Targeting Content

There has been a lot of talk on the blogosphere, in the media and in the pub (well not so much in the pub) about targetting content and the focus of blogs, websites, newspapers, radio stations and television channels.

There are a number of ways a media service can be targetted, these include by age group, by gender, by race, by taste, by content type, by location or by hair colour.

In the last few years the more traditional media (tv and radio specifically) has focused on hitting the more general demographic target – for instance – BBC THREE is going for men or women in their mid-twenties who like going out but also have a young family.

It does this by having a selection of comedies like Ideal, Two Pints, Grown Ups and The Smoking Room that focus on the lives of young people, by having parenting shows like Honey We’re killing the kids, Little Angels and House of Tiny Tearaways and by having a look and feel that is funky, fresh and fast.

BBC FOUR on the other hand is going for people in their 50s and 60s who like good wine, travelling the world, the theatre and classical music.

They do this by showing classic comedies like Yes, Minister, showing theatre performances, having a selection of documentaries on anything from wine and war to wildlife and architecture. They also have a much more restrained continuity than BBC THREE with landscapes, soothing music and simple graphics.

Other stations do similar things, BBC Radio 1 is going for teenagers and does it with punchy continuity, ‘big’ personality presenters who speak fast, act stupid and listen to the Arctic Monkeys. BBC Radio 4 has no music in their continuity but people with a strong, clear, authoritive voice.

Most blogs tend to take a specific content approach, so one blog would talk specifically about Web 2.0, another about new music and a third about the lack of polar bears in Africa.

I’m going to try and apply the television approach to Up Your Ego, we’re going for people that will primarily be intelligent, into wine, travel, classical music and theatre but equally into alternative music, sky diving, new media and television.

These people tend to be open minded but opinionated and most interstingly and ironically given the point of this page are individuals that don’t subscribe to a demographic. The BBC calls this group Big Britain and apparently there are 20 million of you in the UK alone.

Key common values of this group are being down to earth, having a world view, desiring change, valuing wisdom, having integrity and being positive.

The real blog approach

Then again that could all be a lot of nonsense and instead of worrying about who might be reading, I could just be writing articles about things that interest me and then hoping someone else is interested enough to read it.

That’s really the blog approach.