RESEARCH: WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE?

To guide me to finding my target audience, I utilised the FDA website where there were two film experts; Kezia Williams and Chris Besseling who had concise, informative guidance which helped me to find my target audience. 

 On the FDA website, Kezia Williams, Head of Theatrical Distribution at Entertainment One UK, explains that defining the target audience will affect the ‘where’ and ‘how’ of the marketing campaign; 

For example: 'Where should the distributors promote and advertise their film on social media?' and 'how should they would promote the film to appeal to and to engage their target audience?'

Kezia Williams explains, in the video, that distributors will start to define their audiences by comparing other films with their films. 

Who is the target audience?
Kezia Williams
Research - 

• Bespoke research, focus groups, interviews with potential audience
• If the film is based on a book or a film there is already existing data of the audience to access that can be used when targeting the film to an audience
• Talent: if theres actors that appeal to a certain audience 
• Core audience must be identified before looking at the audience that could show interest in the film
• Some films have multiple target audiences 

Chris Besseling - 
Research 

• Anomalies at the box office such as surprise hits make research into target audiences even more important 
• Historical data is used to give the 'green light' (OK)  for a project 
• First strategy is comparing lists of titles that have subtle links with the film - actors, directors, genres and subject matter. This is used to find out the target audience brief. 
• Historical fame data is to discover the target audience - age, gender and socio-economic standing which gives an overview of who the audience is likely to be and who should be targeted
• How comp titles perform at the box office is another important factor to consider - this influences how much will be spent on P&A