Little White Lies Research - Group Post

Target Audience - Melissa

From Stack's interview with the editor for Little White Lies, the target audience are "movie lovers, magazine lovers, aethetes". This information would be found out through psychographic research as this has more to do with the lifestyle choices of their readers, rather than purely demographic (e.g. age, gender, social class) which can be easily discovered through quantitative data. 

This is also shown through the use of adverts in the magazine. For example, the Little White Lies Issue 46 March/April 2013 features these adverts:

• A double page spread for the Evil Dead, an upcoming film at the time
• A double page spread for Geckos, a travel adventure company (with an offer to win movie tickets for The Place Beyond the Pines)
• A single page spread for The Place Beyond the Pines, an upcoming film at the time
• A single page spread for Cahartt, a clothing store for outdoor gear   
• A single page spread for Broken, an upcoming independent film at the time
• A single page spread for Laurence Anyways, a 15 rated film out on DVD
• A single page spread for We Transfer, a company that sends files around the world
• A single page spread for an offer for cinema tickets and screenings by Stella Artois, a beer company
• A single page spread for The Hunt, an upcoming independent film at the time
• A single page spread for Shillington College about a graphic design course
  

It is apparent that Little White Lies expect their audience to be film fans (as stated in the interview). Most of the advertised films were British independent films. It is also apparent that they expect their readers to be active as they also advertise things to do with travel. The Church of London publish another magazine called Huck which involves a lot of travelling. It could be that the readers of Little White Lies are also the readers of Huck which could be why it has adverts which target both.

On the more demographic side of the intended target audience, the target audience for Little White Lies appears to be more aimed at males than females (as shown in the graph below) as well as the age group of 25-35. We must take this into consideration when writing our own review as our film's target audience was the age group 16-24.

Ages 18-24 (34%)
Ages 25-35 (51%)
Male (63%)
Female (37%)

The Church of London website also opens on a home screen with the words "we make premium content for millennial audiences" (see image below) which is defined as "a person reaching young adulthood around the year 2000" which could suggest that Little White Lies is trying to target even younger audiences. The 18-24 age group make up the next largest percentage of the readers of the magazine (34%).

 
The end of the Church of London showreel features the following sponsors:

Here there are:

• Google
• Levi's - a clothing company
• Nike - a shoe company
• Jameson - Irish Whiskey
• Finlandia - Vodka of Finland
• Mubi - an online cinema
• Stella Artois - a beer company
• Snapchat - social media
• Microsoft
• Volkswagen - a car company
• Sony
• Vice - a news magazine
• Maker - an original creator network
• Discovery - about travelling
• BMW - a car company
• Destination Canada -  travelling to Canada

Here we see that the target audience of the magazine includes: people interested in media and film, travelling and style. We can also see it targeting a more youthful audience (however still over the legal drinking age) as well as targeting readers who have a disposable income, implying that they target people in the middle class (A, B, C1).

House Style - Chayana

Example of the front cover of Little White Lies

Each issue of 'Little White Lies' is based around an upcoming film, and that would determine the theme of the issue. The front cover features an illustration of the main character's face. The magazine uses many hand drawn graphics that are featured throughout all of the issue. On some 'rogue' issues, the universal style that is used might be changed to reflect the style of the movie.

One unique feature about 'Little White Lies' is the fact that there are no cover lines on the front of the magazine- you have to read it to know the contents. The only thing featured on the cover is an illustrated piece of art, rather than a photographic image. The style of illustration will also be integrated into the design of many pages in the magazine, which are all hand drawn also- there are many pages that are entirely dedicated to drawn images. This usually integrates a colour theme which creates a unique aesthetic approach to the magazine.

An example of the typical review page

With the exception of the rouge issues, the design of the review pages stay the same from copy to copy. On the full review pages, the review will have an frame from the movie- usually an action shot, rather than the poster for the movie, the title of the film and beneath that is the name of the director, and ten the names of the main actors, and that article is written between three columns that holds around 500 words, and the last column is cut in half so that the unique review system has a place at end of the article. Their review system includes the rating system of 'Anticipation', 'enjoyment' and 'retrospect'.

Language and Mode of Address - Sam

The language used in each of Little White Lies’ reviews are always in basic to read English, but it does expect it’s readership to have some form of common knowledge of pinnacle films in the industry as they commonly compare and contrast conventions between genres. This can clearly be seen as in the magazine’s review of ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ by Simon Cook (2013, Bigelow, USA, http://lwlies.com/reviews/zero-dark-thirty/) where the actors have been described as “Chuck Norris-ed by wardrobe and Point Blanked by Bigelow”.

However, it is in Cook’s review that shows that proves that the independence of the magazine allows for them to address their readership with informality, especially with the use of sarcasm, as seen when it is said that “If that’s the way Hollywood does catharsis, so be it, but there’s a far better movie before it”. There seems to be a mixed mode of address that doesn’t seemed to be shared in other publications in the industry, combining the analysis of complex conventions with dry cynicism and sarcasm, something that it’s target audience of millennials seem to enjoy.

Next, there is clearly a common structure in terms of the mode of address that is used in every review that the magazine publishes.

• Contexts for the film – this could come from the books that the film may be based upon, the series that the film belongs to and social/historical events.
• Information about the main character(s) – traits, how they’re represented, the actors that portray them and how well they did it.
• Key themes, issues and points in the plot (all done without spoilers).
• How the film conforms (or doesn’t) to genre conventions.
• The reviewer’s opinion.
• A summary sentence for the whole film.
• It is never any more than 500 words.

Finally, it is in the publications final three final evaluative points that really communicate with the audience effectively.

1. Anticipation
2. Enjoyment
3. In retrospect

This is useful for the mode of address because it is personal to the brand and they cut to the chase. This engages with the audience because the young demographic they are targeting are more likely to skim-read the review, so this rating system may make it easier for them to decide wether to watch the film or not. Therefore, this makes it incredibly useful to their audience and they are then more likely to use the publication for this purpose again.