CCR Question #2 Research

Hey blog!

Today I'm going to be researching for my second question of the Creative Critical Reflection. 

The second question is "Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences, and how would it be distributed as a real media text?" 

I think, like last time, the best way to research how to answer this question is by breaking it down into subquestions and then researching to answer them thoughtfully.

Here goes!

1. Who is our primary target audience, and which aspects of the film specifically cater to them?

Our primary target audience is teenagers and young adults (13-21 years old), particularly those interested in sports and humor.

A Pew Research Center survey shows that nearly half of US teens are "almost constantly" online, with platforms Youtube and Tiktok being the most popular among that group.

This implies that they prefer faster-paced, more engaging content. Earlier in the year, I also did research on teen audiences when doing research for my Music Video project and its persona, Richie Stein. One of Richie Stein's core values was authenticity because I found in my research that teens value authenticity and emotional depth.

Our film would be engaging to a teen audience because it balances humor with an emotionally grounded underdog story (I researched the "underdog effect" in my last post) and because it incorporates fast-paced storytelling and authenticity with its characters and their struggles.

It deals with a type of identity problem that certain teens may specifically struggle with, but the process of individuation itself is something that teens, young adults, and even adults alike all deal with, making it relatable.

2. How do we hook modern teen viewers with short attention spans right from the start?

Researchers at Microsoft found almost 10 years ago that our average attention span when consuming digital content was now 8 seconds. With the rise of short-form infinite scroll social media platforms like TikTok, I'd estimate that this has only reduced, and given the earlier research on how much US teens use these platforms as well as what I've observed myself, I'd say that in teens it's less than 8 seconds. 

To combat this, our film drops the audience right in the action opening in media res, which I explored in my blogs when researching approaches to filmmaking. We also have fast-paced editing, cutting quickly between movements and we employ unexpected humor with the actual airball, giving a "payoff" of sorts in the middle of our opening, rewarding the viewer and encouraging them to keep watching.

3. Which online platforms are best suited for distributing a student-created film?

Given that Airball is a student film, a theatrical release isn't initially realistic, and we'd focus on platforms with:

- A large teen audience

- Free to distribute

- Encourage engagement, community, sharing, etc.

This makes YouTube the obvious choice for a primary platform. It allows for free distribution, potential virality, and a video that's 2 minutes long in a horizontal format. The aforementioned Pew Research Survey also showed that it's the most used platform by teens.

However, to market our film we'd also use Tiktok and Instagram Reels to capture more of the teen audience and increase chances of going viral. Tiktok and Instagram are the second and third most used platforms by teens and make going viral simple. We could post clips from our film, behind the scenes, etc.

We could also submit our film to film festivals and gain exposure beyond social media.

4. What promotional strategies could drive viewers to actually watch and share the opening?

Leveraging social media by sharing funny clips from the movie is our best bet. Clips like the actual airball sequence and the subsequent reactions from the other players are actually funny and have potential to go viral. 

Once we get some money (whether that be from crowdfunding, ad revenue, sponsorships), we could even pay people to post clips on these shortform platforms on a CPM model. Instead of traditional advertising where CPMs (cost per thousand views) are a few dollars, we could pay a few cents per thousand views to creators and drive organic virality. 

Hopefully that's enough to answer Question 2, see you next time with Question 3!

Works Cited:

McSpadden, Kevin. “Science: You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span than a Goldfish.” Time, Time, 14 May 2015, time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/.

“Teens’ Social Media Use Remains High: What Can Parents Do?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/raising-humans-in-a-digital-world/202312/teens-social-media-use-remains-high-what-can-parents. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.

Valle, Gaby Del. “The Extremely Online Life of the American Teenager.” The Verge, The Verge, 12 Dec. 2024, www.theverge.com/2024/12/12/24319692/half-of-us-teens-almost-constantly-online-pew-research-poll.