Unit 30 LO5 Evaluation

LO5 Evaluation

For Unit 30 LO4 I was given the task of preparing a pitch to promote my idea for a new indie music magazine called Riff, which I would later present to a publisher on the 12th December 2014. Throughout my pitch I was able to introduce the audience to areas such as:

A budget plan covering areas like marketing, advertising costs and distribution costs. The different pre-production materials and plans I would be using to help produce my

magazine, for example my hand drawn drafts. During the pitch I was also able to present what I hoped the front cover and double-page spread interview of Riff’s first issue would look like.

This evaluation will focus on the feedback given on my witness statement, highlighting the particular strengths and drawbacks throughout.

Strengths Of My PitchBy looking at the written feedback presented on my witness statement from the publisher, shown in the image to the right. The first strength I noticed from my pitch was that I had covered a large majority of the information required, however there were improvements needed for my pitch to be able to reach its full potential for example; more detail on my magazine flat plan and a clear understanding of my 1 year profit.

The publisher also pointed out that I had clearly shown the importance of my budget summary, particularly the

Figure 1 Witness Statement

fact that I made sure to highlight the importance of job salaries within the editorial and advertising department. On the other hand it was mentioned that my advertising page was missing a marketing

section which was important as this meant I hadn’t included the different type of techniques I would be using to market Riff magazine such as Push and Pull Makreting. However I have now addressed those errors and chosen to use both techniques of ‘Push and Pull Marketing’.

It was also mentioned by the publisher that within my pitch I had given a very brief explanation of distribution costs, as I had only included the cost of £31,900. This meant that the publisher was unaware of how many magazines I would be hoping to distribute by 2016. However once those errors were corrected it had become clear that £31,900 would cover the distribution of 10,000 magazines,

but by 2016 I would be hoping to sell 30,000 magazines which would give me a distribution cost of £95,700.

Another strength spotted was my magazine flat-plan which I had completed as part of the pre-production process. This enabled me to piece together the structure of Riff’s first issue, making sure the magazine was consistent in where to place different content and advertisements to keep the reader engaged throughout.

Another strength spottedwas the estimated profit Riff magazine would make by 2016 which was £13,495 which was great however, I hadn’t included what the potential profit could look like after 4 or 5 years.

Another strength was my ability to clearly identify Riff’s target readership and create my front cover and double page spread with this factor in mind, for example using a memorable red, white and black colours scheme that appealed highly to my male target audience, and a puff promotion which included a band popular that would attract male readers and possibly female readers.

Figure 5 Puff Promotion

Figure 3 Distribution Costs

Figure 2 Marketing and Advertising

Figure 4 Magazine Flat Plan

It was also mentioned on my witness statement that the publisher really thought my double page spread met my magazines indie genre. By focusing on elements like colour scheme of the page, and the layout of the magazine for example, a particularly positive emphasis was placed on where my text was placed and the font used for my pull quote. It was also mentioned that the style of my interview really showed a strong resemblance with competitor magazines like Q and NME, focusing on the entertaining side of the music industry and indie as a genre.

Finally, I felt that the most important strength mentioned by the publisher was the images I had included on my front cover and double-page spread, which he mentioned were of ‘excellent quality’ and what gave my magazines its ‘professional look’. I also felt that using images which weren’t blurry or pixilated once edited in Photoshop helped my magazine to meet the standard expected for LO3.

Figure 8 A question from my interview

Figure 7 A question from Q's Spandau Ballet interview

Figure 6 Final Double-Page Spread

Drawbacks of my Pitch By looking at the feedback from the publisher on my witness statement the first drawback mentioned was the minor errors spotted within my budget plan such as price clashes, in which he stated that the figures seen on my Prezi: http://prezi.com/zv7eaz7uonn-/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share) were different to the figures I had described in my pitch. Therefore, the figures denoted in my budget plan (Right) were not relevant until I was able to make those minor corrections.

Another drawback which the publisher noticed within my pitch was that I hadn’t included the different techniques I would be using to market Riff magazine such as; Push and Pull Marketing. However once I had made the improvements to my marketing section I had chosen to use Push Marketing to generate exposure of my magazine to members of the public, using methods such as;

Selling my product to customers face to face to encourage them to purchase a copy of Riff.

Selling my magazine through mainstream retailers such as; Asda and Sainsbury’s.

I have chosen to use these methods as face to face marketing shows how passionate I am about my magazine and interests potential customers quicker and, selling through mainstream retailers will help Riff gain exposure quicker and this is also where a large majority of magazine are seen to be sold. Now I have chosen to marketing methods I was able to include a marketing section within my Prezi.

It was also mentioned that when identifying my intended target audience I’d had a slight misunderstanding of psychographics, which I’d got confused with another audience theory. Therefore this information was incorrect until I

was able to give the relevant information relating to psychographics. However I have now addressed the problem and made the relevant changed to my Prezi slide.

Another drawback spotted within my pitch was my lack of magazine growth, as I had included a graph denoting the target growth of Riff over a longer length of time. This meant that I hadn’t told the publisher of the expected growth in readership figures over 5 years and if these will beat competitors Kerrang and NME. However I have now addresses these issues by using excel to create a graph showing the potential rise in readership figures over 5 years. It was also mentioned that I had also missed out on covering the rise of circulation figures in the UK as Riff is a national magazine.

Figure 9 Budget Summary

Figure 10 Riff's Target Audience

It was also mentioned that I had missed out the rise in circulation figures in the UK as Riff is a national magazine.

Another area of drawback I had noticed within my pitch was my lack of detail regarding my production plan. it was very basic and didn’t provide enough detail for the production team who would be creating my magazine. However I have now addressed those changes by improving the overall structure of my production plan by; creating 4 separate tables, one for each week of

production. I ha e also colour coded each section to make the plan visually appealing and creative. Another improvement which I made was to include more of the physical tasks such as; taking test photography.

In my own opinion one of my biggest personal drawbacks was my lack of confidence as a public speaker when presenting my pitch to the publisher. This made my presenting skill very minimal

and my pitch seem unconfident and hesitant. However, from audience feedback it was stated that I could have given a much better pitch if I didn’t rely on the script throughout, felt more relaxed whilst speaking and most importantly had more self-belief.

In conclusion, I felt that my pitch summarised my magazine in detail but not as much detailed as I hope it would have. This was due to the fact that I hadn’t finished my Prezi on the day of my presentation which meant I was unprepared and had to move my presentation date to the 12th of December. However, I felt that I could have been more prepared if I had finished my Prezi before my presentation, which would have left me more time to learn a section of lines from my script.

Figure 11 Before Changes

Figure 12 After the Changes

I have also completed another evaluation on Prezi, which focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of my pitch, but in particular my front cover and double-page spread. http://prezi.com/cf-9m_q4tex4/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share