Exam question - zoella and attitude

EXAM QUESTION: What techniques do your chosen texts use to effectively target and maximise their online audiences? (30 marks) Refer to both Zoella and Attitude.

 

Zoella’s target audience is female, this is shown as she uses emotive content and this appeals and engages a female audience. As Zoe discusses her problems and how she feels about them. Her fans may relate and therefore build  special relationship with Zoe as they are experiencing the same issues. Zoe stereotypically is seen a female - as she talks about fashion, relationship, and makeup this is seen as very feminine. She constructs a positive representation as she is very stylish, wears lots of makeup and looks very feminine! Her activities and interests of fashion, beauty and makeup show she is feminine in ‘female based activities and interests’. This builds her fan base as she does regular activities that a young teen/ young adult would do and does vlogs about it.

Zoella targets 13 to 24 years old, Zoella uses a lot of social media to engage with her audience via Instagram, Snapchat & YouTube as these social media platforms fit in with the current generation and technology. She aims to maximise her online audience through social media, content by creating videos that interest her fans and uses popular topics to talk about. Everyday activities also shape her target audience as Zoe enjoys shopping and eating at restaurants this interests young teens and young adults, which reinforces her target audience.

She has made partnerships with companies for the same target audience e.g. ASOS & H&M these are companies whop have a similar target audience and who represent high street fashion at reasonable prices. Zoe will partner up with different brands, so she gets the attention of wearing the outfit and the company will get attention for the clothing. It is win win situation for the model and brand. It shows that Zoe's audience is the socio economic group of BC1C2 because these shops sell their clothing/products at a reasonable price.

 

Attitude targets gay males, this is shown by writing factually and not in long paragraphs as males don’t tend to read long paragraphs as they lose focus and attention quickly. There is a lot of high image to text ratio and has a lot of short paragraphs to be quite snappy and look at details visually rather than massive long paragraphs.

The age range for this magazine is 26 to 55 year olds, this can be identified as Attitude uses/shares a lot of content to their social media platforms such as: Facebook and twitter as there age range is most likely to use Facebook and twitter as an older generation compared to Zoella’s younger generation audience. Most of the 26 to 55 age range wouldn’t know how to use snapchat or Instagram. Most of the magazine articles/new stories show celebrities which are in an older generation and they are referenced to engage their audience who they grew up with in the media. There is a lot of retro culture stories in the 1990s and there is a lot of political stories which would portray a more mature audience!

Partnerships and sponsorships have been built with companies which advertise premium products on their website e.g. Jaguar and Calvin Klein this shows the socio-economic group to be ABC1. The interests and activities that accompany this socio-economic group is art and cultural events, theatre visits and five-star holidaying.

Some narratives focus on social issues such as LGBT and women’s rights etc. These can very mature and complex articles which reinforces the age range. The magazine constructs an aspirational feel as the magazine refers to premium brands, looking good and brand awareness.

 

Gauntlett refers to how we use the internet and other media texts help us to create our identify. We now have more of a variety of representations to identify with e.g. LBGT, masculine and feminine etc. Zoella and Attitude use their techniques to engage and target their audience and they both show the range of representations we can identify with!

Shirky says we are now more likely to use the internet to respond to texts e.g. Zoella uses YouTube, Instagram etc to like, comment, subscribe and share their content/posts. Zoella and Attitude can reply to their target audience, this maximises their online audience due to them interacting and engaging with Zoe or others and etc.