YOU'RE HIRED!

In association with The

YOU'RE HIRED!

The Brief

Welcome!!

Thank you for applying join the ʻYouʼre Hired!ʼ project. Have you ever seen ʻThe Apprenticeʼ or ʻDragonʼs Denʼ? This project is a lot like those shows. We will give you a task – to come up with an idea for a youth magazine/comic – and then in 6 weeks time, after lots of workshops and help from your teams, you will pitch your idea to a panel of Media experts and celebrities, led by Andy Duncan, the Chief Executive of Channel 4.

You will be working with mentors from Channel 4 throughout the project, to help you along the way. It will be a great opportunity to work with people who work in the media every day.

So, what is the task?

You will be tasked with producing a new weekly youth magazine/comic aimed at an increasingly sophisticated audience of teens, boys and girls. We would like to target a wide teenage audience and appreciate the diversity of this demographic. In the media industry, we celebrate creative new ideas and innovation, so think big! We want you to come up with ideas that engage and entertain a teen audience. This is not going to be an easy task!

You will need to put together a series of examples of the style, content and narrative of this new magazine/comic so we can get an idea of how it work and be successful in the real world.

For the final presentation, we will look for creative and clear presentations of your ideas for the magazine – what is the big idea? what is the name of your magazine? who is your target audience? who are the characters? how will you sell magazines? why should your idea be chosen?

We are working with a submission deadline here, so identify your creative team and get going! We will accredit anyone who passes our rigorous panel of judges so aim to impress.

We look forward to meeting you soon.

Best,

The Team at Media Trust & Channel 4 YOU'RE HIRED!

1. Session 1: November 13th, 3:45 – 5:15pm.Set the brief for the ʻyouth magazine challengeʼ engaging the group in a discussion about the target audience, the choices of content and the guidelines for how to ʻrun a pitch.ʼ

2. Session 2: November 20th, 3:45 - 5:15pm.Market Research session. This session will focus on building insight into the target audience and identifying what is ʻhotʼ and what is ʻnotʼ, what will attract and engage a youth audience. Target audience profiles will be drawn up and the content will be outlined.

3. Session 3: November 27th, 3:45 - 5:15pm. Branding & character development session. This session will focus on developing the visual style of the magazine/comic, as well as defining the key characters who will appear in the comic. This session will also focus on defining the name and branding for the magazine, which will be key for the final pitch.

4. Session 4: December 5th, 4:30-5:30pm at Channel 4.This session is the groupʼs first meeting with Andy Duncan, and will focus on talking through the magazine concepts developed thus far. Andyʼs background in marketing means he will feedback on the branding and marketing ideas developed to date, and will speak about how they market and brand programmes on Channel 4. He will also offer some advice for the final pitch to the panel.

5. Session 5: December 11th, 3:45-5:15pm. Production session. This session is about production of the concepts and presentations. Development of narrative of comic/magazine and features. First examples of presentation drafted in Photoshop/Powerpoint/Flash. Mentor will feedback on initial concepts and presentation ideas, as well as guide the production.

6. Session 6: December 19th, 4:00-5:30pm at Channel 4The FINALE! Prior to the panel, the mentors will answer any final questions from the group and then lead them into the panel presentation to start at 4:30pm. Andy Duncan will lead the celebrity panel(include a journalist, potentially a previous Apprentice winner, other high profile panelists) and deliver the feedback to the young people, particularly around how to improve their skills in pitching ideas/concepts to a professional audience. Hand out project certificates.

YOU'RE HIRED!

An Outline

YOU'RE HIRED!

Market Research

Target Audience Profile

TecWare Teens:· Are girls and boys ages 14 – 17· Come from households with incomes £100,000+· Are interested in technology, gadgets, the Internet· Frequent chat rooms, use email daily, and play computer video games· May hold a part-time job or volunteer as a web-master, or ABC councilor · Have allowances of £20 a week in addition to their jobs· Whose parents purchase at least £250 in “back to school” stuff

Charlie and GeorgeCharlotte, 16, and George, 14, are brother and sister. They live in the Londonʼs best neighbourhood, in a three-story modern home from the pages of Home Living. In their free time, they volunteer to maintain web sites for the school's ABC website, the local youth club and their high school. There is three televisions and 3 computers in the home – Dadʼs laptop for work, the “family computer” and Georgeʼs personal computer that he bought with money earned teaching senior citizens computer skills. Dad is Vice President of eCommerce for a national bank and Mum is a reporter for Camden New Journal.

YOU'RE HIRED!

Consider the Details of the Target Audience of the following publication

Target Audience

YOU'RE HIRED!

Produce a new weekly youth magazine/comic aimed at an increasingly sophisticated audience of teens, boys and girls . We would like to target a wide teenage audience and appreciate the diversity of this demographic. In the media industry, we celebrate creative new ideas and innovation, so think big! We want you to come up with ideas that engage and entertain a teen audience. This is not going to be an easy task!

You will need to put together a series of examples of the style, content and narrative of this new magazine/comic so we can get an idea of how it work and be successful in the real world.

Your Challenge

YOU'RE HIRED!

YOU'RE HIRED!

£200Media Lab 2

1.30 pm

Relax and Enjoy

Daft Hands

Market Research

WH Smiths Comic Showcase

YOU'RE HIRED!

Why did Mr Rosen send you to Smiths?

What did you find?

Is there a niche in the market?

Why Comics?

Hereos

Blockbuster movies

Advertising

Social document

Imagine

Branding

YOU'RE HIRED!

YOU'RE HIRED!

Developing Character

Character

YOU'RE HIRED!

YOU'RE HIRED!

YOU'RE HIRED!

YOU'RE HIRED!

YOU'RE HIRED!

Visual Style

YOU'RE HIRED!

YOU'RE HIRED!

1) Choose the font you think is most appropriate for the title of your publication

2) Using the Layer menu choose Layer Styles then Blending Options

3) Preview the styles you think are appropriate

4) Double-click that style to change the details such as colour, distance and spread

5) Be patient and experiment with lots of different styles

5) Apply this style to your publication

YOU'RE HIRED!

YOU'RE HIRED!

The Pitch

YOU'RE HIRED!

Andy's 3 things he looks for in a pitch:

1. A clear, simple idea.2. A defined target audience, by attitude Who will buy this and why?3. Passion and confidence from the presenter - 'I want to believe not only in the idea, but in the person delivering it!'

Andy wants

YOU'RE HIRED!

There will be a variety of winners including:

1. Best overall idea2. Best Presentation3. Best graphics/visuals4. Best marketing/commercial strategy5. Most improved presentation

So...

YOU'RE HIRED!

- Be sure the presentation doesn't go into too much detail - give me thebig picture: the beginning, middle and end as well as as sense of thecharacters - but don't get lost in the side stories!- A clear difference between good and evil in the storyline is essential.- Visuals are key, help me picture the characters, set the scene in myown head- Target audience should be as broad as possible, while still definingthe group. Use attitudinal targets more so than demographics. Mind setrather than age.- Leave the audience with a cliff hanger - make them want to know whatcomes next.- Marketing the magazine is part of the brief. Be clear about the priceand demographic match, but try to make money out of it, it is a commercialenterprise! How can you make the strongest business possible?- Marketing cont. - How will it be sold and where? Think of unusualplaces to sell it! How will it be advertised? Why will someone choose itover the competition?

YOU'RE HIRED!

Alternative Endings

Find out next week how

your story ends...

Be interesting and tell a story; the way we rememebr stuff start begining and end. Follow a story telling format Be different, stand out and be yourself do not try to be someone else. I want to believe in the individual Be ready, not just with visuals but in your head. Be ready for any problems or emergencies that may occurBe polite, if they like you they will want to work with you!Be personal make your points relevant to them

Know the rules and then you can bend them!Know your stuff helps prevents nervousness Do you know your 30 second elevator pitch?Know you audience! Know the kind of audience and thus the kind of pitch you will deliver.Deliver for your team and remember you are representing them!

Perfect pitch by John Steel

Matt Goff Channel 4