Media Audience. Find The Gaps

YOUR NEW MEDIAPROJECT KEEP AUDIENCE OUT OF ANABIOSIS !

some rules and my experience

CONTENT IS THE KINGbut… there is no king without the QUEEN

And the QUEEN is the audience

HOW TO FIND THE QUEEN?Everything starts with… the gaps

Not with the idea

WHY NOT WITH IDEA?Because the audience is the QUEEN. Not idea

IDEA

AUDIENCE

NEEDS

SUCCESS…?

IDEA

AUDIENCE

NEEDS

SUCCESS…!

There are 2 ways to design and develop your new media project: !1st - you find the idea, then find the need (the gap) which it covers, then ferret out what kind of audience this need belongs. You launch your media and hope for success… maybe your idea would be really useful = successful !2nd - you find the need (the gap), then ferret out what kind of audience this need belongs, then develop the idea which cover this need and launch your media. This option guaranties you 90% success, because your idea is useful from the get go

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

VS

At the 1st option you cherish your creativity At the 2nd - you do business !But… They say there is a kind of opposition between this too positions… !I let you find the bottom of the well…

THERE IS NO VERSUS between CREATIVITY and BUSINESS !It’s all from the literature tradition of XVIII-XIX cents. When it was a king of prestige to be “unsuccessful but genius”, living at poor cock loft and writing really great novels about the same losers…

ALL “VS” ARE ONLY IN YOUR OWN MIND

TWEAK IT ALL YOU WANT

That writers were really talented in writing but know nothing about promotion and doing business… That’s why they weren’t successful while alive… and there were not any “inspiring psychology” 200 years ago: nobody could teach them how to THINK and how to promote themselves !

But we used to believe the novels and writers, and we studied their bios, and we decided that “unappreciated genius” - is the law, consistent pattern, legitimacy !

NO! All THIS DOUBLE ASPECT

THEORY IS ONLY IN OUR MIND

CREATIVITY CAN BE BUSINESS EFFECTIVE

BUSINESS CAN BE VERY CREATIVE

It’s up to you

WHAT ARE THE QUEEN’S NEEDS?Finding the gaps

BEWARE OF RESEARCHES!

THEY WANTED:

Men 14-45

brutal and would-be-brutal

!

THEY GOT:

Women 13-25

romantic and emotive

Research is not a panacea… Even if all sociologists tell you that your TV-series contains all manly and brutal images: guns, soundtracks, absolutely “rock-car” and almost everything attractive for men audience… !Nobody tell you about secret girl’s fantasies… What all girl-viewers of this series are dreamed about? You maybe won’t believe, but they dreamed about Sam and Dean were gay couple in real life !Men said “What?!” and mostly declined Supernatural !Google will help you with more information ;)

HOW TO USE THIS KNOWLEDGE That example means that first of all you should FEEL

And feeling of your audience is not a science and not mathematics

And you must imagine different kind of your viewers watching your project - how do they do it? How they react?

By the way… Had you ever watched “The Supernatural?” Could you imagine brutal rocker about 36-38 yo, bearded, in bandana with skulls, with can of beer, slouched in an old farther’s armchair and… watching “The Supernatural” TV-series?…

Emmm… yes… I can’t too…

MORE DEEPER NEEDS - MORE SUCCESSClose fundamental needs!

Do you really think that dating sites are really for sex?

The Night of ADeaters - is really for your admiration with results of others creativity?

Love lines in TV-series are really for your erotic fantasies?

NO… all this is for…your escape from loneliness

Don’t try to close local or temporary needs… don’t run for trendy interests !

Look for fundamental, ground psychological structure of people. Only if you close it, your content would have long life !

To find such fundamental needs you should ask only ONE question but to all of your next answers !

WHY?

WHY??

WHY?!

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE NEEDSWHY? WHAT FOR THEY SHOULD BE YOUR AUDIENCE? !

Pyramid of Questions Extremely concrete answers Minimum of words in the answers !

What does it mean?

WHY anybody should wants to watch your content? !WHY will your content should be interesting? !Creators prefer to answer: - because it’s entertaining - because it’s informative - because it’s beautiful - because it’s… bullshit! !Disneyland is more entertaining than any content… News cast or Reuters are more informative than any media startup… Louvre contains more beauty than any web site… !The point is all that answers are too general

WHY SHOULD THEY WATCH?- Because they love football

- So what? WHY should they WATCH YOUR CONTENT?

- Because they want to know football score.

- WHY SHOULD they WATCH YOUR CONTENT?

- We will show them the score…

- Only you will show?

- Not exactly…

- So WHY should they WATCH YOUR CONTENT?

- Because they want to watch the goals again and again. “Replays” are not enough for football fans. We will give them the opportunity.

- OK… So… Why?

- They will watch because the WHANT TO KNOW! MORE and BETTER than other fans! They will. With help of our content.

That’s what I call Pyramid of Questions.

You should ask again and again: WHY YOUR CONTENT?

And you should stop asking only when you find the most deep need - the GAP, which you fill with your content

In this example “TO KNOW MORE and BETTER THAN OTHERS” - the most deep and suitable need.

If we dig more deeper, we find out even 2 mostly deep layers: 1) TO KNOW and 2) TO BE THE BEST…

Audience will never analyse your content and their own needs

YOU MUST DO It

WHY SHOULD THEY WATCH?

NIKE TV:

DONT TALK ABOUT SNEAKERS, TALK ABOUT BASKETBALL…

…which is better to play in our sneakers!

Your business goal could be hidden in “readable” deep needs which you cover with your content !people love sports because it’s not only about the health but about the VANITY too !They love to watch and imagine that there is their own success !They what to be like basketball stars !How can they be? Or at least look like? !Yes. People can wear the same clothes and shoos !Sure! They’ll buy it

QUEEN’S HABITSTrends of mediaconsumption

MEDIACONSUMPTION1. Discreteness (nonlinearity) 2. Sketchy (scrappy) watching (on the go) 3. The principle of the three "A" -

Anything, Anywherе, Anytime 4. Small-format trends 5. The Three Screens concept 6. Binge-viewing 7. Eager for STORIES (serials)

!

What is all bullets about and what to do with them?

1. DISCRETENESS (NONLINEARITY)This is not new, but nowadays it’s the absolute:

The viewer does not allow to impose him a regime of watching

Program guide works only for old audience, who doesn’t know how to handle with online content and where is such content generally lives…

Young and progressive viewer has been diving into online broadcasting platforms with VOD or “by-tag-formed” playlists content

BUT…

2. SCRAPPY WATCHINGBut… people watch on the go

When they have “a free minute”

Waiting for a train, or in the queue in a bank, or while having a lunch

!

This implies the following principle:

3. PRINCIPLE OF THREE “A”Anything, Anywhere, Anytime

!

Absolutely technical part: care about all existing platforms, browsers and mobile OSes

!

And the next principle starts here:

4. SMALL-FORMAT STORIESMaximum duration of regular internet format (webisodes, newscasts etc):

5 minutes

of irregular (any creative videos - not series):

3 minutes

If longer - there is a risk that your content won’t been watched to the end. So…

COMPRISE YOUR STORY INTO 1 MINUTE (URL)yes, you need ultimate concentration of

creative energy… BUT beware:

50 seconds for 3 months or more longer (URL)get ready:

efficiency coefficient is always extremely low

ONLY MASTERPIECES CAN AFFORD TO BE LONGER

for example this 8-minutes life story of humanity (URL)

5. THE THREE SCREENS CONCEPT

people use use all their devises at the same time for various purposes

chatting watching gaming editing pics of lovely kitties whatever else…

SOMETIMES THERE ARE 4 SCREENS

HOW TO USE THIS KNOWLEDGE

WHERE? At the kitchen while breakfast along? Or with the family? At the office waiting for coffee near coffee-machine? Alone or with colleagues? In the metro train?

ON WHAT DEVICE? Cell phone? Tablet? Laptop? Or, maybe TV-set? Would they need earphones? Which resolution will be enough? And for the fastest loading?

Knowing the principle of three of four screens make you to figured out HOW would your viewers consume your content:

CONJOINED OCCUPATION? WHAT ELSE COULD YOUR VIEWERS DO WHILE WATCHING?

Because they will. Weather you wish or not. they will. Help them not to go far from your story

Maybe you can suggest them chatting topics according to your content? Community? Extras? Subcontent for other devices? THINK ABOUT IT

Unfortunately nobody does

THE THREE SCREENS CONCEPT FOR BIG FORMATS: 90x9090% KILLING

!

!

90% probability that the viewer will lose the narrative thread and be bored with your damn long show

90% SAVING

!

!

90% of probability that the viewer will find how to occupy himself, and won't switch over to another channel

BUT!

at the same time:

BY THE WAY…How about long formats?

Are they really ready for itself funeral?

6. BINGE-VIEWING

LONG-PLAY STORIES

The most interesting trend of mediaconsumption…

TV-series exists more than 30 years, web exists not more less time. But only 3-4 years ago the Binge-viewing trend appeared…

I consider the fragmented thinking, kaleidoscope thinking as the main reason of Binge-viewing

The point is that our mind is tired to be switched on and off and over every 2-3 minutes. Our mentality strive to relax

And good long story is the best way to calm down after constant switching during the entire day…

Maybe that is the reason of mostly afternoon or night Binge-viewing

7. SO… PEOPLE ARE EAGER FOR STORIESLong-play, well-designed, well worked out

and absolutely “well done”

HOW TO MERRY THE QUEEN?Close the gaps

WELL… HOW?… WHAT ARE THE QUEEN’S NEEDS?

Why there are so few successful media about nature?

!

'My dear lady, alligators love alligators, plants love plants, but people love people. When alligators and plants buy magazines, we'll do a magazine on nature.'

William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph HearstAll media are still living by his laws

HEARST’S LAWSHearst said that any journalist’s material should contains an appeal to basic human instincts:

!

1. Reproduction (sex and children)

2. Self-preservation (risk/safety)

3. Vanity (about something THE BEST. Appeal to "social instincts”)

…do you recognise

this structure of needs?

MASLOW-HEARSTYes, I really consider that William Hearst and Abraham Maslow were talking about the same things but from different points of view

And I’m not alone, I guess

Think about it too

SOMETHING IMPORTANT ABOUT THE WORDS

How to “fit” the Hearst’s laws

MODULATING WORDS“Modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of frequency signal with a modulating signal that typically contains information to be transmitted” what is it about?

There are different “lexical kits” for appealing to different instincts and to “switch” viewer between them. Some of such words:

1. Reproduction: beauty, young girl, long legs, curvy, baby, shorty, sexy, attractive…

2. Self-preservation: safe, dangerous, beware, anger, attention!, cunning, homicide, treacherous and so on…

3. Vanity: the key modulating word is THE BEST and… THE WORST… Also - the most famous, the most rich, the most important, absolute, ultimate, hardline, shocking, odious etc…

All these words start some processes in our mind. In all of us. In my brain too ;) !This is universal mental and psychical principle: to attend definite way on definite words !Use these carrots to elicit a response !You can describe one situation in thousands of various key words from various “lexical kits” and get hundreds variations of stories… because of dozens emotions that key words induce… !This is the “psychical mechanics,” which every mass media use…

PERCEPTION Some Ground Rules

Emotion!

Final!

Duration!

Intonation!

Reality!

Story Development Potential!

Only emotions stays in memories for entire life. Not knowledges. Make emotional stories

You should know the final of your story from the very beginning. Exactly the final commit emotions in our memories

Don’t be too long… put your story in 3 minutes

Use emotional speech! But music has it’s own intonation too. Use proper voices with proper music

Take your scenes or plot from real life, or make it recognisable for the audience. Make them think: “yeah! I know such feeling…” They will believe you more in this case

Give to story potential for sequel. Don’t forget that people are thrust of stories!

AND ONLY YOUR THINKING MAKE YOU SUCCESSFUL

keep it in your mind

FINE TUNING OF THE BRAIN

Watch!!! Look for references of the great content - gather collection

Stole the ideas!

Mix formats, but don't use more then 3 in one video

Carry out experiments - try to repeat the references!

Gather feedback - your audience can make a good advice

Start with small formats

Engage in self-reflection: look at the world through the lens of "how would I shoot it?"

Find out the FINALS - imagine various finals for any scenes in life around you

Not any externals can stop you when your confident of success !All breaks are in your mind !You should develop your successful and professional thinking! !The brain is the muscle. Train it, tune it and you will see how your point of view will change, and how your understanding of your audience will appear !Don’t be lazy! If you want to make smash audiovisual content you SHOULD analyse any other successful examples!

Alina Belkovskaya !

!

Executive TV Producer Digital October Group

Moscow, Russia !

[email protected] facebook.com/alina.belkovskaya

Thanks a lot! And GOOD LUCK!