Effects of technology change- 'Zoella' and 'Attitude'

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/

• Increase in audience size
• Better economic implications due to saving money from not having to publish physical copies
• More accessible 
• Opens new sustainable revenue channels through advertising 
• Can directly target potential consumers that match the demographic of the magazine 

• 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.

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

What device has provided a key ingredient to the success of YouTube?

Devices that are hand held, for example phones and tablets, have contributed strongly to the success of Youtube as they allow consumers to watch videos at any time as well as creating their own content and publishing it easily to the site.

What does Dominic Smales, the founder of Gleam Futures, suggest is the marketing appeal of YouTube stars like Zoella and Alfie Deyes?

Dominic Smales suggests that intimate relationship shared between creators like Zoella and her audience is the reason they are so successful. 

• 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.

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.

Nowadays younger members of the audience tend to watch content on demand for example, online versions of a TV channel or Youtube. It was found that the average viewer watches 212 minutes of TV whilst 16-24 year olds watch on average 114 minutes showing the extreme decrease of traditional TV watching in the younger audience. 

What effect is this trend having on traditional and non-traditional media producers?

Traditional shows are suffering with funding and audience sizes. For example, Blue Peter which suffered a zero rating. As a consequence more money is being put into children's content to improve the shows and an estimated quarter of this is going into online content to try and follow the new trend. 

• 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.

For what purpose is live television primarily used? How does this compare with media available on digital platforms (Facebook and YouTube)?

Live television is primarily used for keeping up with news (57%), keeping up with a programme (51%) and alone time (55%). This contrasts slightly with digital platforms which are primarily used for alone time (49%) and de stressing (33%). 

How do different platforms compare in terms of their use as ‘family time’ viewing?

Despite the increase in digital platforms live TV is still the most popular for family time (35%) however this is closely followed by streaming services (31%). Websites such as Facebook and Youtube are at the bottom with only 14%.

How does the narrative content of your set products underline the trends described above?

The narrative content of the set products (Zoella) underlines the trend shows above through the low percentages for keeping up with sport (6%) and the news (16%) and background noise (9%). This reflects the content Zoe creates and audience participation and close relationship between the creator and the audience. 

• 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.

What has happened to smartphone take up between 2011 and 2017? How does this compare to tablet and laptop consumption?

The smartphone take up between 2011 and 2017 increased drastically, tablets also increased strongly going from 2% to 58%. Laptop consumption did increase but not as strongly, only 51% to 64%.

What happened to digital advertising expenditure from 2010 to 2016?

The digital advertising expenditure from 2010 to 2016 increased by £5.5bn. 

In what ways does the advertising and narrative content of your set products provide concrete exemplification of the trends above?

The digital advertising expenditure reflects the increase in online media interaction through creators like Zoella. This is also shown through the total digital audience that has accumulated to 50.4 million in the past few years. 

• 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.

What does the graph tell us about the popularity of social media platforms in the years 2016 and 2017?

The graph shows us that for most platforms their audience has grown, this is true for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. Google+ and LinkedIn on the other hand have decreased. Google+ also recently cancelled their platform reflecting the lack of audience they were receiving. 

If you were to enhance your web visibility through social media what platforms would you want to invest in to market your product?

From the graph I would suggest Facebook due to it's increasing audience size and having the largest audience of the platforms. However, the demographic of your audience is also important as younger audience members focus on social medias such as Instagram and Twitter, making them potentially better depending on the demographics of the 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.