Target Audience

This has been long due, but I am writing this post to identify my target audience for my script. My initial target demographic for the story depicted on the script would be for early teenage boys, otherwise currently known as Generation Z, for its superhero content. Because I took inspiration from other similar media such as Power Rangers, another children-oriented show, as the basis for my script, I thought of aiming it to that age demographic. To get a better understanding of demographics, I was given a document detailing target markets by my tutor Miss Zoe.

This document details data relating to demographics such as age, gender, race, etc.

To define Generation Z, according to the document, they are people born between 1995 and 2019, aged between infancy and 24 years currently, and are roughly 25% of the world's population. They are the most connected with technology and are more familiar with modern technology than their previous generations, which can be a factor in their interests that can attract them to sci-fi media. On average, one member of Generation Z spends 3 hours on their devices. Because of their exposure to compact technology, the older members may be uninterested in watching television and prefer a streaming service such as Netflix for entertainment. My script is aimed more on the younger side at 10-13, but may gain traction with older audiences.

I then searched for audience breakdowns of films and television shows similar to my script with sci-fi and superhero elements. I first searched for audience breakdowns of the Power Rangers television series to find some viewership data, but could not find anything other than an article from The Hollywood Reporter on the 2017 Power Rangers movie. They reported that 34% of viewers were aged 18-24 and 39% being 25-34 to total up to 73% (McClintock,2017), but the other 27% were not mentioned and unknown. I tried to search for the source of their statistics, that being PostTrak, a polling service for films, but the report appears to not be available for the public. To further my search, I broadened my sights to more popular superhero sci-fi film series such as Marvel, as suggested by Miss Zoe.

I found a Reddit post on r/marvelstudios that conducted an extensive survey last year on the audience data of recent Marvel films. It shows that 40% of viewers who took part in the survey were aged 16-20 and the male audience was at 87%. This fits in as I predicted, but I went to analyse the gender portion of the audience demographic. Earlier I also consulted with Miss Zoe for help and she showed some examples of sources to look for material for my research, one being another Reddit post with an attached article from that pointed out that 45% of Ant-Man and the Wasp's viewership was female; the highest the female viewership has ever been at the time (McClintock, 2018). I explored more into this and found another article by Film School Rejects that covered more viewership data for Marvel films that suggested that female viewers increase over time, with Ant-Man and the Wasp and Black Panther having the highest percentage of female viewers at 45% because of their increased focus on female lead roles (Campbell, 2018); the Wasp, and Nakia, Okoye, and Shuri, respectively.

With this information, I now know who my script can be targeted at. If I want to attract more viewers I should have a balance of male and female characters in my stories as well as engaging content to keep the audience interested. I will keep this information in mind next time I create a script with a certain target audience.

References:
CAMPBELL, C. (2018) 'Ant-Man and the Wasp' Draws a Bigger Crowd Than 'Ant-Man' (Especially With Women). [Online] Film School Rejects. Available at: https://filmschoolrejects.com/ant-man-and-the-wasp-box-office/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].

Flamma_Man (2019) Demographic Survey Results - 2018 : marvelstudios. [Online] Reddit.com. Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/aun51w/demographic_survey_results_2018/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].

McCLINTOCK, P. (2017) 'Power Rangers' Gets a Surprise Box-Office Boost From Millennial-Age Fans. [Online] The Hollywood Reporter. Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/power-rangers-gets-a-surprise-box-office-boost-millennial-age-fans-988830 [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].

McCLINTOCK, P. (2018) Box Office: 'Ant-Man and the Wasp' Buzzes to $76M in U.S., $161M Globally. [Online] The Hollywood Reporter. Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/box-office-ant-man-wasp-crushes-first-purge-76m-1125547#ampshare=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/box-office-ant-man-wasp-crushes-first-purge-76m-1125547 [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].