Audience research

Today's topic of discussion was about demographic research and how to capture your audience in your field of interest. The task was to analyse and determine the audience that is usually found in the field you are persueing, in my case it is animation. So I will deduce some key facts around where the demographic for animation generally are laid.

Demographic: The audience for animation is generally targeted towards younger people, primarily young teens and children. However, animation has become a key selling point for advertisement and business are incorporating animation in their advertisement campaign to make their products or services more appealing to their customers. In my case for animation, which is 2D based hand drawn animation, my demographic would be suitable for younger based audience who are generally much easier to showcase the work that is being presented. 

Sociographic: Further elaboration for the audience can be broken down by analysing their social behaviour. Generally speaking, animation are suited for children and young teens who are students are growing up with many aspirations in mind. It is not uncommon to see children being inspired by certain individual or character which is why animation is a prime example where this audience would work well.

An example I would like to give is a specific genre that has been created in the Japanese animation industry which is called Shounen anime. Shounen animes are those specific series are primarily aimed towards young teens from 13 years or older. These specific shows are geared towards stylistic animation with addition of good narration as well. However, because with the story being action-packed, drama and driven by good narration, consequently the series ultimately opens up to much larger audience than it is intended to.

One example of a Shounen series is Demon Slayer (2019), where the main protagonist's age is mirroring that of the audience it is geared towards. The main protagonist starts off at the age of 13 till the end where he is shown as a 16 year old. This natural progression of character and story development is another aspect of the audience willing to stick to the series because it reflects on basic life development and something to which they can relate to.

Reference:

Demon Slayer. 2019. [TV Series] Directed by H. Sotozaki. Japan: Ufotable.