TARGET AUDIENCE:

AGE:
Through observations of animated TV shows, I have been able to note that the
vast
majority of my favourites have a
target audience of young adults.
Family Guy, King of the Hill and
Beavis and Butthead all have age
ratings of at least fifteen. This provides
the creators with the scope to
investigate a more diverse range of
subject matter and have more
sophisticated-and occasionally crudethemes running through their work.
This is something that I wish to
utilise; I do not wish to simply rely
on toilet humour but be able to introduce satire and mockeries of current
affairs/people of the moment. This will require the audience to be of at least
sixteen as they may not be able to fully comprehend the jokes, and storylines. An
example of this could be how South Park parodies YouTube1. The viewers will
typically be past the age where they habitually watch videos on the
aforementioned platform, giving them license to laugh at the exaggerated alteregos of the personalities and, in a sense, the interests of their former selves.
My focus group agreed with this, with one noting that sixteen and seventeen
year olds and up could handle the graphic content and the potential for violence
better than those below this range as they may become scared and frightened
by the content. The second speaker corroborated this by saying how they felt
that sixteen onwards as although it appears to be something that a child would
watch, at first glance, it is actually rather mature and would be difficult for the
younger viewer to handle. Knowing this gave me a better understanding of how I
should structure the piece and what style of horror and humour would be
appropriate. Because of the higher age boundary, I will be able to incorporate
more gruesome fight scenes/general gore, slightly stronger language and
references to pop-culture etc. Ultimately, it is not set to be an incredibly mature
piece, but just sophisticated enough that it largely appeals to those conforming
to these codes.
GENDER:
It was a subconscious decision to have an all-male character base, and I believe
that this will be reflected in the viewers-there will be less women watching than
men. Statistically speaking, 56.6% of series regulars are male 2, indicating that
my choice was not as unusual as I anticipated. This, coupled with the dry, dark
humour I intend to incorporate, will also push the male viewership up. Again,
members of this sex have a preference for horror and comedy, outnumbering
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL5LUKJCG5c
2 http://www.indiewire.com/article/breaking-down-gender-diversity-on-tv-justhow-many-women-are-on-broadcast-dramas-anyway-20151020

females 11:10 and 2:1 respectively 3. This issue will not present itself in terms of
the casting; to recreate a pubescent and high pitched voice, a female will be
hired to play the role of Bryan, much like Tara Strong voicing Ben in Ben 10 or
Nancy Cartwright playing Bart Simpson in The Simpsons.
deduction

Again, the focus group agreed with this

stating that post-apocalyptic stuff is usually
targeted at members of the male sex as
they are more inclined to seek out
products which are more gruesome and graphic as
means of displaying their masculinity. Whilst it is
useful to have an insight into which gender will
make up the largest portion of the fan base, I do
not wish to exclude or alienate women. In the
interests of this, and as a female myself, I will not
be making any sexist comments or neglecting
character development in favour of mindless
action/crudeness. I will, however, utilise their
preferences so that the
final
project
is
as
appealing to everyone as
possible, but streamlined
to resonate with those
possessing
the
characteristics outlined in
this document.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUP:
As The Adventures of Pigeuo and Bryan will be most appealing to young adults,
their socio-economic status will reflect this. One of the members of the interview
noted how Group E students would be the primary audience watching the
program. They elaborated by saying how the young people would potentially
have parents who paid for the channels that it was to broadcasted on-something
later that was later suggested to be FOX, by the same group-or have access to
any subscriptions. Having this collection of individuals viewing corresponds with
the target age and media trends at this point in time; studies have shown that
youths spend approximately 2.1 hours watching television a day-this is not an
awfully long period so the short episodes of my product will be able to slot
perfectly into this session. Further validating this focus group comment, 38%
download their programming, with 60% proceeding to view it on a tablet, laptop
or mobile phone4. This not only informs me that I should make The Adventures
of available on as many platforms as possible but introduces the second
recipients beliefs. Unlike the first respondent, they felt that groups B, C2 and E
would be inclined to view. As these will mostly be individuals in a position to
afford the channels/additional services and devices, I will broaden the target
socio-economic group from just students so as to garner the most interest as
3 http://mypersonality.org/wiki/doku.php?id=movie_tastes_and_personality
4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35399658

possible; with Netflixs surge of popularity (it exceeds 75 million customers 5),
many could discover this show through browsing. This also links to another
mention by the same speaker in the focus group; the status she has claimed
would watch the show the most, all have the time to do so, be it making a
conscious decision or on a whim; unlike the upper classes, they will not be as
restricted by their vocations and are able to engage with the content and
platforms more thoroughly.
LIFESTYLE:

5 http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/19/10790282/netflix-q4-2015-earnings

The episodes of The Adventures of Pigeuo and Bryan will be largely consecutive,
with new developments or information being attained in each installment. As
such, viewers should not have an extremely busy lifestyle; to gain the most from
the programme, they must be able to watch regularly in some format, i.e. on the
television, or on Video on Demand; this reflects the necessity for the socioeconomic group to be in the B, Cs and E(students) range. In terms of their
ethnicity, it was unanimous that they would be white British/American, as well as
being straight. This gave me an insight into how best to represent the
characters; the
main cast will
possess these
traits, although they will not be used as plot devices. Additionally, this is not to
say that I will not introduce more personalities as time goes on that do not have
these attributes. Based on
a
response
from
a
previous survey, we can
infer
that a large portion of the viewers will have some
interest
in
video
games.
Stylistically, this was the look I
was aiming
for;
I
wanted
to
recreate
the
intimidation
that we can feel when faced with a
new Boss
or the like. As such, these products
will be a
large influence for me, and
a possible
lifestyle habit for the audience.
Understanding that the viewers will
likely
be
young and educated, I wish to
challenge the conventions of the
shows
that they will typically watch; like King of
the Hill, I want The
Adventures of Pigeuo and Bryans heart and
humanity to be what makes it humorous, and how it satirises the absurdity of
everyday life6. Furthering the belief that this would be relevant to the gaming
community is how three in four console owners use it access non-gaming content
at least once a week7, with 39% watching TV on their device and an additional
13% on handheld consoles8. Adverts created for these platforms could
emphasise the links between my product and the computer culture.
LOCATION:
Based on the socio-economic status of probable target audience, we can infer
that there location will suburban; they will mostly be living in the areas
surrounding the larger towns/cities9. When we consider that the adults in the B to
6 http://www.avclub.com/article/10-episodes-that-made-iking-of-the-hilli-one-ofth-99687
7 http://www.windowscentral.com/new-study-shows-consoles-xbox-one-leadaccessing-non-gaming-internet-content
8 http://www.iabuk.net/news/33-million-uk-game-players
9 http://www.wikidifference.com/difference-between-urban-and-suburban/

C2 socio-economic range will most

likely
be
earning
between
(approximately)
47,000
and
29,000, post tax10, we can
envision the viewers of The
Adventures
of
having
a
comfortable home, with older
children (most of the people in
these
categories
will
be
established). At the other end of
the spectrum, however, we have
the students who will be earning
significantly less and will still likely be residing with their parents, in the
aforementioned neighbourhoods. As such, we can learn that in order to help the
viewers emotionally resonate with the issues presented on the show, the
environments should recognisable; destroyed, suburban landscapes should be a
recurring theme. This will introduce a sense of familiarity and realism that would
not be possible to attain if it were only gated communities that were being
featured.

10 http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britain-now-divided-seven-classes1806186