Cross Media Analysis Example: Soap Opera-

Compare the impact and effectiveness of two promotional methods used by the docu-soap The Only Way is Essex.

The campaign is promoting the new ‘living soap’ The Only Way is Essex, a 10 week programme that will be using real life characters rather than actors in its exaggerated narratives.

The audience being targeted appears to be older teens and young adults, due to its portrayal of younger adult characters and its scheduling at 10pm after the watershed- which suggests its unsuitability for a younger teenage audience.

The two media platforms that have been utilised in this campaign are a teaser trailer and a billboard poster which introduce the viewer to some of the characters in the new show. The characters are represented as living a ‘glamorous’ lifestyle by the use of the pink limousine in the establishing shot of the teaser trailer and the silver sparkly nameplate used in the billboard poster. In addition the soaps representation of being a ‘fake’ is supported by the ‘mock tudor’ mansion in the establishing shot and the orange fake tan, hair and nail extensions supported by many of the characters. This representation is a stereotypical view of the inhabitants of ‘Essex’, but also supports the shows production values in that the situations are faked yet the characters are real. This celebrity lifestyle and unusual production suggests great entertainment value for a range of audiences keen to find out what else the programme has to offer, and how it will all work out.

Character archetypes, a key genre characteristic of soap opera are portrayed in both products. In the trailer the first character of ‘Porchia’ is introduced- she is clearly ‘The Blonde Bimbo’, her blonde hair a dominant in the shot, along with the heavy eye makeup, and the girly expression. This representation is further supported by the use of the curvy, girly typography of her name- which in turn connotes a fast, beautiful car- made to be looked at and ‘ridden’. These subtle sexual representations as women as sexual objects is continued throughout the trailer. This would clearly appeal to and entertain a male target audience.

Similarly the billboard poster supports common gender stereotypes, the women showing a lot of flesh, one twirling her long blonde hair in a seductive manner, and the men in strong poses with serious expressions, representing masculinity, strength and power.

In soap operas realism would be constructed in a variety of ways in order to make the audience believe what they see on the screen. These are constructed by the use of diegetic sound- clearly the music is playing in the glamorous urban bar that is the setting for the trailer. However the trailer breaks many of these genre codes, utilising extreme close ups to expose representations and canted angles to indicate the movement and party atmosphere. High angles are also used which gives the feeling of a ‘Reality TV show. This promotes that this programme is so much more than a soap opera, highlights the fact that this are real people, should have more plausible plotlines that the audience can identify with and also promotes that the audience will have an element of interaction with and control over the characters lives.

Further genre clues are provided in the introduction to many characters, all of which are represented independently. This number of characters, 5 in the billboard poster, and 8 in the trailer indicates that there will be multi stranded narratives, but that all characters frequent the same settings and this adds a sense of community. In this case the community is ‘Essex’- shown numerous times: on the trailers screen ident in the nameplate, as large sparkly letters in the poster as well as during the trailer on the pants of a girl- adding further sexual stereotypes of Essex women as objects to look at.

The symbolism of glamour, fashion such as the accessories shown in the mise en scene are in the colours of silver and gold signifying expense, and a focus on looks represents that young Essex men and women believe image is more important than substance. This view is also supported by the dialogue used in the trailer, where one character declares that they live “LA lifestyles”, however the audience are appealed by the realism portrayed by the additional comment that the weather in Essex “is a little bit muggy”. This juxtaposition of how Essex is represented encourages the viewer to escape into and be entertained by how they live these glamorous, expensive lifestyles in dismal Essex.

In order to tune in the viewer is given scheduling information on the screen ident at the end of the trailer. In addition further cross media promotion is offered in the form of the webpage, so that the viewer can discover more information and ultimately be further persuaded to watch the show. On the billboard scheduling information is not provided but the broadcaster logo of ITV 2 is shown, as it was on the trailer so that the viewer knows where to look for the scheduling information. The final shot of the trailer is the familiar green ITV 2 screen with the tagline ‘You know you want to’ which similarly appears on the billboard. The use of second person directly addresses the viewer, and commands that they will tune in.

The promotional products are effective in introducing the new programme, and if successful will draw an audience to the commercial channel, which in turn would enable further programmes to be made as the broadcaster will be able to sell advertising space around the programme. Despite the glamorous lifestyle represented in these products the production budget was probably quite low. The programme has clearly been funded by sponsorship, shown throughout the trailer as Cymlex cold sore relief and the use of real people as actors would probably be less expensive than using well known stars.

The unique selling point of the campaign is the idea that this is something new- real people in traditional soap plotlines, with the added appeal of audience interaction like that found in reality TV shows.