This document summarizes primary research results from a survey about soap operas. The survey found that "Chalk Lane" and "The Block" were the most appealing potential names for a new soap opera. It was decided to name the soap opera "Chalk Lane" to give it a location. Most respondents said Hollyoaks was their favorite existing soap opera. The research also found that the target audience for soap operas is most likely ages 31-40, and that characters like the hero, villain or false hero are most appealing. Conflict and tension were seen as the most appealing type of storyline. The research provides guidance on how to design characters, plots, settings and marketing for a new soap opera.
1. Primary Research Results
Name: Maximilian Stainer
Candidate Number: 3138
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
Soap Opera Logo HERE
2. From this data, we can highlight that majority of the people were more appealed to the name ‘Chalk lane’ and
‘The Block’ as the soap opera name. This is positive as these were the names we wanted to use in the first
place and it is very reassuring that the majority of the public think it is the best name. However we have picked
‘Chalk Lane’. This is mainly because we thought that ‘The Block’ was too vague and we thought it would be
more appealing if we added a location to it.
What do you think is a suitable name for a soap opera?
3. What is your favourite soap opera?
From this bar chart it is clear that most of the people who took this survey thought Hollyoaks is their favourite soap
opera. This may be because of the younger audience who took part in this survey, however it is beneficial data. This
is because by seeing what is the most popular soap opera is we can research into Hollyoaks and look at the types of
plots they have or their marketing that appeals to most of the target audience. Therefore we can use this and appeal
to the wider audience.
4. What age range do you think most watch soap operas?
The results from this graph highlights that there is a small gap between 16-20, 21-30 and 31-40. However we can justify
why 31-40 may be the highest is because they may have more time and around 7pm (Standard time for soap opera)
they are watching TV. In conclusion, this data is significant as it allows myself to further research ways to make this soap
opera appeal to this target audience.
5. What type of character would appeal most to you in a soap opera?
As we can see from the bar chart, the hero, the villain and the false hero have to most appealing feature to the
audience. This highlights that the audience is more appealed to the main protagonist and in particular those who are
more deceptive. As a result of this, we can take advantage of this by making the hero, villain or false hero have more
exposure in trailer or n the poster to appeal to those who prefer these type of characters.
6. What dilemmas would appeal to you the most in a soap opera?
As we can identify the most voted dilemma the audience would find the most appealing is conflict/ tension. This was
not a surprising result as all soap operas revolve around conflict or tension between certain characters. This would
build suspense for the audience, which will captivate them and keep them intrigued to watch the next episode. It
also highlights that we should may do less or nothing around marriage/ divorce as there is no votes, which will
further remain our audience captivated.
7. Have you ever been persuaded to watch a soap opera before, if yes which
one?
The bar chart here illustrates that more people were persuade to watch Hollyoaks than any other soap opera. These
results reveal that Hollyoaks may have used an effective trailer, poster or any other marketing methods to attract
their target audience in order to persuade them into watching their soap opera. In response to this we should once
again analyse Hollyoaks’ marketing methods and re create it in our project to aim at that wider target audience.
8. Has a magazine front cover or poster ever appealed to you to watch the
soap opera?
From the data portrayed on the bar chart, it displays that more people said that a poster had never appealed to them
to watch a soap opera. This may suggest that in the production of the poster for our poster, we would need to make it
very original and different to stand out to the audience in to watching our soap opera.
9. How often do you watch soap operas?
The bar chart reveals that majority of the audience either don’t watch soap opera or watch it once a week. This
signifies that the soap opera genre may not appeal to the younger audience and therefore in order to appeal to the
wider audience we would need to match what would appeal to the certain age group who particularly watch the soap
opera genre.
10. What setting in a soap opera would captivate you the most?
The bar chart conveys that most people would think a school for the setting would captivate them the most. This is
very helpful as we could use the school as the main setting of the soap opera ‘Chalk Lane’ however it will be hard to
find a way to include it in some of the plots. Although, the school setting would be original and therefore captivate
the audience.
11. What features from a trailer would persuade you to watch a soap opera?
With assistance of this bar chart stating that most people think that a mystery would be the most persuasive to
watch the soap opera, it allows myself to exploit this and include this mysterious dilemma more in the trailer in
order to appeal to the wider audience. As well as this, it infers that I should focus less on character development
and multiple other dilemmas.
