Research Proposal

To: ESPN
From: James Stacey
Date: 11/11/14
Subject: Research Proposal
Proposed Research Topic:
The purpose of television idents is to catch the eye of viewers and to make
that channel stick in the viewers head with an image; they can also be used
to rebrand and to set out their corporate identity. For ESPN the branding will
specialise in sport and thats what genre and category they broadcast. The
corporate identity of ESPN is that they broadcast sport with exclusive
features and give professional analysis from former athletes. The characters
of the idents used in ESPN are strong and bold and sporty so theyre related
to the channels corporate identity. The design is important to ESPN because
their target audience would be of all ages but gender wise it swerves to
mostly male. So when picking designs and formats it has to be specific to
the target audience but where there is a large range in the target audience
it would have to be a neutral colour, which everyone would appreciate? The
colours used currently are bold colours like red and blue, which are known as
sporty colours, they are also primary colours, which would target a primary
audience. The character is shown in the colours as their plain and bold so
they strike the audience. The colours and images used show that the
character of the programme is sporty as some clips in the idents are taken
from live games that have been broadcasted.
Purposes:
My partner and I will be designing an ident for espn and it will be of a sport
genre, the target audience for the ident will be males as the sports televised
are targeted at he male audience. We hope to accomplish a well thought
out effective ident, which will appeal to the audience. Also we are
researching to find factors that will please the target audience so research is
key.
Background
The proposed research will help clear up any different perspectives we
would give of the ident so we have a perfect ident that we can give to a
focus group to watch to get the best ident possible. The channels identity is
to showcase sport and the character is sport so yet again it has be used for
a sporty feel and give the ident a sporty feel. Currently I am thinking about
having some footage and the espn logo flash up.
Scope:
I will invest most of my time doing research in which I will see what the main
audience is by going to public destinations which show espn and then I can
do questionnaires with the right people about the channel and what the
ident will have. I will interview one or two from each location and they will
have different characteristics. Also I will have little survey groups to hand
out which will go to the public.
[Describe such things as the time you will invest, when the field work
(Survey + focus group) will take place, the number of participants (10-20

from target audience sample), and the number of interviews (10) you will
conduct]
Method:
I will be giving out surveys to a range of the public, of all ages and to make
the surveys fair I will look at pubs, which showcase sporting events and
survey those who are watching the entertainment and those who are not.
Interviews would take up a lot of time and they would have to be with the
upper people as they have a big say and when showcasing our ideas an
interview would benefit us highly. Focus groups with sporty individuals will
help us identify what appeals to the audience because it also appeals to the
sports athletes, which could be the idols of some audience. Online research
and looking at previous idents will really help as we can look at colours,
fonts, the font size and anything which was a hit in the public eye as we will
want to learn from these and create an even better ident. This also comes
under analysing existing idents, which will be looked at in depth and taken
notes down.

Timetable:
Prepare proposal by: 11/11/14
Complete literature review: 25/11/14
Complete fieldwork by: 1/12/14
Complete analysis by: 8/12/14
Give presentation on: 15/12/14
Complete final report by
Limitations:
There may be limits to what we can research and find due to copyrighted
and patented iseas.
References
[List all references cited that are not on the course reading list]
Unit 3

Merit

Distinction

Explain the nature and

purposes of research in the
creative media industries
with detailed examples and
with generally correct use of
subject terminology

Comprehensively explain the

nature and purposes of
research in the creative
media industries with
elucidated examples and
consistently using subject
terminology correctly