Research for my ancillary tasks

Ancillary Tasks Research

The ancillary task is to produce two out of the following three:

- a radio trailer for the documentary

- a double page spread from a TV listings magazine focused on the documentary

- a newspaper advertisement for the documentary

I have chosen to produce a newspaper advertisement and a double-page spread from a TV listings magazine to advertise my documentary. Before I start creating my adverts, I must do some research into existing adverts that are similar to the ones that I would like to produce.

A TV listings magazine informs people of what TV programmes are on at what time and on which day. As you can see on this page, it shows the 5 main channels- BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Each channel has its own column in a different colour to separate it from the other channels. The times are down the right hand side of the column and the programme name and synopsis is on the left. There are adverts for programmes down the left hand side of the page, which is where I would put my advert for my documentary to make it look as close to a proper TV listings magazine as I can. I am going to copy the design of this page when I produce my own double-page spread so that it looks like a proper, professional TV listings magazine.

Another option for my double-page spread is to fill the pages with information about the documentary and have a smaller column highlighting the best/ recommended programmes of the day or week, rather than making a small advert at the side of the page. I think that this is a better option because it will allow me to create a larger advert with lots of information on, rather than having to condense the information so that it will fit in a small column at the side of the page. 

I have decided to create a newspaper advertisement for my documentary. It won't be a larger advert covering the whole page, but a smaller one, perhaps in the corner of the page. This is because a small, independent company creating their first documentary would not have the budget to pay for their advert to be displayed over a whole page of a newspaper, especially if it was a newspaper that is sold across the country, e.g. The Sun or The Daily Mail. They may have the budget for a larger advert in a smaller, local newspaper like The Comet (Letchworth, Hitchin, Stevenage and Biggleswade or The Mercury (Hertfordshire), however the target market for my documentary aren't just in Hertfordshire, but across the whole country therefore I would need an advert in a newspaper that reaches the majority of my target market, rather than a small area. A newspaper advert for a TV show could include: a title/ logo of the show, time and date that it is on TV, photos/ stills from the show and a logo for the channel it's shown on.