Knowing your audience

I've talked before about the importance of knowing your audience prior to embarking on your marketing journey. Knowing your audience is one thing, understanding them is an entirely different activity and one not to be underestimated.

It sounds like an extremely obvious statement, but it's so easy to assume that simply by identifying your audience, you'll speak to them in the right way. But it's not only the tone of voice that needs to be considered, it's planning the platform for communication, the method of delivery, the content you create... every single thing starts with fully understanding your audience to the point of embodiment. And it is so easy to fall victim to assuming you know them, we've all done it.

An exceptional example of fully encapsulating the audience is the new Netflix series, Bridgerton.

At initial glance, it's a period romantic drama, so it would be easy to roll out the treatment from, say, Downton Abbey, recent reworks of Emma and Little Woman, right? Wrong.

What Netflix and production company, Shondaland, have achieved, by fully knowing their audience from day dot, is a unique reaction to a contemporary take on the traditional period piece. From introducing foreground BAME actors, clever casting choices (Nicola Coughlan), a more "gossip-girl" take on period London, to the genius score of classical covers of modern songs - it is not your 'usual' approach to 19th Century storytelling...

These choices have culminated in creating a cacophony of content creation opportunities and cultural take-aways.

BBC Radio One's Greg James hosted a brief feature on the orchestral covers from Bridgerton, and he's not alone. It's inspired countless Spotify playlists, including my personal favourite, for the title alone, "Pretending to be the diamond of this year's wedding season".

A brief search on TikTok will tell you that the drama has inspired costume choices of today's society, in fact, you'll find that the wardrobe department has given online retailers an opportunity to jump on the horse-drawn wagon with popular stores like Shein offering the height of 19th Century fashion for today's consumer.

It's not just the fashion of Bridgerton that you'll find on TikTok. You might have read (Dec 2020) about the triumph of the TikTok user-generated 'Ratatouille - the musical' (if not, click here), well you're about to see the sequel, with musical fans adapting the screenplay of Bridgerton to create their own stage version, already attracting input from the likes of West-End famed Carrie Hope Fletcher.

My point being, Bridgerton could have easily been 'another period drama', but by establishing its audience and weaving this through the script, casting, and costume, it's taken on a life of its own, with 63 million households tuning in within the first 4 weeks, setting it on track to become one of Netflix's most-watched original series.

In an era of user-generated content that has the ability to transform your business, fully embodying your audience in your product is a true gift with endless potential.