Visuals via E-mail

As previously mentioned, I have had to visit a family event and therefore I am away from my home and usual study environment! But alas, this has not stopped me from working. 

Andrew, the graphic designer that I have commissioned, has been working tremendously hard on the key pages of one of the Interactive lessons and manipulating one of these key pages in Photoshop to look as if it is being used on an Interactive Whiteboard (I went into a local Primary School last week to take some photographs of various Interactive Whiteboards and classes being taught with them).

As I am away, I am able to receive my emails but I am only able to see one of the many image attachments that Andrew has sent me. But this looks great so I am not worried at all.

Due to being away from home for only a couple of days, I have decided to do lots of my reading and note taking, rather than report writing, this has saved me taking all my folders and information with me.

I am home tomorrow, so I will be able to look at all the visuals that have been created in the last couple of days and feed back to Andrew with any alterations. 

Tomorrow, I also need to design a layout for my Teacher's website, draw some key pages and write the information that will be within the website. I will send all of this to Andrew to enable him to create the Teacher's website. He is envisaging to finish this by Tuesday next week (6th March).

Tutorial and Campaign Plan Seminar

Today, I have been into University for a tutorial and lecture. In the tutorial, I gave my Lecturer a printout of my Vectors and Smart objs to read and he gave me some editing to do.

This gave me some direction and not much editing needs to be done, which shows I must have a pretty good idea on what content is needed.

Overall, the tutorial was productive as a few of my questions were answered and I have some more research points to follow. I also spoke about changing one of my promotional methods, the Television programmes, as I do not feel they will suit my target audience and campaign objectives, therefore this will change to having viral videos on the school pupils website instead, as shortened versions of Television lessons and revision.

The seminar was very useful for me as we focused on my project to create an example campaign and time line. This has given me a basis to create my own from. Other ideas of promotional methods were also suggested, such as an App, which parents and teachers can use to see their child/pupils progress. I am thinking about having these sections on the respective websites, but an App may be a good idea. So I need to update my list of promotional methods accordingly and update my graphic designer. He may create the key pages of an App rather than the TV advert.

In terms of the visuals, the key pages of one lesson are being made at the moment.

I have returned some books to the library and have more to read. Gathering the references and ideas!

I have a family event that I need to attend over the next couple of days so I have informed my Lecturer that I will not be in on Thursday, the next lecture, so he is kindly emailing me the notes.

My graphic designer is going to carry on working with the visuals and will continue to email me with updates. This will be good as the progress will still carry on. I am also taking my written work with me to do when I can. I am very conscious on not slipping behind, even though I feel on track and confident about my position in terms of workload at the moment.

Written report update

Today, I have collated together the content that I have done for my report. So far this is, Abstract, Methodology, Introduction, Smart objectives, Product, Place and Price plus the Vectors.

These will still need editing throughout due to new found research etc. But it is important to me to have started the initial draft.

I am pleased with the progress of the report so far. My next step is to write the market segmentation section and speak to my lecturer about my Vectors and Smart objectives.

Poster complete

I am very happy with the visual work that is being produced by Andrew Cook, the graphic designer who I have commissioned. I believe the visuals will appeal to my target audiences respectively and show the core values of the 'Maths with Mickey' scheme as well as being reflective of Disney's usual and current aesthetic.

So far, the logo, Facebook page, email and poster have been created, as well as the thumbnail images for the six interactive lessons.

I have sent rough drawings to Andrew for the key pages of one of the interactive lessons so he is currently making these.

I have made arrangements and been to re-visit one of the local primary schools that I used for my primary research; this was to take my own photographs of some interactive whiteboards both in on going classes (to show teachers using the boards for lessons to their pupils) and in empty classes. One of these photographs will be chosen to show how one of the interactive lessons will look on an interactive whiteboard in a classroom. Andrew is going to manipulate this using Photoshop.

I have continued writing my report, have been reading lots and been in regular contact with Andrew, giving feedback and suggestions.

I have decided which television channel I am going to use. This is Disney channel due to Disney already owning this and will not need to pay any networks for showing their own programmes. This channel also has the correct target audience to suit my core child consumer and features one Mickey Mouse programme daily anyway.

So far, I have my abstract, methodology, introduction and Smart objectives written. I wanted to have my market segmentation and Product done by now.... But I have written my 6P's and Vectors in draft format...so these just need editing and expanding on and will then place these into my report.

I want to send my Smart objectives and Vectors to my Lecturer asap so he can look through to see if I have the correct idea!

I have also correctly formatted my references, these were very nearly correct anyway and my past format has been more than fine in my last assignments. But I want everything perfect this time!

Tommorrow's plan:

- To edit my vectors and send these to my Lecturer with my smart objectives.

- Update my customer and brand profiles with new found research and to be aesthetically coherent with my other visual work.

- Continue reading.

- Visual layout inspiration for my marketing report.

Visuals, report writing and reading.

Update on the designers work: The logo is complete, the email is almost complete and he aims to start designing the lesson thumbnails and presentation of these today and tomorrow, this will lead on to the inclusion of these into the email sent to the teachers plus the creation of the poster for the staff room. The stickers for the pupils may also be made in the next couple of days, depending on the progress of the lesson themes and the poster. His aim is to have a week each for the teacher and children websites to make sure these are aesthetically very strong. These methods have the most content and thus will take the most time to create.

We are communicating very often through email and he is sending me screenshots to make sure we are both on the same wavelength, I can print the screeenshots to put into my research/development folder and for me to give more direction very quickly as to not slow down his progress.

I am writing my report, mainly developing parts already written and obviously adding new research. I am reading lots, annotating the visual development and catching up with this blog! 

My next steps:

• To carry on reading lots!
• To continue with the report until I get to a stage that I feel at a comfortable stage to go and find and order my other promotional materials (like the Mickey Mouse plush toy) and order some Mickey Mouse lever arch folders for me to submit my research and development work in. These latter objects are hard to find as Disney have not made such style folders for a few years, so I may need to design my own and order on the Internet. The earlier the better to enable long lead times! 
• Research and complete my SMART Objectives and VECTORS so I can sent to my Lecturer after his return from Berlin. (There has been a University trip there this week). I want these checking so I can make sure they are on the right track and this will enable me to improve them.
• Need to write my written information for the poster and websites to give to Andrew, as well as drawn layouts inspired by those of my competitors and existing Disney websites. I have sent the network plans for both websites to him already.
  

Lesson themes complete

I have researched the National Curriculum as I feel it is important to include this into the Interactive lessons, otherwise, why would teachers use valuable time in delivering lessons that do not meet their targets? They would not.

Therefore, I have researched the targets and strategies and integrated these into 6 lesson themes which have been influenced and inspired by the target customer/audience profiling, themes suggested by teachers during the primary research interviews and by the themes which are currently available in the competitor schemes and websites.

I have sent these themes to Andrew, the graphic designer, along with some visual inspiration and ideas of what can be done to create the thumbnail images of the lessons and the key pages of one lesson to show as an example of what the lesson would look like and contain for the school pupils.

I have also given accompanying written descriptions for all the themes so these can be placed into the relevant promotional materials.

I have also started reading one of the loaned books, completed some more annotations and have been liaising with Andrew about the email template he has made. I am very pleased with the image and he is going to give me a selection of different colourways to see variety and options for me to choose, plus show with the Internet browser surround and without. I am likely to print both with and without the browser as I like both versions and feel they show differently and will add the variety in my portfolio of what has been created.

Development

I have just finished lots of annotations in my research folders that were pressuring me! I feel better now they are done and can move onto other reasearch tasks now a 'backlog' has been cleared. I am spending more time than I intended on the presentation of my folders, basically, as I am recording all my research and development process by hand in my folders, I am researching, printing, sticking and then annotating...this allows me to see my development and project progress visually and physically and this is how I  learn compared to having it all on a computer screen. However, it is a timeconsuming process which leaves me having increasingly longer days! As mentioned earlier I am regularly studying for 16 hours a day.

I am enjoying the project and this is my dissertation! My final chance to achieve the grades I want!

I have researched more trend and graphics predications today to add to my visual inspiration for the promotional methods. These methods are all finalised now and have been given to Andrew, the commissioned designer creating the visuals. The list of methods can be seen in my third research folder and on the campaign plan within the A3 portfolio of work. 

I am concious that I need to start developing the sections of written work that I have done for my report with the resarch that I keep collecting and put into a logical and referenced order. I want to be ahead with this so I allow suficient time to make the report creative and visually coherent with the other visual work being made.

I am conflicting with time on reading and writing my report at the moment. As seen in my last blog post, I have a few books on loan but I am struggling to find the time to read them as well as complete all the other work to do.

My next steps:

To read the loaned books

Write more of my report and start piecing it together

Research and write my SMART Objectives

Research the National Curriculum for Numeracy

From the Curriculum, I will make my lesson plans/themes 

Update my target customer boards

Lots of reading!

Yesterday I had a lecture about writing our Literature Reviews and organising our Bibliographies. I have done written reports and essays in the past which have included citing and referencing plus bilbliographies, so I am confident with this process however I want to make sure all the deatils are correct as all this resarch and writing cannot be let down by little mistakes in my referencing, I would be very annoyed with myself.

In terms of the Literature Review, I had researched what this included at the start of the project and it filled me with a little apprehension, probably because I have never had to write one before. But my lecturer has given a helpful Powerpoint for reference throughout this project so this element of the report should be fine.

So far I have read:

(I have recorded all the referencing information for these, i just don't have iot to hand for this blog post!)

• De Chernatony, L. From brand vision to brand evaluation: the strategic process of growing and strengthening brands. 
• Harvard Business Review on brand management.
• Zarrella, D. The social media marketing book. 
• Robinson, K. Out of our minds: learning to be creative. 

...and I currently have these ready to read:

• Kotler, P et al. Principles of marketing. 
• Fleming, M.; Creative Partnerships (Program : Great Britain) Arts in education and creativity: a literature review. 
• Giroux, H. The mouse that roared: Disney and the end of innocence.   
• Wasko, J. Understanding Disney: the manufacture of fantasy.  
• Berry, R. The research project: how to write it.

Disney Store Visit

Today, I have been to my nearest Disney Store (Chester) to collate some primary research on the product display, the interaction of children with the merchandise and to take photographs of the store environment, layout, colour scheme etc.

Unfortunately and understandably, I asked a couple of sales assistants if I was able to take some photographs for this project and they were unable to give permission due to their company policy. I also asked if I was able to have any of their old promotional material from in the store and they also said no due to the copyright issues.

So this was a bit annoying! I did have to visit Chester for another reason though, so it was not a wasted journey.

Whilst in the store, I bought a Mickey Mouse Maths puzzle which I could give as a 'competition prize' either during the scheme or on the dedicated children's website, etc. This is age appropriate for the younger of the Primary School Years, I am thinking of getting a personalised Mickey Mouse plush toy/teddy with the scheme logo embroidered into it, to give to the older ages of Primary school children, just as a one off prize NOT for each pupil or school as this would raise the costs greatly!

I also sneakily took some photographs of the outside of the store, showing the signage and current window displays, to show the colour schemes, layout and creative direction. These could always be used as primary research inspiration for my visual promotional methods.

My timings for this project are going well as I am regularly updating and writing new lists of aims and work to complete. This is keeping me on track and I am really enjoying this project so there has been no problem with personal motivation.

Due to writing aims and daily lists, I am creating longer days for myself and often complete around 16 hours  a day. This is starting to make me tired, so a rest day may be needed soon to keep up my energy and deter a 'burn out' at an early stage! 'Burn out' after the final submission will be fine!

Finished Customer Profiling

Since my last blog post, I have been able to get two people to record one of their average weekdays for me, one being a School Pupil from my core target audience of 6-9 years and the other being a Primary School Teacher between the ages of 25-29 years. These recordings were written down for me and I have visually enhanced these and put in my research folder, so this has added to my primary research and has given me accurate information rather than estimated assumptions.

The activities and occurrences throughout their day have given me a colour scheme to work with in my visual promotional methods.The brands they use, wear and experience have also given a greater insight into the consumer attitudes of these age groups, what would be visually attractive to them and most importantly where their key times of promotional influence occur during their average day.

The latter point has helped with the choosing of my promotional methods greatly. For example, I had not fully considered creating a poster to attract the teachers whilst at work, however, the amount of time spent inside the school staff room has shown that a poster is likely to be a crucial promotional tool as well as likely starting word of mouth promotion as the teachers discuss the email that has been received and the poster they are looking at. This will hopefully lead to their registration to the free scheme.

Anyway, an update on commissioning the graphic designer, I have written the project brief for Andrew Cook and we have been in great communication about the aesthetics and content of my promotional methods. I have been sending him all the written information for what my research suggests that I need to include, as well as the colours and visual inspiration. So far, my logo has been created. I am very pleased with the professional finish of the work and I am very excited to see the development of the visual promotions. 

Seeing my visuals start to come together is like seeing my scheme come alive! A very exciting time...

I still need to update my customer profiling boards from the ones that I showed to my Lecturer. He said they were a good start and visually they were fairly strong in suiting Disney, but I now need to put all the extra information that I have found out about my core consumers! I want to do this as soon as possible, so it is sorted and another job done.

My next steps:

To carry on my secondary research

Find opportunities for further primary research

Continuation of my report writing

More Visual inspiration for my promotional methods

Network plans for the two websites to send to Graphic Designer

Customer profiling

I have not posted for a few days, this is not because I have not made any progress, quite the opposite! As always, it is a very busy time.
I have completed my initial primary research within some local primary schools and the information given has been invaluable! My project has been more clearly defined and I feel I know my market segment and audiences better. I would like some more feedback from the same if not other primary schools throughout the development or nearer the end of the campaign to give further direction and make sure my visuals are targeting my audiences correctly.
I have completed my initial customer and brand profiles and shown them to my lecturer this morning. He said they need more development in terms of day to day activities - what do my core audiences do, eat, drink, where do they visit, sports they partake in. And in terms of a typical primary school teachers day, how and when can I promote this scheme to them?
Our seminar today was about how to profile in depth, going as far as possible, into colours the audiences come into contact with, how often, the textures they feel, as well as use of brands and their perception of these brands.
This is my next step, to go into more depth about my profiling. I need to do this before I can move on with the designing of my visuals. My original tasks today included giving the initial information to the graphic designer who is making my visual work, I will still give him some of this information, but the main direction can only come from me further profiling my customers and researching the past advertising of Disney's educational resources in the USA.
I have lots to do! But I am on track which I am happy about.
My lecturer has mentioned that he has a contact who may be able to get some of the Disney imagery, logos and characters etc. which would be great!
I was worrying about the imagery as those available on the internet are poor resolution quality. I have collected some inspiration to use outlines of Mickey Mouse rather than a full version, as there are so many versions available and the outlines are minimal and simple for the younger ages of children....but again, customer profiling comes into play here.
From my primary research, I have indentified that Maths or 'Numeracy' is felt to be the children's weakest subject and that Mickey Mouse is the favoured character throughout the primary schools that I have visited. Therefore, I have chosen to pursue Mickey Mouse and Maths as my combination for the scheme.

First School Visit

Today, I had my first school visit of three that I have arranged. This was at Whitchurch Junior School, which covers Years 3-6. I was able to interview some pupils from Year 4 and Year 2 as the latter were visiting from the Infants School, who have actually been unable to accommodate a visit from myself due to being busy with a research project in collaboration with another University. So this was useful! I was also able to speak to two Teachers, one from Year 3 and the other from Year 6, who is also to Deputy Head Teacher of the school.

I recorded all 4 interviews on my Dictaphone and have since edited these after my visit. The editing process took longer than I expected but this is because I have not done such editing before. So, it took a long time, but I have learnt a new skill, which will help with the recordings of my next two school visits. These recordings will be found on a CD within my research submission.

I feel like the experience of going into a primary school to interview staff and children alike has been very valuable and informative to the development of my project. It is very easy to be at home and make plans for the project and thinking that these will fit into what happens in 'reality' inside educational institutions. The research has shown me that I have been blinkered about the possibilities of this project. Also, the realities of delivering a variety of different subjects with lots of Disney characters is going to be overwhelming and probably not that effective for children. Other approaches have been though about and discussed today. Even my perceptions of which characters the pupils would be attracted to were different to the reality, for example, I expected a Year 4 pupil to want Superman or Cars to be featured in his classes, but surprisingly to me, his favourite was Mickey Mouse. I expected Mickey Mouse to be liked by children in Reception and possibly Year 2 classes.

So, I am looking forward to the next two school visits that I am doing tomorrow and Friday. These will hopefully also open my senses to other teaching approaches and child perceptions.

So today has consisted of:

• Writing and completing my Marketing Report Contents list and my Draft Introduction - this are to be submitted next week.
• A school visit for primary research
• Editing the audio recordings
• Confirming my second school visit for tomorrow
• Some secondary research on the Disney Market sector
• Booking a ticket to the Education Show at the National Exhibition Centre, 15-17th March. I feel this is going to be a bit late to benefit me hugely, however I still think any knowledge around my chosen topic is valuable and therefore, this is worth a visit.

I am now going to:

• Research some more exhibitions, talks, museums or events that I can attend to support my primary research. I am looking at Interactivity and how children learn creatively and effectively. These visits may be valuable in many ways, from giving a development idea, to more promotional method ideas to design ideas and consumer interaction and attitudes.
• Look at Disney's Interactive Stores
• Look at the Times Educational Supplement

I am pleased with how today has gone, I feel it has been very productive and also beneficial for me and the project.

Visits to Primary Schools

This morning I phoned the local schools that I have emailed recently to arrange to speak to some teachers and children about my educational scheme, to gather some information on what is needed in classes from the teachers and childrens point of view and hopefully the preferred methods of promoting this scheme to the schools.

There is difficulty in arranging visits due to the short amount of time in getting permission from the schools and parents of children being interviewed and conducting these interviews before half term. But, I have one arranged visit for tomorrow lunchtime, a provisional booking for Thursday morning and another possibility for Friday lunchtime. I am hoping these visits all go to plan as they will give me feedback from three schools in different areas. 

I am yet awaiting staff to complete my online questionnaire that I sent to primary schools in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol and London. 

I have bought and tested my Dictaphone and also the software that came with it. This will allow me to edit the audio research so it runs smoothly.

My next steps:

• I am awaiting for the two provisional/possible bookings to reply to me.
• Create Customer and Brand Profile (awaiting primary research results) - Teachers, Children and Disney (For Monday)
• Sort and Write my Contents and Draft Introduction for my report (For Monday)
• Choose my promotional methods
• Write the Brief for the graphic designer who is creating my visual campaign (For Monday)
• Get all the visual research done and collated to give to the graphic designer (For Monday)

• Finish my primary research
• Make the Audio clips to put onto a Visual CD nearer the visual campaign submission

• Carry on background reading
• Start writing the Abstract, Methodology and Introduction for my report

Final note: My Lecturer has said that my Proposal needs no editing, so it is ready for its submission on Thursday! 

Project Proposal

This morning I edited my Proposal and sent it to my Lecturer so he will hopefully read and give me feedback to make any changes. The submission for this is Thursday.

I then wrote the questions that I want to ask the teachers and children when I visit the local primary schools that I have contacted to collect research. I have one confirmed visit for Wednesday lunchtime at a Junior school (year 3 - year 6) to interview a selection if children and some teachers.

I was hoping to visually record this research but due to children protection issues I may audio record the interviews using a dictaphone. I have reserved to buy one of these tomorrow from a local store.

After this, I followed up my emails to the local schools with phone calls to try and confirm some more visits. It is crucial that I gather my primary research this week as it is the Half Term holiday next week and thus, no teachers or pupils available.

I have also researched the United Kingdom's most deprived areas and chosen to focus on England rather than the UK. This is due to having chosen five cities to focus on: Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol and London. This gives me a good geographical range of locations to spread awareness of the campaign. I have sent around 300 emails to primary schools in these 5 cities, with a description of my scheme and a link to an online questionnaire powered by Survey Monkey. Hopefully some teachers will take the time to answer the questionnaire. Fingers crossed!

All of this development can be seen in my second research folder.

Development Ideas

• A website for teachers to use the lessons in class, they would log in, use the interactive session and then asked to fill in a feedback questionnaire at the end of the session. This questionnaire could be powered by Survey Monkey, or results sent from dedicated website to Survey Monkey, which would generate the stats live as they were recorded. This would give the UK Disney scheme the ideas/data of what worked with the children, what was interesting or not, good points, developments needed, time it took to complete and class (grade/year) the session was conducted to.

• A website for the schoolchildren to practise their lessons/skills/develop their weaknesses after school at home. 

• A television programme aimed to carry on academic activities when at home, this would be aired at the most appropriate time (research need to be found/conducted) when children watch television after school. 2/3 hours after leaving school? before or after their evening meal? or aired on a slot at the weekend? On Disney Channel or terrestrial to allow more children to watch? (need to consider I am promoting this scheme to disadvantaged areas)

• An Xbox Kinect game to allow further learning whilst at home, again I need to consider I am promoting this scheme to disadvantaged areas. Kinect allows movement recognition so can point at answers, work out maths sums, etc...

Tutorial

Yesterday, I had a tutorial with my Lecturer and I gave him an initial proposal. I also completed all my tasks that I had aimed to do before yesterday, so I am on track.

We spoke about my research and developments and he suggested some helpful points, which have changed my idea from doing a three dimensional, practical art based scheme to doing an interactive based scheme which allows the teacher to conduct the class by going through say an electronic class. There could be a series of six classes in a module? 

Another idea was rather than just base the scheme on Art, why not establish key skills and relate these to a Disney character? For example, Mickey could be related to helping with maths, Minnie may help with spellings, Goofy helping with science... therefore, the children will develop recognition of a character to helping them with a particular subject. I really like this idea but the main idea of creating this scheme would be to fill the gaps which teachers recognise as weaknesses, therefore aiming to help the children understand hard topic areas which the teachers are finding difficult to address to the children.

I mentioned that Disney already have an existing educational program in the USA named Disney Educational Productions. This targets aged 4 - 11 year old children and associates presenters of television programmes aired on the Disney Channel, to a specific subject or issue. All of the work modules are priced at around $29.99 per DVD/workbook and integrate the National Curriculum for States or the USA as a whole into each class of work. 

For example, Bill Nye presents a science related television programme on the Disney Channel, therefore, Disney Educational Productions have their science related classes (DVDs and workbooks) all presented by Bill Nye. 

An idea would be to bring the Educational Productions into the UK with the same work, but make it more British. I liked this idea at first, but making the USA based projects match with the UK National Curriculum with American presenters and such is not likely to work too well, I feel it may over complicate how I am going to create the work modules and promote them. Why would teachers want an American television presenter from Disney Channel showing a science theme to a class in a disadvantaged area of the UK?

So the idea needs some ironing out, but I think I am going to keep to my target audience of primary school children and their teachers. The main developments will come from my primary research as I will find out what the teachers and children want respectively and will create my work modules based on their needs and the current National Curriculum, how children learn, which Disney characters they like or would repsond to the most, how interactivity within the classes could benefit or not....

Next aims:

• Contact local primary schools for permission to conduct my primary research. I want to video/audio record my research so I can use as inspiration very often.
• Adapt my proposal in accordance with the new plans described above and email to my Lecturer.
• Read through and take notes from lots of books that I got yesterday at the University Library.
• Define my questions of what I need to ask the teachers and children when I go to the schools.