Survey Results Analysis

Animal Cruelty in Horse Racing

Observation71% of the people who took part in the survey were female.

What this tells me about my audienceThere may not be any real reason for these results other than more women saw the survey than men. I tried to distribute the survey into communities with even splits of male and female audiences. It is also possible that out of the people who saw the survey, female audience members were more likely to investigate and compete it. Perhaps this is because the survey is ordinated around being caring towards animals and caring in general. Women in general tend to empathise more with animals than men. Judging from my research I should be targeting a female audience. Although the male 30% is not to be ignored.

How this will impact my posterThe plan is to shock the audience into cutting off contact with the races. This makes it difficult to target the poster in a females based colour scheme, structure and tone. If my poster is designed to shock it may be appropriate to got down the route of relative gore, noting extreme. This will incite the desired feeling of disgust at the sport. The audience is not supposed to feel comfortable looking at the poster.

Observation50% of the audience are 16-20, most of who said they do not attend the races at any time.

What this tells me about my audience Very few results have come in which it a way tells me a lot in itself. With only 14 results in total for the survey it shows me that it is not a subject the concerns or interests most people. The survey was distributed on as big a scale as was possible without any form of budget though the internet. Primarily on Facebook and Twitter. Many people will have seen the survey, noticed the subject and decided it did not interest them. Is this because they do not worry about how the horses are treated or because they think they are treated with respect. This gives me the determination to inform people on the matter.

How this will impact my poster When comparing the other answers for different ages there seams to be little correlation between age and point of view. This tells me that i should spread the survey everywhere I can. Although having gained the most responses from a younger audience i should consider them my main audience. I should consider posting my poster in schools and colleges.

Observations Rounded to 65% a strong majority of my audience never attend the races. This is likely to be due to a younger average age of audience. Going to the races is not something that is done at a young age, especially if under 18 is betting is not legal at this age. This may have impacted my results slightly. Although they are still important to the survey, they may be thinking of going when older. 6 in 7 16-20 year olds said they never attend the races, while in contrast 1 in 7 said they never go. The rest of the audience that have selected that they do not go to the races frequently, excluding a minority who go more often.

What this tells me about my audience The younger audience does not currently attend the races. If they do plan to go in the future my campaign should put them off. The distribution of the results amongst the options tells me that my audience is not very enthusiastic about horse racing. Although despite this there is no correlation between this statistic and whether people said they would cut off contact with the races. Frequently they would reply with “No” or “sadly no”.

How this will impact my posterThis shows me that people who do not even got to the races amongst those who do still feel that they will keep contact with the races. People seam to consider the races too important to abandon for the sake of the animals. It is a major part of english culture, the piece of information that stands out to me the result which the participant replied “sadly no” showing knowledge and understanding of the races cruelty and despite that continuing as if unaware. I can turn this to my advantage to orientate my campaign around deliberate ignorance. For example I could caption my poster with the phrase “Is ignorance always bliss?” as the image displays a member of the crowd choosing to ignore a fallen horse as they look on to the winner with ticket in hand. Only an idea although this does give me valuable information as to where my audience stands.

ObservationIn comparison to question 3 far more people have selected that they do make bets on the races than the amount of people that actually attend the events. 42% of the audience clicked that they bet “On Occasion” this is likely to mean they bet on big events such as the “Grand National” that come around less often but attract a bigger and less enthusiastic audience. The fact that is the most shocking is that 64% of people do bet on the races meaning that there is an enormous audience that can be targeted. That may not even be the full extent of the fan base for the sport.What this tells me about my audienceIf the survey is narrowed down to only those who never bet on the races it can be seen that 80% of these participants are in the 16-20 age bracket. This may be because they are not permitted to gamble. In hindsight it may have been more beneficial not to merge the age boundary between legal and illegal. For example I should have had a “17 and under” option on this question. In a qualitative question (question 9) 40% of all who said they never bet on the races said they would not cut off contact with either therefore backing up the evidence that they are not concerned with the horses’ wellbeing.

How this will impact my poster A large proportion of the statistics gathered have indicated that people will only bet on the races on occasion. It might make sense to base my campaign around these occasional events that attract people only betting for a little bit of fun. If i target events like the “grand National” and the “Cheltenham festival” this specific group of people may be more put off the sport. This could be the part of the market I aim at, rather than aiming at enthusiasts which consist of the 21% of the people in the survey. These people are far more likely to think “better not” in the situation of a “little bet”. If i were to go down this route it would result in a purely UK based campaign as the event are unique to this country and would have less impact on international recipients. According to my survey this part of the the market would appear to be the majority of people who place bets on horses. While I think this is true, i must consider that i only had 14 participants for the survey. While i did get a good variety if age and gender, there was a clear majority of younger people involved. This group of people are traditionally less invested in horse racing culture.

ObservationsOf the people who chose to answer the question 72% (8 out of 11) believe that the horses are not treated humanly. Meaning 28% think they are treaded in a acceptable manner. These two statistics can be learned from. But the third option is more relevant. 21% of people felt they did not know enough about the subject to give an answer. These people can be easily informed about this information in the same way that those who think the set up in justified can be converted.What this tells me about my audience To me this displays that there is a gap in the audience that does not know about the controversial happenings to horses. This justifies the need for a campaign on the subject. People who are not informed on the subject could be given a few hard to handle facts about the sport which may serve as enough to put them on our side. The majority of people seam to be aware that the sport is deadly of horses, or they just expect that they would not be treated as a priority. The sport is a business like an other. Assets are exploited in business especially when animals are involved. Animals do not have a voice to speak for themselves therefore organisations must do it for them. That is the objective of my poster.How this will influence my poster This will influence not influence my poster from an aesthetic point of view however it gives me an incite as to how it should be distributed. There is no correlation between age and gender when compared to the results of this question. Suggesting that everyone is in a situation where they need to be informed on the subject.

ObservationsNo one who took the survey predicted that 0-5 horses have died in the grand national. The vast majority believed 20+ had died with 57% agreeing.

What this tells me about my audience The audience overall expected the rate to be high. They might be well informed on the topic or expect the horses to be treated as a tool. One of the participants stated they already “knew that” in a following question relating to this fact. Perhaps some of the people who took the survey are already knowledgable how the animals are handled. If i select to look at only this persons results they say they go 1-3 times a year, but by the end have decided that the races should be banned. Although interestingly that they feel they should cut off contact with the races but won’t. “Does this statistic effect whether you will have any contact with horse racing in the future?” the reply was “It should, but it doesn’t”.

How this will influence my poster This again reinforces the theory I made when analysing a previous question that the poster should be oriented around how it is easier to pretend it is not happening and to continue as normal. The idea is to create a feeling of guilt for ignoring this and continuing to directly fund this cruel sport. Another point I can draw from this result is that people seam not to be too shocked by the amount of deaths related to the sport. It seams to be expected. I could work on how this is worse than it may seam. A poster showing the GB athletics teams with 24 (the amount of horses that have dies in the grand national since 2001) of the athletes’ pictures replaced with graves. This would make a harrowing and hopefully though provoking image. It could also be done in a way that relates to how horses are pet to some people or pet dogs could be used and shown to have died in the sport. Asking the viewer to imagine that it was their pet that was dying in the races of internal bleeding or broken limbs. This would also be an opportunity to employ the method often used in social action campaigns where an infant animal is used to insight pity and empathy. It would also allow me to spread some tough facts about the sport such as the examples in question 7.

Alternatively to this idea, I can turn away from the deaths and statistics side of the sport as it is more difficult to feel pity when only a number is shown. I could create a fictional race horse on the poster and show it in pain , with this i can focus on how the animals and mistreated rather than the deaths that is caused. This should work better according to my statistics as people do not seams particularly phased by the high amount of deaths related to the single event.

ObservationsIn comparison to the previous question people opted for the less severe option in thinking that all the facts are false whereas they all though at least 6 horses had dies in the grand national. This might be due to how the facts featured in this questions have been attempted to be covered up to a greater degree. Peta was the organisation who released this information to the public. 5 out of the 14 participants though all the facts were not true. One of the facts was not. “Race horses are deafened so they are not distracted by the crowd” this was incorporated to see what the audience though was capable of happening and to see if they were guessing or acting on knowledge. The result that has drawn the most clicks was the answer relating the drugs What this tells me about my audience The audience thought this fact was equally likely to one of the true facts and slightly less than the other two. I can learn from this information that as a whole people do not know a great deal on the subject. How this will impact my posterTherefore it will be effective to incorporate facts into the poster. With a client such as Peta on the poster that facts will be understood and trusted. With such a large proportion of the audience believing these facts are false it seams to me that I should be incorporating these into my final product as a sort of scare tactic. According to the survey as a whole it is the area that is least known about and according the qualitative research results the part that is the most concerning.

Questions 8 and 9ObservationsThe vast majority of the answers demonstrated that they fell “sad” or “Horrified” about the deaths in the event. Although subsequently the same members of the audience went on to say they will still attend the races. Out of the few that decided they will cut off contact with the races tended to be already against it.What this tells me about me audience I believe this is because gives further evidence of my idea about choosing to look the other way. One person said he feels “they are bred to run” meaning that that is the life they have and it is not important. He then said he believes they are “well looking after”. This may be the case for many horses, but the problem that needs addressing is that is a real issue for a large amount of horses. The next question in the survey enquires as to the way the issue should be dealt with. The popular answer was that horse trainers should be monitored to a greater degree, if this was to become common practice that animals did indeed get treated in a proper and humane fashion then there would be no need for the campaign. In the mean time someone needs to be the voice for the horses.How this will impact my posterIn conclusion my poster should display facts that are tough to handle in a way that shows how it is wrong to ignore them.

Observations20% of my audience believes that nothing should change at all. Out of the participants who selected this answer all of them were also people who made bet on the races. The most popular vote was to enforce stricter regulation of the living standards of horses. In hindsight it seams the question should have allowed for audience input to voice their own ideas. What this tells me about my audienceI have found myself with a big split between points of view. This is a subject that people will widely disagree on. Typically people who do not take part in the sport will find a greater interest in the campaign while, the people who are currently fans of the sport will seek less severe consequences. The audience results I have picked up have come from a lenient group of people that do not favour actions heavily swayed in one direction. They do not want to boycott the races nor deal with abusers severely.

How this will impact my poster The most popular solution (of the options that i provided) was that stricter regulation should be enforced. This could be developed into a volunteering programme using poster and website. These volunteers could work with the race event organisers monitor horses careful before and after races. Another alternate option i could advertise is the introduction of drug tests prior to races. These are not the only hazards to the animals although it is not possible to monitor them outside of organised events.