Soap Opera Trailers Target Audiences

Channel: BBC One

7pm - EastEnders trailer -  Before trailer: Total Wipeout, After trailer: Doctor Who

9.30pm - EastEnders trailer -  Before trailer: BBC Weekend News, After trailer: Doctor Who

10.30pm - EastEnders trailer -  Before trailer: Miranda (comedy), After trailer: BBC News At Ten

We think that the eastenders trailers were watched by demographic groups B through to E as they are all out of work, school, UNI and collage hours so most people that would be at home would be watching the trailer with there family or friends as it is a channel and time that anyone can watch the TV. This soap opera has a wide target audience they look at hitting every audience by having lots of storylines and characters which can relate to real people.
If the programmes that the trailer was shown inbetween and the timings the trailers were shown on was different this would totally effect their target audience, as eastenders try to hit a mass population and mass audience they have their trailer at different times to show different people and get them interested.

Channel: E4

6.30pm - Hollyoaks trailer - Before trailer: My Name Is Earl, After trailer: My Name Is Earl

7.30pm - Hollyoaks later trailer - Before trailer: Friends, After trailer: Mr & Mrs Smith (film)

8pm - Hollyoaks trailer (sneak preview) - Before trailer: How I Met Your Mother, After trailer: The Big Bang Theory

We think that the Hollyoaks trailers were watched by demographic groups B through to E as they are all out of work, school, UNI and collage hours so most people that would be at home would be watching the trailer with there family or friends as it is a channel and time that anyone can watch the TV. We think that hollyoaks mainly hits demographic group E as most of the target audience that watchs it is students and teenagers.
If the  programmes that the trailer was shown inbetween and the timings the trailers were shown on was different this would totally effect their target audience, as hollyoak try to hit a young people/adult and high class population  they have their trailer at different times to show different people and get them interested.

Channel 4

4.30pm - Hollyoaks - Before trailer: Deal Or No Deal, After trailer: Coach Trip

7pm - Hollyoaks - Before trailer: Hollyoaks, After trailer: Channel 4 News

We think that the Hollyoaks trailers were watched by demographic groups B through to E as they are all out of work, school, UNI and collage hours so most people that would be at home would be watching the trailer with there family or friends as it is a channel and time that anyone can watch the TV. We think that hollyoaks mainly hits demographic group E as most of the target audience that watchs it is students and teenagers.

ITV1

7pm - Coronation Street - Before trailer: Emmerdale, After trailer: Coronation Street

8.30pm - Coronation Street - Before trailer: 9/11 Documentary, After trailer: Emmerdale

 We think that the Hollyoaks trailers were watched by demographic groups B through to E as they are all out of work, school, UNI and collage hours so most people that would be at home would be watching the trailer with there family or friends as it is a channel and time that anyone can watch the TV.
Coronation street doesnt have as mass audiences as trhe other soaps however it does still aim to hit as many as possible.
If the  programmes that the trailer was shown inbetween and the timings the trailers were shown on was different this would totally effect their target audience, as Coronation street try to hit as many audiences as they can they have their trailer at different times to show different people and get them interested.

If the  programmes that the trailer was shown inbetween and the timings the trailers were shown on was different this would totally effect their target audience, as hollyoak try to hit a young people/adult and high class population  they have their trailer at different times to show different people and get them interested.

Soap Opera Trailers

Channel: BBC One

7pm - EastEnders trailer -  Before trailer: Total Wipeout, After trailer: Doctor Who

9.30pm - EastEnders trailer -  Before trailer: BBC Weekend News, After trailer: Doctor Who

10.30pm - EastEnders trailer -  Before trailer: Miranda (comedy), After trailer: BBC News At Ten

Channel: E4

6.30pm - Hollyoaks trailer - Before trailer: My Name Is Earl, After trailer: My Name Is Earl

7.30pm - Hollyoaks later trailer - Before trailer: Friends, After trailer: Mr & Mrs Smith (film)

8pm - Hollyoaks trailer (sneak preview) - Before trailer: How I Met Your Mother, After trailer: The Big Bang Theory

Channel 4

4.30pm - Hollyoaks - Before trailer: Deal Or No Deal, After trailer: Coach Trip

7pm - Hollyoaks - Before trailer: Hollyoaks, After trailer: Channel 4 News

ITV1

7pm - Coronation Street - Before trailer: Emmerdale, After trailer: Coronation Street

8.30pm - Coronation Street - Before trailer: 9/11 Documentary, After trailer: Emmerdale

From noting down the time that soap opera trailer are on television individually, we joined together as a group to discuss our findings. We found that trailers for soaps like Hollyoaks were shown inbetween comedy shows which would appeal to their target audience, this is because as their target audience is watching that show they would see their trailer through the adverts hopefully making them want to watch that soap. We also found that trailers for soaps like Coronation Street and EastEnders were played in between soaps that have similar target audiences and before or after an episode of their soap, making them more likely to watch the next episode, through that trailer. As a result of this, when thinking about when we would show our trailer we would take into consideration our target audience.

By Jess Wilding

Soap Opera Target Audience Results Analysis

Questionnaire Analysis

This is a mood board to show the different types of people and the age range of them for soap operas that has been taken from the target audience questionnaire results.

Mood board for Our Target Audience

Soap Opera Target Audiences

Soap Opera Target Audience Questionnaire

We have created this questionnaire so that we can discover who the soap opera will be aimed at. We have used both open and closed questions that cover a range of areas to do with soap operas, from the demographic groupings to the viewing trends of soaps. By doing this we are able to get a huge insight of soap operas and their audiences. Once we get the results from these questionnaires we will have more of an idea of what the soap opera trailer and the soap opera itself should include, what time both the trailer and soap should be shown and how many times within a week.

Soap Opera Trailers Target Audience Questionnaire

Soap Opera Trailers Target Audience Questionnaire


Media Questionnaire Results

Soap Opera Brief

Rough Plan

Brief
For the task in hand, our aim is to advertise and promote a new soap opera and introduce a new cast of characters to an intended audience through the construction of a soap opera trailer, a poster and listings magazine cover using key conventions.
We have decided to aim our soap opera at young adults and so this led us to take inspiration from Hollyoaks as they use a young, glamourous cast. Furthermore, we looked into location/setting and decided that a pub/bar location would be preferable and took inspiration from Eastenders and the Queen Vic which is the hub of the community and where all the characters get together.
The trailer, poster and magazine are all used to advertise our new soap and will all follow the theme of glamour. All 3 products are used to entice an audience and make them want to watch the soap. The poster will show the time, date and channel the soap is on to inform the audience and the magazine will give clues into many different storylines as magazines tend to have a busy front cover with little blank space.
To film and take pictures for the poster and magazine, we will be using a HD camera. This will give us a high quality picture and lead to a more professional final production.
We are looking at developing our skills further and editing the shots on Final Cut as opposed to iMovie as this will give us a better range of transitions and editing effects.

Real Media Texts - Comparison of soap opera episodes

Scenes. Coronation Street – 15 Emmerdale – 15 Holyoaks – 22 Eastenders – 24	Settings. Coronation Street – Pubs, houses, streets and shops. Emmerdale – Pubs, houses, farms and café. Holyoaks – Houses, streets and the beach. Eastenders – Streets, house and café.
Characters. Coronation Street – 20 Emmerdale – 22 Holyoaks – 22 Eastenders – 24



Types of Characters.

Hollyoaks = within Hollyoaks there are a variety of different types of teenagers. The majority of the girls within the programme are very stereotypical. They are mostly worrying about there weight and what they look like. You find that there are a lot of relationships and a lot of paranoia within the different friendships groups and relationships.

Eastenders = a stereotypical house wife is shown who has slight paranoia about the whereabouts of her husband. There are a lot of families in the soap that are all very opinionated as well as what’s seen to be angry teenagers.

Coronation street = the majority of the characters are middle aged or older. All the characters love to gossip and spread information about what’s going on in each others lives. The soap also has a lot of families as well.

Emmerdale = Emmerdale has a mixture of different classes within the soap. For example Ella, Mia and Declan are the very upper class and the lower class is families like the Dingle family. The upper class characters are seen to be going to hotels, business meetings, running their own businesses and owning large houses. The lower class characters spend most of the time in the local pub and working in the businesses that the upper class characters own.

All four soaps have a range of age groups within the characters and all have a lot of families as well. Out of the four soaps that were watched to do this only one tackles and shows disability in its characters and two soaps show homosexuality.

Storylines.

Hollyoaks = Hidden secrets between best friends and boyfriends. Love triangles, love affairs between best friend and boyfriend, and a cheating boyfriend.

Eastenders = It is evident that the mother of one of the characters in the first scene is not happy with homosexual relations and does not accept homosexuals. This is a paranoid wife on one of the scene doing some washing which looks to be men’s clothing, she seems suspicious, and her paranoia could foreshadow an affair later on in the series. The character ‘Billy’ talks about crime therefore we know that in previous episodes something along the lines has happened. It is also evident that there has been some sort of social service adoption involved, with putting up a child for adoption and as this episode is a ‘fathers day’ special we see that the father wants to

‘find’ his child.

Coronation street = A male character’s family finds out that he has fathered a child in an affair. A couple of homosexual girls struggle to deal with the emotions with their relationship. A couple face problems in their marriage when they face getting there child taken away, all they want is to make a family. A woman my have to pay the price for her husbands murderous crimes.

Emmerdale = An affair between a woman and her daughters boyfriend. A helped suicide of a disable man by his boyfriend and mother. The planning of a funeral and a new born disabled baby.

From watching an episode from four different soaps we have seen that there are usually a lot of characters to be seen to create a neighbour hood, they are also used because as it is a soap there is not only one narrative, we see everything from different perspectives, otherwise it wouldn’t meet the specifications of a soap. There are certain locations and settings that are used in all soaps which include houses on the streets of the neighbourhood and inside shops and cafes, we will be taking this into consideration when making our soap opera. There is usually a lot of conflict and confrontation, this makes the soap interesting and keeps the viewers interested. A good plot would bring a bigger audience otherwise people would not want to watch as it would be boring. In most soap opera’s there is some sort of ‘affair’ or ‘betrayal’ happening perhaps to reflect on the viewers lives, this could relate to some of the viewer to make them watch or just catch a viewer as it is not something that is expected in everyday life. There also seems to be a lot of secrecy in soaps which could make the audience more involved as one of the characters on the show will not know what is happening but the viewers will. Overall from seeing all of these comparisons in four different soaps we know the type of things will we want and what we should include in our own soap. 

Conventions Found In Trailers Compared To Full Episodes

Conventions of Soap Opera Trailers:
-Short in length
-Usually only feature a few characters
-Can include multiple jump cuts
-Soundtrack throughout
-Following one storyline
-Can be seen at various times on the television
-Cliffhanger


Only 1:01 minutes long.
There are only two main characters and only a few other characters that appear for a few seconds throughout the piece.
The audience are left to wonder what is going to happen next.
Music is played throughout the piece.
Only one storyline is showed to the audience - the return of two characters.

Conventions of Soap Opera Episodes:
-Music is only normally used to introduce the soap
-Certain times it is broad casted
-Many story lines and characters
-Usually half an hour in length of episode
-Cliffhanger at the end
-Uses various locations (exterior & interior settings) and lighting


Nearly half an hour long
The theme tune is played at the beginning so that the audience can recognise the soap opera.
Throughout the piece the audience are able to follow a large number of story lines that also include a lot of characters.
The episode is left with an open narrative so the audience are unsure of what is going to happen in the next episode.
There are many differences between soap opera trailers and full episodes and when creating our trailer, we will need to take this into consideration to ensure that it follows the key conventions of a trailer avoiding those of a full episode. From research we found that trailers are short and are normally focused on a specific character or storyline where as a full episode would normally be on for half an hour to an hour and include multiple story lines within the one episode which would flow together within the episode. However, we found that both a trailer and full episode would leave the audience wanting to find out more by using a cliffhanger at or towards the end. A trailer would show the time and channel where to find the soap as it is can be broadcast at any time of day which is different from a full episode as they have a scheduled time every day in which they are shown on the television. Taking all this into account, for our trailer, we are looking on focuses on introducing the new characters and new soap without over-complicating it and will be looking to use just one main storyline with the information on the soap at the end of the piece.

Soap Opera Conventions

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In order to learn more about soap operas conventions we wanted to make a video about common characters from a popular soap and then spoke about famous scenes that they had been in which then explained the important conventions within the soap opera. This give us more information when thinking about and creating our own soap opera trailer. We learnt how important not only the characters personalities, lighting, scenes etc etc were within the soaps. Which has given us guidelines for our own production.

Key Soap Opera Facts

Soap Opera History