his Facebook movie The Social Network. (May include this in a separate section about cross-marketing, or sign post reader to this section).
d. What does the use of the celebrity, and the context within which the celebrity is used in, tell us about the brand?
13. Computer games
a. Is there an age rating?
b. Is the game available for purchase or download?
c. How does the game appeal to its target customer. E.g. Ben10 game allows ‘any
kid to be an alien superhero’.
14. Screen saver/ Interactive poster – this is a form of promotion on a very small scale, seen by the downloader and his/her friends. It is successful in the respect that you are continuously looking at it, this repetition acts to reinforce.
15. Movie/Cinema/ DVD
a. What age rating is the film (this may help to define the target audience).
b. What adverts are used during the film – e.g. it is unlikely that scary films would be
promoted during a Peppa Pig screening, this is with good reason.
c. Are any extras/exclusives provided?
d. Are special effects used, for example Postman Pat is available in 3D at the cinema (due
in 2011) – what does this suggest about this brand’s budget.
16. Music / song lyrics.
a. Each show has a theme song/jingle.
b. Has this been used as a form of promotion, for example is the theme song available for download, has it been used as a ringtone e.g. Basil Brush’s laugh, has a band done a remake – e.g. Canvas has covered the Postman Pat theme tune.
17. Charity – I have found charities associated with all licenses except The Simpsons.
a. E.g. Peppa Pig has teamed up with Asda to sell badges for £1 in support of Tommy’s children’s charity (Tommy’s is the exclusive charity partner). This is a viable choice as Asda uses mums as brand ambassadors.
b. Ben 10 was recruited to support Mencap to teach children to spell as part of the charity’s annual spelling competition (Spellathon).
c. Basil Brush supports the Police Federation Charity.
18. Sponsors/ Partnership/ Cross-marketing.
a. 20th Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising has joined forces with Burger King for a
global Kid's Meal promotion featuring The Simpsons. How heavily can this be criticised with regards to promotion of poor nutrition – negative impact on the brand?
b. The Simpsons have also worked with Dominoes Pizza and promoted Nestlé Butterfinger.
c. Müller Little Stars ran an on-pack promotional tie-in with Peppa Pig, allowing parents to collect codes from packs to redeem online against a series of Peppa Pig books.
19. Theme park – different to special events, this section will discuss children’s attractions which have incorporated the licensed characters into their parks.
a. For example Ben10 has joined forces with Lego Land.
b. Paulton’s Park is due to open Peppa Pig World in 2011.
c. The Simpson’s have a ride at Universal Studios which “gives Universal Studios patrons a taste of Springfield”.
d. SpongeBob at Nickland in Germany, showing the universal appeal of such characters.
20. The use of app’s.
a. Ben 10 has a MouthOff iphone game which is sound reactive. It has an emphasis on fun which means it is used by children, teenagers and adults alike. The user must set up a camera and place the app in front of their face and make expressions along with the animations. This acts as a viral campaign as the end footage can be sent to friends.
b. Peppa Pig - Happy Mrs Chicken. This topped the UK Paid Kids Games chart within 24 hours of its release.
c. The Spongebob SquarePants Tickler app prides itself on being a portable friend. You can shake him, poke him, stretch him, play games with him and make him dance.
Conclusion will use the completed comparison chart and assess how successfully the forms of promotion used address the target audience.
Following communication with my course leader, I decided that the area of investigation needed to be more specific than that listed above.
I therefore made ammendments to this - see next post.
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