Audience Segmentation

Audience Segmentation:

Films and Video Games

To successfully create and release a film/video game, one must understand it's target audience before they are able to make any decisions. Audiences are usually divided by age and gender, in which producers usually take into consideration before launching their project. These factors play a pivotal role in shaping the outcome.

Age: As people get older, their tastes in movies evolve as well. This can affect many aspects of the movies they are drawn to, including (but not limited to) main characters, plot development, setting, and themes.

1-5 yrs: Children of early ages need to develop essential learning skills and knowledge, therefore shows like "Dora the Explorer" or "Little Einsteins" would be ideal. They are drawn to bright colors and high-energy scenes, without a lot of depth. 

6-10 yrs: Children of this age group tend to be more adventurous, diverting from traditional kids' shows to a more diverse selection entertainment options not intended exclusively for their age group e.g. Teen Titans, Call of Duty. Dialogue becomes more complex as their linguistic abilities develop, and characters can be more fleshed-out, such as Dexter from Dexter's Lab vs. Barney the dinosaur.

11-16 yrs: Perhaps the most diverse category as the transition from childhood to adolescence begins, Kids of these ages begin to appreciate more mature content, sharing a demographic with older audiences and their entertainment beginning verge on implicitly 'mature' themes of violence and sexuality such as "WWE", "Mortal Kombat", and "Minecraft"

17-21 yrs - Young adults take on fully-mature content with deep philosophical themes and meaningful entertainment that addresses contemporary political and social themes that diverge from the mainstream. e.g. Fight Club, Elder Scrolls, Telltale games. Nevertheless this demographic still generally prefers large quantities of action and actors with whom they can relate. 

Gender

Males - Typically more favored by the entertainment industry in general, with action films, patriotic dramas, mass market FPS' etc... Because they are the largest audience males have the widest preference in the industry.Which helps explain the popularity of superhero franchises like Avengers. Males also make up the majority of the gaming industry, driving it forward. As more and more people people take up video games, however, the trend is beginning to shift.

Females - Initially starting off as a more niche focus, female entertainment conventionally revolved around TV dramas (such as Gilmore Girls) and niche cartoons for young girls (My Little Pony). However over the years, females have been exposed to more general entertainment options originally
 tailored towards masculine audiences, and have become somewhat assimilated into the culture generally. Today, you have females playing video games like "Dark Souls", "COD" and "DOTA" alongside men, representing a large demographic of the gaming industry and entertainment in general.