Target Audience Research for Film

PostersRobert Henderson

The target audience we intended to appeal to with our teaser trailer was young males aged between 15 to 35 as it’s an action trailer. I believe they look for conventions of this genre within the posters that promote their respective films so they can understand that they’ll enjoy this film. Other things I predict our target audience finds appealing within a poster is a bold art style, a sincere but relatable looking protagonist, minimal looking background and general lack of clutter. Posters such as the Spectre one are great examples of this minimal but bold look which appeals to a target audience very similar to ours. Other examples of a similar style include films such as mission impossible and the Bourne Supremacy. These posters have a similar style which I intend to take inspiration from when I get around to making my poster. However, to make sure that these posters do in fact appeal to my target audience, I will conduct a questionnaire with my target audience to make sure that they find this type of poster appealing. I hope to learn what my target audience looks for within a poster and how I can properly utilise conventions and styles to make sure that my poster appeals to the target audience.

Introduction

I asked to get an idea of the gender of the person doing the questionnaire. As my target audience for my production I believe to be mostly males, this will help me have a greater understanding of if the person doing my questionnaire is apart of my target audience.

Question 1

This question will also allow me to have a greater understanding of if the person doing the questionnaire is a part of my target audience. If the answer is anywhere between 18 to 44, they’re a part of my core target audience

Question 2

This question will also help me understand if the person doing the questionnaire is a part of my target audience.

Question 3

This question will help me to understand what to prioritise most in terms of polishing specific elements of my poster.

Question 4

I’m hoping that this question will help me understand what my target audience looks for in in a poster and why this is the case. As I find this poster inspirational for my personal one, whatever they like within this poster, I’ll try to utilise this within my own one.

Question 5

When I shared the question, I decided to target people who are within my predicted target audience more than the normal public. However, I did still include people outside of my target audience to make sure that I have a greater understanding of what each person likes within posters to make sure it’s universally appealing. 12 people answered my question as a whole, and 9 of them were male and the other 3 were female.

Results: Gender Analysis

6 of the people who did this questionnaire were aged 18 to 24. 5 others were aged 12 to 17 and one aged between 45 to 54. Unfortunately, this question did not wield results that were optimal in terms of what I was looking for. People who answered 12 to 17 does not give me a clear idea of there specific age which is an issue as if they’re 15 to 17, they’re still apart of my target audience. But apart from this, the question has helped me concisely understand which people are a part of my target audience.

Results: Age Analysis

5 people answered action as there favourite genre; 2 answered Adventure; 2 answered Drama; 1 answered Thriller; 1 answered documentaries and 1 answered Sci-Fi. 4 out of the 5 people who put action as they’re favourite genre were male, but with varying ages. Interesting, the 4 other males also put Action within there top 3. This means therefore that I will be focusing on the 4 men more than the others for the next two questions to make sure I understand completely what my target audience look for in a poster.

Results: Favourite Genre Analysis

It seems interestingly that everyone universally looks out for the main image most, with the style typically being second, with this also being the case with my target audience. This means therefore I will make sure that I pay great attention within my poster in terms of making the style bold and aesthetically pleasing, and also the main image being eye catching and something that reflects on the teaser trailer quite well.

Results: Film Poster Elements Analysis

Most people except for one said they liked this poster. One pointed out that it was too bland and not eye catching enough with it’s grey background. However, the other 11 believed that this minimal style infact benefitted the poster and made it more bold and easy to look at, and with such a recognisable actor, this poster would catch a persons attention. Within my own poster, I am now going to try to achieve a middle ground in terms of having both a minimal look whilst also having a bold style as the main actor is not significant enough to sell the movie by itself.

Results: Film Poster Example Analysis

Overall, this questionnaire has helped have a greater understanding of what my target audience is looking for within a poster. It also has helped me generate some concepts of how to create a poster which appeals a lot to my target audience.

Conclusion