B2 Productions: Who Are Your Avatars?
Imagine I have a client who wants a promotional video for a children’s board game they developed. They want to show how interactive and educational their game is and they also want people to pick this game over the thousands of games on the market. What’s my first step?
Before I start thinking about the concept, camera angles, talent or crew I ask my client “Who are we making this video for?” Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of thought put into a client’s ideal audience and other times I am underwhelmed by how little they have thought about the end viewer; ya know, the person they are ultimately trying to reach.
In the entrepreneurial and marketing circles, your ideal viewer may sometimes be referred to as your Avatar. Although the origin of the word can be linked to early Hinduism, more recently (let’s say 30 years) the term has been used in the gaming world to embody your “on-screen representation” -thanks Wiki. For my purposes, I use the word Avatar to represent my ideal client…the person I imagine will watch my show or buy my stuff.
In the case of the board game, I would say my Avatar is a married woman in her mid thirties with 2 children. I’m going to call her Jane. Jane is middle/upper class and cares about her children’s education and that they are not watching too much T.V. She shops at Sprouts and does a fair amount of online shopping as well.
We’ve already established that I think pre-production (specifically the script) is where most of your focus should go, but defining your Avatar trumps even the script. Why? Because if you don’t have a good handle on who your viewer is, how can you write a script that connects with them.
IT’S NOT FOR EVERYONE!
Did you notice how I named my Avatar? I named her because when it comes to scripting I’m going to write for Jane. I’m going to try to appeal to her as a parent and a selective consumer. It’s o.k. if I make up a few more Avatars, like a fourth grade teacher (Evan) or even the children themselves (Sam and Katie). I want to encourage you to dig deeper and beyond “This game is for everyone” because if you try to market to everyone you may not make an impact on anyone.