Audience Profile-results of my survey

I carried out a survey using surveymonkey.com which asked my audience questions about their favourite soaps and why they liked then. This information can help me to understand what they like to see in a soap and what I can include in my trailer to ensure they find it entertaining.

Question 1

Do you watch soaps?

I asked my target audience to check the selection that applied to them in this question as I wanted to see which gender watched soaps the most. This is important as I can use this information when planning my trailer to try and make it appeal to both audiences. As females are the ones who watch soaps the most, more female characters can be featured and the storylines can be based around female issues like teenage pregnancy. However, because the number of males who watch soaps is low, I can try and use my product to appeal to more males, making it more unique and interesting. I can do this by including more storylines that appeal to males as it appears that at the minute they are not finding present soaps interesting because they do not watch them. To understand what storylines I can include I can carry out more personal information using a focus group where I can ask them what they like and dislike and what is important to them.

Question 2

What is your favourite soap?

58%21%

10%

11%

0%

0%

0%

Number of people

Eastenders

Hollyoaks

Emmerdale

Coronation Street

Neighbours

Home and Away

Doctors

The results from this question showed me that Eastenders was the most popular soap with over 50% of the audience choosing it, followed by Hollyoaks at 21% and then Emmerdale and Coronation Street. My results also showed me that Neighbours, Home and Away and Doctors all received no repsonses in this survey. This suggests that my audience do not like these types of soaps as they are too tailored to a specific target audience, as doctors is based around characters working in a hospital and neighbours and home away are based in Australia, meaning that their environment and lifestyle differs from those audience members living in England.

Question 3

How often do you watch this soap?

For this question, I gave my audience a choice of when they watch the soap they like. This question can help to give me an idea of how strong the fan base for soaps is and how many times a week I could show my soap. By understand how much my audience watch soaps can help me to make a decision as to how many characters and storylines I should include, as if my audience only watch the show every so often it will be too hard to keep up to date with what is going on in the multi strand narrative.

My survey showed me that the majority of my audience watch soaps every night, with 9 out ofthe 22 people I asked saying they watched itevery night. 3 of my audience watch soaps every other night, and 4 of them watch them every now and then. This means that my soap needs to include a multi strand narrative and some sort of mystery storyline to make the viewers tune in every night to find out the next part of the puzzle.

9

3

1

1

4

0 2 4 6 8 10

Every night

Every other night

Twice a week

Three times a week

Every now and then

Number of people

Number of people

Question 4

What storylines have interested you recently and why?

Question 5

What do you expect to find from a soap trailer?

When asked what they expect from a soap trailer, my target audience replied with a range of answers. I used them to make a word art image that I can use during the planning process. This can help to ensure that I include things that I know my audience want to see.

My target audience said that they expected to see things like characters lives, lies, gossip and drama in the trailer which are all conventional themes from the TV drama genre. They also said that they wanted to see the information about when the soap is on including in the trailer, and I can present this using iconography from my channel. They also wanted to hear loud, exciting music that will build up tension, so I decided to use the track Shot Yourself in The Foot Again by Example, as this song fits with the genre and what the audience want to hear. The audience also enjoy big storylines that they find gripping and persuade them to watch the soap itself.

Question 6Do you like action packed trailers or slow, dramatic trailers?

Action Packed

68%

Slow and dramatic

14%

Skipped18%

NUMBER OF PEOPLEFor this question, it was without a doubt that most of my target audience prefer trailers that are action packed. The other 3 audience members said they preferred slow and dramatic trailers, whilst 4 people skipped the question altogether as they had said they did not like soaps at all. This information is valuable as I can see what type of trailer will appeal to the largest number of audience members and what type of genre they enjoy. By asking them whether they prefer action packed or slow and dramatic I can understand more about the type of music they prefer to hear, the action included, the number of characters and narrative used and the type of storylines included. For example, the fact that they like action packed trailers means that I need to include loud, fast paced music accompanied by fast shots of different characters to build up tension and make it look as though there is a lot going on.

Question 7

What do you dislike about soap trailers?

For this question, it was without a doubt that most of my target audience prefer trailers that are action packed. The other 3 audience members said they preferred slow and dramatic trailers, whilst 4 people skipped the question altogether as they had said they did not like soaps at all. This information is valuable as I can see what type of trailer will appeal to the largest number of audience members and what type of genre they enjoy. By asking them whether they prefer action packed or slow and dramatic I can understand more about the type of music they prefer to hear, the action included, the number of characters and narrative used and the type of storylines included. For example, the fact that they like action packed trailers means that I need to include loud, fast paced music accompanied by fast shots of different characters to build up tension and make it look as though there is a lot going on.

Question 8

What would you like to see in a new soap?

I asked the audience this question to find out what my audience would like to see in a new soap. This information can help me because I can try and include what I know the audience want to see to make my product more creative and unique. When I asked my audience what they would like the see in a new soap, four of the people I asked all said they wanted to see younger characters, and two said they would like the soap to be more realistic. Other answers included a soap that surrounds friends more than family, with one person saying they want to see a combination of ‘drama, romance, death and murder’. This information shows me that my audience want to see a soap that has younger characters that are more realistic and relatable to them. They also want to see entertaining narratives that are unique and realistic to keep them interested.

Question 9

What is the best time of day to broadcast a soap if I were to make one and why?

It is important to ask my audience what time they would prefer to watch the show as I can then use this information to decide when I will broadcast the show to ensure all of my audience will be able to watch it. When asked this question, I got a number of different answers that included a range of times. Predominantly, most of the audience answered with times between 6 and 10. One answer in particular stated that they wanted to be able to watch the show after they had been to school or finished work, so I decided the best time to watch the soap was at 8:30pm. This ensures that most of my audience will be at home when the soap is on, meaning that more people are likely to tune in. This time is before the watershed which is appropriate as no content involved in our soap will be so inappropriate that it must be broadcast after the watershed.

Question 10

What are some of your favourite themes seen in soap trailers?

I gave my audience a choice of a number of different storylines and themes that have been used a number of times in many different soaps. These are conventional themes of the soap genre as they are dramatic and include lots of secrets that the audience can guess. By giving the audience a choice, I can understand what they enjoy and what I can include in my soap trailer to interest them and persuade them to watch the soap because they know that they like similar storylines.

My audience feedback showed me that the most popular soap with 16 choices is murder Mystery, followed by relationships with 15Choices. Alcohol abuse was also a popularChoice with 12 votes. This shows me thatThese are the most interesting storylines forMy audience and ones that I can try and Incorporate these into my trailer to make it More appealing. 0

5

10

15

20

NUMBER OF PEOPLE

Number of people