In my advanced portfolio I was required to create two ancillary products of

a radio advert and DPS, for a TV listing, alongside my main product of a

documentary. The purpose of these ancillary products was to effectively
sell and advertise the product to the target audience, meaning that these
3 products needed to be effectively linked and work together. Throughout
all three products there was an aim to keep a consistent house style and
feature elements, throughout all three products, that were similar to link
the products. I feel that this has been achieved in the advanced portfolio.
The primary target audience for my product was teenagers to young
adults, therefore fully covering the student age range. This was because
our topic focused on the effects of mental health on young people. The
target audience was the ABC1s as these are the classes to have the
available disposable income to combat these issues. I feel that the topic
effectively appeals to the target audience as the subject of mental health
is becoming more well known in todays more politically correct society
allowing people to come out and discuss their feelings and the effect on
mental health to them. The students of today have grown up with this
acceptance opposed to older generations who were subject to negative
stigma about the topic and so are less likely to be interested in the
documentary. Though the production companies the use of different BBC
channels that target particular audiences, allows me to effectively convey
my topic to the audience. Also the use of social media, used
predominantly by the primary target audience, has brought this
acceptance of mental health issues, meaning they are accustomed to it
and are more likely to be interested in the subject.
Also I feel that the language used in the ancillary products is effective in
advertising the main products. The use of impactful language use as
shock statistics or direct address helps personify the seriousness of the
topic and how the documentary will be exploring it. An example of this is
the use of your friends will direct the topic at the audience therefore
grabbing their attention. This is also true with the documentary as it
follows the same use of direct address.
Furthermore another aspect that was similar in all products was the
introduction impactful effect on the audience. For example the DPS used
the shock statistics in the stand first, the Radio listed negative words of
illnesses, and the documentary used impactful introduction of Robin
Williamss death. This was necessary as it caught the audiences attention
making it more likely to effectively advertise the documentary to them.
Furthermore there was use of the same or similar music throughout the
products in an attempt to keep a consistent tone that was appropriate to
the topic. Therefore the genre of classical music was chosen. The
documentary and the radio both used the same two music tracks, which
allowed the products to be linked.

There were various ways that were used to effectively link the radio
advert to the DPS documentary. Firstly the radio advert took advantage of
the convention of soundbites to give the radio advert a peek at what
would be included in the documentary. The sound bite of Tom Krawec, a
professional used in the documentary provides a shocking statement that
In terms of how many it affects? All 60 million its that wide an issue in
todays society. This statement was used as a pull quote in the DPS and a
sound bite in the radio advert, and a professional interview in the
documentary. This is an impactful element to have it encapsulates to the
audience what the documentary is trying to show to the audience; the
reality of the problem and how it effecting our society. This statement also
gives a shock statistic which the audience will believe as true, due to the
fact it is coming from a serious tone of voice, from an older person
opposed to the subjects of the product, and elements of mise en scene
allows me the producer to effectively personify the trustworthy
information. This is because ideologically this particular representation of
a subject using these elements of mise en scene allows the audience to
trust them. Also this use of the same person on each product allows for an
element on continuity to link all three products.

Throughout the products I feel that we have created an effective and clear
brand identity, which is shown through various examples. Firstly the title
of Mental Health in Education is clear in all products with the use of
capitals and the colour scheme of black and white contrasting to the
background. This was necessary to create a brand identity for the product
that would help the audience to link the products and be aware that the
ancillary product advertises the main product.

Here we see the title Mental

Health in Education is present in
all three products and the use of
capitals is consistent in the visual
titles.

To convey that the subject was to be based around the effect on

education, I wanted to use iconography that would help the audience
relate the documentary to education. To do this I decided to take
advantage of the background and colour scheme, conventions I felt were
under used to personify the point. The use of a pin board and other
related items such as homework helped set the scene of education and
gave an impression of into the mind of a student as the pin board looks
as if it belongs to someone who is effected to mental health. This will
appeal to the primary and secondary audiences, as a primary student age
will relate to the stress and educational lifestyle such as homework, and
appeal to the secondary audience because they will be interested into the
life of a student. I believe this to be true because of the uses and
gratification theory can be applied to this. This theory suggests that
audiences use a media text to fulfil needs, and the need that is being
fulfilled in this case is the need of comparing lifestyles and the need of
information, as they are learning about the effect of mental health.
Another iconography feature of the DPS is that the screenshots form the

documentary are presented as polaroid pictures, which helps the DPS

have consistency and allow the images to fit in.
Also a theory that was prominent in the documentary was Levi Strausss
theory of binary opposites, which brings together opposing arguments
based around the subject of mental health that create an entertaining
storyline. However this was a theory that was not followed in the DPS and
Radio advert. This was done as I felt it would confuse the listener or
viewer in the shorter advertisement ancillary product meaning that it
would diminish the effectiveness to advertise.
A requirement of the ancillary products was to advertise the main product
of the documentary effectively. I feel that this has been achieved through
the common radio and magazine convention of the repetition of the time,
channel, and date of the documentary. The radio trailer states the time,
date, and channel twice on the DPS repeats it three times. I believe this
serves the purpose of advertising the main product to the audience. On
reflection I feel an improvement could be made to the DPS, which will
further empathize the time, date, and channel to the audience. To follow
the iconography of a pin board it would have been possible to add an
additional post it not background with the text of the date, time, and
channel in different and bold typography, so this information would stick
in the readers head. If done again this would be and element to improve
on.

In the research and planning stages of the advanced portfolio we had to

decide on a suitable radio station. As a group we had decided that the
radio advert on a BBC channel because of its links to BBC channels and
our chosen magazine, however we did not know which radio channel as
the BBC has over 9 stations under its umbrella. Initially we wanted to
choose BBC radio 4 because its well-known discussions on
serious topics such as mental health and its on air shows
based around film and TV review. However after research we
found that this channel didnt have a viewership that was the
same age as our target audience. Therefore the BBC channel
BBC Radio 2 was chosen. This is because this BBC station
was the most popular out of them all, because of its use of
popular music, meaning that it would get to wider audience.
Also this station in particular receives 80 million in free
advertising for BBC television channels, therefore it would be
more likely for this radio station to broadcast the trailer and
maybe even multiple times. Furthermore this radio station is
one of the stations that have a younger demographic meaning that the
primary target audience.
As well as the primary audience we wanted to appeal to our secondary
audience of parents. We did this through choosing the magazine
RadioTimes for our double page spread. This magazine seemed suitable
for many reasons. Firstly the magazine is released weekly meaning it
would be up to date and is the number #1 best selling quality magazine,
reaching 8.1 million people. Therefore our DPS would gain great coverage
if it was placed in a RadioTimes magazine. Also the RadioTimes appeals to
a more serious audience, meaning that the magazine doesnt focus on
reality TV but more intellectual drama such as downtown or
documentaries such as David Attenboroughs series. This would appeal as
my product fit the documentary genre and looks at a deep seeded issue in
society rather that cheap easy television, therefore appealing to the
magazines audience. Furthermore as our documentary
target is no gender specific, the radio times is
applicable as it has gender readership of Men:46% and
Women:54%, showing that is also equal. A great
advantage of this magazine is that it has a large
subscription base, meaning that this can be
viewed a guaranteed readership, which will
increase its advertising potential. The subscription
readership is 31% of the whole readership
meaning that the magazine gets a guaranteed
weekly readership of 595,200 people. Another
point to review is that the magazine is owned by
the BBC conglomerate, meaning it has great links
to the BBC channels and Radio stations with the
magazine more likely to advertise a product that is
going to feature on its other subsidiaries. This

appeal to my documentary as the Radio trial will feature on BBC Radio 2

and the documentary will be showed on BBC 2.
Moreover this chosen magazine doesnt just appeal to the secondary
audience but also the primary audience due to the fact that this magazine
as a strong web presence, specifically on social media which is
predominantly by younger people. This is shown by the fact that the
Facebook page receives 46.2k followers and the twitter account receives
55.1k followers.
Lastly the magazine has a mass readership of ABC1 with this covering
74% of readers. This is suitable for my target audience as this are the kind
of classes that would be worrying about a childs education being affected
by this issue. Also these classes would more likely have disposable income
to tackle this problem in their child.