Target Audience and Production Distribution

  Throughout my blog postings, I have thoroughly discussed representation, the conventions of representation within the drama genre, and how I am challenging those conventions based on the research I have presented. Now, establishing the target audience of my production is important in order to further research what platforms are best for their outreach. The representational aspect is most vital, as young Black transgender women hardly ever see themselves on TV, and if they do it's rare that the representation is good representation. However, these women and girls won't be able to see it if I don't cater to a more general target audience on popular platforms within said audience.  For age range, my target audience would be heavily focused on Gen Z with some focus on Millenials. Though this is the target audience at a more general level than race and gender identity (and I will be doing research solely on platforms that cater to this target audience) I am hoping that a wide variety of people can see my piece, especially people who weren't aware of this epidemic of violence against these women, or people who have views that contribute to overall violence and hatred. I want people to see them humanized and in an intimate light, one that leaves them understanding that at the end of the day people are people and despite their differences to them that doesn't mean that they are any less deserving of safety, happiness, and basic human rights.

  Regarding how these productions are viewed, it is obvious that watching cable television is becoming less and less popular with newer generations in the consumption and viewing of various forms of media, films and TV shows especially. It's all about streaming, streaming, streaming! Instant gratification leaves us all impatient the minute an ad plays because we want the content we asked for right then and there. This applies for all media, not just film. People are willing to pay for premium memberships such as Spotify and Apple Music for endless skips, free access to any song without needing WiFi, and no advertisements, and within film people are subscribing to streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. Of course, it is also obvious that for upcoming amateur film makers and producers, these are not attainable goals for a very first production to get out there. So what are some ways to get your work out there on popular platforms that are still realistic?

YouTube

YouTube is the world's second largest social media platform, with over 500 hours of videos being uploaded every day and more than 1 billion hours of watching time every day. The popular age range of watching is about 18-24 years old, but now there is a wide variety of ages consuming it's content for a diverse set of reasons. Due to this, this would be a great platform to post my first production to gain an audience.

YouTube's History:

• On October 9th, 2006, it was announced that YouTube would be purchased by Google for $1.65 billion USD.
• The first advertisements rolled out in 2007, allowing for content creators to profit off of making videos by monetizing their videos.
• In May 2010, YouTube served more 2 billion views a day.
• In March 2013, YouTube was seeing over 1 billion active users monthly.

YouTube's Important User and Usage Statistics:

• 6 out of 10 people prefer online video platforms to live TV.
• By 2025,  half of viewers under 32 will not subscribe to a pay-TV service.
• 95% of American 18-24 year olds use YouTube in an average month.
• In 2015, 18-49 year olds spent 4% less time watching TV while time on YouTube went up 74%.
• YouTube can be navigated in a total of 80 different languages, covering 95% of the internet population.
• YouTube is watched at over 1 billion hours a day, more than Netflix and Facebook video combined.
• YouTube is the world's second largest search engine and second most visited site after Google.

         “57 Fascinating and Incredible YouTube Statistics.” Brandwatch,           www.brandwatch.com/blog/youtube-stats/.

Snapchat

  It may come as a surprise that Snapchat is landing on this list, as it is predominantly a social media
app. However, as of 2019, Snapchat came out with yet a new feature on its app called Snapchat
Originals, an extremely clever marketing strategy on their behalf considering their main consumers
are Gen Z, who also are more likely to stream shows and films, and it's all free for the consumers
while the people behind Snapchat and the collaborators for their Original shows profit majorly. It's a
win-win! Here are some statistics and facts regarding the success of these Snap Originals:

•          "Time spent watching shows on Snapchat has tripled this year alone"- Sean Mills, Snapchat VP of original content.
•          Over 18 shows reached monthly audiences of over 10 million viewers, 12 of which are original productions.
•          Originals are monetized by two or three six-second unskippable ads.
•          Reaction lenses make it easy and a fun, interactive way to interact with their show's biggest moments.

Constine, Josh. “Snapchat Becomes the Mobile HBO with 12 Daily Scripted Original Shows.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 10 Oct. 2018, techcrunch.com/2018/10/10/snapchat-originals/.

Vimeo

  Vimeo is an ad free, free video viewing platform and is one of YouTube's competitors. It 

became the first video platform to support high definition videos in 2007.  Vimeo allows 

users to upload and promote their videos with a degree of customization "not found on any 

similar service".

•         90 million registered members on Vimeo
•         170 million monthly viewers on Vimeo
•         20% of B2B marketers in North America use Vimeo to distribute content
•         710,000 of Vimeo users are on a premium membership
•         70% of Vimeo users live outside of the U.S.
•         42 million Vimeo users are in the U.S.
•         Vimeo has users in over 150 different countries
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Smith, Craig. “20 Interesting Vimeo Statistics.” DMR, 2 Feb. 2020, expandedramblings.com/index.php/vimeo-statistics/.

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