Zoella - Audience

Question 1

Gender

Answer 1

• Emotive content: appeals to its female audience through narratives that engage with subject matter emotionally.
• Zoella continuously tells us how she ‘feels’ about the problems she faces.
• Stereotypical female based activities in Zoella’s presentation: Fashion, make-up, relationships.
• Costume: Stereotypically female, female colour palette deployed in mise-en-scene.
• Use of pets and pet orienated references.
• Construction of a version of ideal beauty: highly stylised, lots of make-up attention paid to costume.
• Intimate confessional tone: creates a relatable female character.
• Quiet/passive presentation style that fits with target audience expectations and female presenter stereotypes.

Question 2

Age Range

Answer 2

• 13-24 year-olds
• Heavy use of Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube, sites that are prominently used by this age group.
• Youthful co-presenters
• Deliberate amateur aesthetic suggests authenticity to this media saturated audience segment
• Everyday activities of this demographic are incorparated into narratives to create connections with the target audience, e.g. shopping, stopping at drive-throughs, eating at fast food restuarants.
• Fan connections showcased in uploads - fans represent the real target audience.
• Light comedic tone effected.
• Youth orientated slang deployed.
• Use of YouTube commentary to create intimate connections with the target audience.

Secondary target audience: Parents and advertisers, engaged by content that is safe in terms of sexual content and other taboo areas.

Question 3

Socio-economic group

Answer 3

• BC1C2
• Partnerships built with companies who target similar demographic groups, e.g. ASOS/H&M - companies who represent high street fashion at value prices.
• Language moderately formal - some extended language deployed with Standard English used to mirror lower middle class values and educational background.
• Zoella’s house represents an ideal youthful environment - a place of fun and socialising.
• BC1C2 targetting allows uploads to be associated with more lucrative advertising tie-ins.

Question 4

Psychographics

Answer 4

• Lifecycle: Bachelor - Foregrounding of hetreosexual relationship with Alfie.
• Activities and interests: Fashion, Make-up, beauty - Zoella foregrounds stereotypical female-based activities in her presentation: fashion, make-up, beauty.
• Psychometric grouping: Mainstreamer/aspirer - Narratives are apolitical,they rarely deal with serious social commentary. Choice of cars and home residence represent an aspirational life-style based upon material possessions and their acquisition.
• Youth tribe: Aspirant tribe - Zoella is concerned to be ‘on-trend’, she is constantly chasing latest fashions. Zoella’s vlogging lifestyle also represents an ideal job choice. Her wardrobe choices and hairstyles reflect a brand driven outlook. Her partnerships and activities foregrounf a concern to be a ‘social butterfly.’

Question 5

Why do Audiences like Online Media?

Answer 5

• Easy Acessibility
• Content is not hidden behind a paywall
• Wide Variety of content, appeals to the tastes of everyone.
• Instantanous uploads which are consistently updated with little to no schedule.
• Interactive elements which allow audiences to speak back to products/media content.

Question 6

Advantages and Disadvantages of being a fan of online stars like Zoella?

Answer 6

• Disadvantages: Parasocial relationships -> Audiences don’t truly know Zoella, only the mediated version she has constructed of herself online.
• Advantages: Audiences are able to connect and learn from content creators, e.g. How to do a messy bun, with a simple search online.

Question 7

Example Videos which target Zoella’s GENDER demographic

Old Zoella

Answer 7

• ‘My Everyday Winter Make-Up’
• ‘My Travel Anxiety Tips’
• ‘HUGE Summer Primark Haul’
• ‘Full face of Glossier Make-Up I Honest Review And First Impression’

Question 8

Example Videos which target Zoella’s GENDER demographic

New Zoella

Answer 8

• ‘Preparing For The New Baby & Christmas’ –> Female self-love, Pregnancy updates.
• Emotive content: ‘My First Trimester I Fear of Sickness/Emetophobia I First Signs & Symptoms.

Question 9

Secondary audience for Zoella

Old Zoella

Answer 9

• Parents, Santised content which is safe for their children to watch.
• Fans of Alfie Deyes and/or Joe Sugg (likely male)

Question 10

Secondary audience for Zoella

New Zoella

Answer 10

• Older, loyal fans of Zoella’s old content who have followed her journey from a young adult to motherhood.
• Traditional older generation due to the positive depiction of the modern family.

Question 11

Relevant Theory: Katz and Blumer

Answer 11

• Surveillance: Top/Best brands of Autumn 2014 or Summer 2017. Daily vlogs, tutorial on trends, how to videos.
• Escapism: Idealised setting, aspirations, appearance -> Seeking perfection. Content that allows audiences to escape to Zoella’s ‘perfect life,’
• Personal Identity: Discussion on her anxiety, absorb her stories.
• Personal Relationships: Community and family, Para-social relationships.

Question 12

Example videos which target Zoella’s SOCIOECONOMIC demographic

Answer 12

• ‘ASOS haul’
• ‘Huge Drugstore/High-Street Haul & First Impressions’
• ‘My Top Drugstore & Highstreet Makeup Picks’
• ‘Best Friend Does My ASOS Shop’
• ‘HUGE Summer Primark Haul’
• ‘Huge Holiday ASOS Haul & Try On’
• ‘Topshop Haul & £500 Giveaway’

Question 13

Example videos which target Zoella’s SOCIOECONOMIC demographic

New Zoella

Answer 13

• 1.4 Million pound house -> Mis-en-scene: Mansion, grown up, mature and rich now.

Question 14

Para-social interactions

Answer 14

The illusion of ‘face-to-face’ conversation constructed through techniques such as:
- MCU (medium close up) which aids social interaction.
- Direct mode of address
- Casual language codes

Question 15

How do online stars like Zoella use audience targeting & marketing?

Answer 15

• Targeting through content
• Targeting through marketing and distribution
• Collaboration videos to broaden appeal
• Conventions (meet and greets)
• Move towards traditional media (for marketing) such as mags
• Interaction and participation (subscribe, likes, comments, User Generated Content): audiences actively involved in media production.

Question 16

Collaboration Videos

Answer 16

• Helps to broaden the vlogger’s fanbase
• Common strategy is to create 2 separate videos or to divide the video into 2 parts.
• These videos can then be divided between the collaborators, meaning that the user may have to visit both channels to consume the content.
• Often end with a call to action as viewers are encouraged to subscribe or comment

Question 17

Festivals, Conferences and Conventions

Answer 17

• All play an important role in the marketing of online media products.
• VidCon is described as a convention for ‘people who love online video’
• Based in the USA and attracts 1000s of visitors.
• Allows for vloggers to network and exchange ideas.
• Allows audiences the chance to meet their idols
• Talks, Interviews, Q & A Sessions, signings and meet and greets.
• Many Vloggers who are signed to Gleam Futures attended Amity Fest in 2014, a series of Live shows to promote GF’s online talent roster (list).

Question 18

Public Appearances

Answer 18

• Film premieres, Award Shows, Media Events.
• Allows for greater exposure & audience reach
  Creators can interact directly with audiences.
• Will pose for selfies with fans
• Audiences will take pictures and share content online, allowing them to become active participants in the shaping of their idol’s identity.
• Audiences take part in the marketing and promotion of the content creator

Question 19

Relevant Theory: George Gerbner, Cultivation

Impact on Audiences

Answer 19

• Younger audiences now spend more time online than they do engaging with traditional media forms.
• 5-15 year old spend more time online than watching TV (Ofcom 2016)
• YouTube is an increasingly important content destination for young audiences.
• The more a media text matches the everyday reality of our lives, the more likely it is to shape our view of the world.

Question 20

Relevant Theory: Clay Shirky, End of Audiences

Answer 20

• The digital revolution ordinary audience members to distribute self-constructed work rather than passively consuming the broadcast products.
• Vloggers like Zoella seized the opportunity to create user-generated content in 2008 when the then little known Youtube peer to peer video sharing service became a viable prospect after the widespread rollout of broadband in the UK.
• Accelerated data upload and download speeds allowed a wide spectrum of users to produce experimental content that could be shared with like-minded users.
• Zoella’s first upload of just over four minutes was marked by an amateur aesthetic and a nervous presentation style.
• Sharky also draws our attention to the revolutionary capacity for social media and digital distribution to allow audiences to feedback to larger scale media institutions.
• The communication of online media doesn’t just flow from sender to audience, but allows the reactions of audiences to be recorded and used by media producers.
• Allowing such connections, Shirky claims, is pivotal to the commercial success of media distributers in the digital age if they are to foster loyalty from young audiences whose expectations of interactive content are radically different from previous generations.

Question 21

Zoella’s Blogs/vlogs use:

Answer 21

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