Entertainment Licensing & Branding Blog

When I ask creators of entertainment product, "Who is your
target audience?"  Most would reply with consumers of a certain range,
say, 'children 4 to 12' or 'Males 14 and above'. 

I respond with, "Yes, that is your final public target audience
objective to have your product reach, but the REAL initial audience
are buyers of products like yours. Because if you can't convince
them to take your product, the public audience will never be
introduced to your entertainment project."

So, if the true audience for your projects or screenplays are the
producers, studio executives and their other advisers they surround
themselves with. You must ensure that they enjoy the story, packaging
and come to an agreement that the public viewing audience will enjoy
the entertainment product too.

This is true too for products that need to get a buyer to purchase
your product and put it on a shelf so that consumers have the chance
to see and buy it.  Sales representatives, wholesalers, distributors
and others in the chain of marketing.

When you come up with an idea, get opinions on it from the closest
person you know to the immediate buying audience (production crew,
agents, lower management at companies you would love to have read,
review and buy your product).  If they like it, they may hand it off
to someone they know in a better position to get it made.

I personally know of a writer who hands out his screenplays to who
ever will read them and on occasion, after several years, sometimes
someone in the industry becomes interested. Then it is revealed later
that a friend of a friend gave the script to someone else who liked
it and passed it to an assistant producer who handed it to a director
they knew, until finally it was optioned by a producer.  

In the end the story and writing quality drove the product towards
its REAL audience/market - someone who can make the entertainment
product.  So make sure you are writing for these readers.  

This selling draft will need to be directed to producers not the
viewing audience. The screenplay directed to the final target audience
the viewers, will be written from the original version that was sold.
Many rewrites will be done to ensure the end viewers will enjoy the
show.

So look at your entertainment vehicle (script/product) as two parts.
One draft is for selling the script to industry professionals and the
second is for the target public audience.  Kind of a two phase
approach.

Impress the buyers first is the key.

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Tags: ebook, Licensing, Real Audience, Sandford Tuey, writing