Mini Research Project- Focus Group

I asked a random group of 5 people in the class of mixed to watch Zoella’s channel trailer which you see on the homepage of her channel before you subscribe and I gave them a list of questions to answer after watching it. I was unaware of who did and didn’t know who Zoella is and whether they were familiar with her videos.

The group all decided that Zoe’s target audience are females from the age of about 12 upwards who’re interested in style and fashion but she also appeals to people, male or female, who enjoy watching humorous clips on youtube as she collaborates with other Youtubers whose content may appeal to them more for example Tyler Oakley and Caspar Lee.

I asked the group if the one minute long trailer for Zoe’s trailer makes them want to see what else she has to offer and everyone said yes, even the males which I wasn’t expecting. The aim of Zoe’s channel trailer is to get people interested in what she has to offer with the intention of hopefully persuading them to subscribe. I think that the trailer has definitely succeeded as the people in my focus group who weren’t previously familiar with Zoella would be interested in watching more of her videos. The focus group also all said that they would recommend Zoe’s videos to someone they know who fits the criteria of Zoe’s target audience, being young females interested in style.

As creators of Youtube content are becoming increasingly more popular with mainly a younger audience I wanted to see whether watching a short Youtube video which is at an average of 10 minutes, is more appealing than a TV series that is an average of 8 episodes at 1 hour each. All five members of the focus group said yes, they would rather watch a short Youtube clip because it requires less of an attention span and the excitement usually happens throughout rather than a long build up.

I was interested to know how people would describe how Zoe is as a personality on her Youtube channel. I asked each member of the focus group to describe Zoella using three words, the words that were given were:

• Fun
• Friendly
• Positive
• Cute
• Funny
• Interesting
• Helpful
• Amazing
• Fresh
• Original
• Outstanding

I am not surprised with the words that have been used to describe Zoe as the trailer displays her in a very positive, fun and welcoming way. Despite Zoe being a stunning and typically beautiful girl, everyone in the focus group focused more on aspects of her personality when describing her which to me shows that it’s not just her aesthetic that makes her appealing and that her online content is genuinely helpful and inspiring to her viewers.