Audience research

To gather information on our target audience, our group decided to create a survey on surveymonkey.com, the link to which can be found below. In order to get people to complete the survey, members of our group posted links to it on their Facebook pages. Because Facebook is mostly used by young adults, we reasoned this was a good way to make sure the survey was only filled in by our target audience.

Here is the survey:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WZVRKR9

The findings from our audience research are as follows:

• 60% of people completing the survey were male, 40% were female. This confirms that although, predominantly male-oriented, horror is watched by both genders.
• Almost everyone completing the survey was aged 15-24. This confirmed that our plan to use Facebook to find the correct age of audience worked.
• When asked on a scale of 1 to 5 how much they liked horror, most answered either 3 or 4. This confirmed that our audience enjoyed the genre, which meant that they would engage more when answering the questions.
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• We offered a list of horror sub-genres and asked our audience to choose their favorite. Paranormal horror scored the highest (probably influenced by Paranormal Activity), with Psychological horror a close second.
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• When asked whether directors, actors, franchise or companies would affect their decision to see a horror film, 62% said yes. This shows how much of an influence big name studios have in the film industry, and conversely how hard it is for a low-budget indie horror film to make an impact and gain an influence.
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• Given a list of what precise factors would persuade our audience to see a horror film, the majority answered "scariness", which was fairly obvious. However, the two second-highest choices were "actors", and "previous films". Again, this shows how much influence a well-known name has in the film industry, and how lucrative a franchise can be.
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• When asked what sort of location they would prefer a horror film to be set, the highest-scorer was "haunted buildings" with "urban" a close second. This seems to indicate that our audience believes enclosed environments are better for horror than open spaces.
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