Initial notes on soap opera posters

Whereas these days most soaps tend to use TV trailers and adverts to advertise big episodes to their target audience, some choose to advertise using other forms of media, such as a poster. These soap opera posters can be seen on billboards, at bus stops, on trains and even in newspapers.

As part of my coursework, my production team will have to create our own poster to advertise our soap 'Cherry Gardens'. To enhance my knowledge of soap opera posters, and therefore help me when i come to make my own, i will analysis some existing posters of this kind.  

Here are some of the points i will be looking for when analysing existing media products, i will relate these points to the Hollyoaks poster below:

Is information conveyed in a verbal or visual way?

This is asking whether the poster is made from just words or just pictures or both. I believe that most soap opera posters would use both to make their poster as effective as possible. The one above is an example of a poster that has information displayed via words and pictures. They have used a picture to grab attention, and words to display key facts, such as when and what channel it is on. This poster has also has a caption that would make an audience think what could possibly happen in the soap, once again drawing the audience into watching the show.
What are the colours used and why?
As with soap opera magazines, colour is very important when trying to grab your audiences attention. Although lots of colours don't always mean a successful poster, it is the use of the colours that counts. As in the poster above, they have only used black, white and orange, yet i think it is very effective. The use of the black background, makes the white and orange stand out on the poster much more than if the background were to be a different colour. The use of very little colour, also allows the audience to take in what each colour connotes, and to build an opinion about what the advertised episode would be like. The use of black in this poster connotes evil and mystery and orange is used to represent fire and energy.
What are the symbols in the poster?
Soap opera posters are designed to make you think about what is on them, and hopefully make you want to watch the soap, so lots of posters have clear and sometimes hidden symbols within them. With the poster above, i think it is clever that the characters are displayed as figures in fire, as it poses many questions to the viewers and could symbolise many things. Just from looking at this poster you could try to guess the storyline of the episodes.
Who is the intended audience?
Soap opera posters, like trailers, are either designed to draw new viewers into the show or to be a reminder to current viewers to watch a big, up coming episode. The intended audience for this poster would be current viewers, telling them not to miss 'The week that will change Hollyoaks forever'. It would also be for fans of the characters shown in the posters, as they will obviously be involved within the episodes.
What is promised from the poster?
If nothing is promised by the poster, it simply won't have the desired effect, and it won't draw the audience in. For the poster above, a week of very dramatic, explosive episodes is what seems to be promised by Channel 4.
How is attention gained by the poster?
If you want your poster to make audiences tune into your soap, it will have to gain their attention first. This can be done many ways on a poster, such as dramatic words in large fonts with lots of punctuation, or pictures of characters involved with something or someone you would not expect them to be with. With the poster above, attention is gained with the large picture of 5 characters depicted in a way they have never been seen before, grabbing the audience eye and making them wonder why they are like this.