The document summarizes the results of a survey about audience preferences for soap operas. Key findings include: - EastEnders is the most popular soap, followed by Hollyoaks and Emmerdale. Neighbours, Home and Away, and Doctors received no responses. - The majority watch soaps every night and prefer storylines involving mysteries like murders. - Audiences want soap trailers to show characters, drama, and gossip while using exciting music to build tension. They prefer action-packed trailers over slow ones. - Trailers should not be overly dramatic, focus too much on one character/storyline, or use too many transitions. Younger, more realistic characters and storylines are

1. Audience Profile-
results of my survey

2. I carried out a survey using surveymonkey.com which
asked my audience questions about their favourite soaps
and why they liked then. This information can help me to
understand what they like to see in a soap and what I can
include in my trailer to ensure they find it entertaining.

3. Question 1
Do you watch soaps?
I asked my target audience to check the selection that applied to them in this question as I
wanted to see which gender watched soaps the most. This is important as I can use this
information when planning my trailer to try and make it appeal to both audiences. As females
are the ones who watch soaps the most, more female characters can be featured and the
storylines can be based around female issues like teenage pregnancy. However, because the
number of males who watch soaps is low, I can try and use my product to appeal to more males,
making it more unique and interesting. I can do this by including more storylines that appeal to
males as it appears that at the minute they are not finding present soaps interesting because
they do not watch them. To understand what storylines I can include I can carry out more
personal information using a focus group where I can ask them what they like and dislike and
what is important to them.

4. Question 2
What is your favourite soap?
58%21%
10%
11%
0%
0%
0%
Number of people
Eastenders
Hollyoaks
Emmerdale
Coronation Street
Neighbours
Home and Away
Doctors
The results from this question showed
me that Eastenders was the most
popular soap with over 50% of the
audience choosing it, followed by
Hollyoaks at 21% and then Emmerdale
and Coronation Street. My results also
showed me that Neighbours, Home
and Away and Doctors all received no
responses in this survey. This suggests
that my audience do not like these
types of soaps as they are too tailored
to a specific target audience, as doctors
is based around characters working in a
hospital and neighbours and home
away are based in Australia, meaning
that their environment and lifestyle
differs from those audience members
living in England.

5. Question 3
How often do you watch this soap?
For this question, I gave my audience a choice of when they watch the soap they like. This question
can help to give me an idea of how strong the fan base for soaps is and how many times a week I
could show my soap. By understand how much my audience watch soaps can help me to make a
decision as to how many characters and storylines I should include, as if my audience only watch
the show every so often it will be too hard to keep up to date with what is going on in the multi
strand narrative.
My survey showed me that the majority of my
audience watch soaps every night, with 9 out of
the 22 people I asked saying they watched it
every night. 3 of my audience watch soaps
every other night, and 4 of them watch them
every now and then. This means that my soap
needs to include a multi strand narrative and
some sort of mystery storyline to make the
viewers tune in every night to find out the next
part of the puzzle.
9
3
1
1
4
0 2 4 6 8 10
Every night
Every other night
Twice a week
Three times a week
Every now and then
Number of people
Number of people

6. The audience stated that the majority of storylines they enjoy are murder mystery storylines. These include the Lucy Beale murder
mystery, Coronation Streets Tina murder, Fraser Blacks sudden death in Hollyoaks and Belles confession to killing her best friend.
These storylines were mentioned by a few different audience members, with Lucy Beale’s murder mystery being voted the most
interesting storyline eight times! This shows that my audience enjoy a story with an enigma as they can become more involved
because they want to try and solve the mystery from the facts shown to them in the soap. By including a similar storyline in my
trailer I can ensure that my audience will be interested in it because they have liked similar narrative in the past, so will be
persuaded to tune into the soap to find out what happens.
Other storylines that proved interesting were Peri’s pregnancy, Lachlan’s kidnapping and the story that was shown on Eastenders a
few years ago about Ronnie and her daughter Danielle. These storylines all feature characters of a similar age, and the fact that the
audience can remember then shows that they are memorable and entertaining for them. I could think about including similar
storylines in mine as the audience can clearly relate to the storylines and feel that they are not too unrealistic because they chose
to watch them.
Question 4
What storylines have interested you recently and why?

7. Question 5
What do you expect to find from a soap trailer?
When asked what they expect from a soap trailer, my
target audience replied with a range of answers. I
used them to make a word art image that I can use
during the planning process. This can help to ensure
that I include things that I know my audience want to
see.
My target audience said that they expected to see
things like characters lives, lies, gossip and drama in
the trailer which are all conventional themes from
the TV drama genre. They also said that they wanted
to see the information about when the soap is on
including in the trailer, and I can present this using
iconography from my channel. They also wanted to
hear loud, exciting music that will build up tension,
so I decided to use the track Shot Yourself in The
Foot Again by Example, as this song fits with the
genre and what the audience want to hear. The
audience also enjoy big storylines that they find
gripping and persuade them to watch the soap itself.

8. Question 6
Do you like action packed trailers or slow, dramatic trailers?
Action
Packed
68%
Slow and
dramatic
14%
Skipped
18%
NUMBER OF PEOPLEFor this question, it was without a doubt that
most of my target audience prefer trailers that
are action packed. The other 3 audience
members said they preferred slow and
dramatic trailers, whilst 4 people skipped the
question altogether as they had said they did
not like soaps at all. This information is
valuable as I can see what type of trailer will
appeal to the largest number of audience
members and what type of genre they enjoy.
By asking them whether they prefer action
packed or slow and dramatic I can understand
more about the type of music they prefer to
hear, the action included, the number of
characters and narrative used and the type of
storylines included. For example, the fact that
they like action packed trailers means that I
need to include loud, fast paced music
accompanied by fast shots of different
characters to build up tension and make it look
as though there is a lot going on.

9. Question 7
What do you dislike about soap trailers?
I asked the audience this question as it is important that as well
as understanding what they do like, I know what they don’t like
so that I don’t include it in the trailer and make it less appealing
to the audience. These features have already been used in the
soap before and the audience have not liked them, so it would
not make sense to include them in mine as I want to make my
trailer unique and appealing to my audience.
The results showed me that the audience do not like trailers that
are too over dramatic and unrealistic, so I need to ensure that
my trailer is based around realism and features storylines that
the audience feel they can relate to which makes them more
realistic. They also do not like a story with focus on one
character or one storyline, so I will try to incorporate a multi-
strand narrative to make it more interesting. They also do not
like the use of lots of transitions as it makes them look less
realistic and they also do not like it when the storylines are too
confusing, so I must ensure that the action are easy to follow
and understand for the audience.

10. Question 8
What would you like to see in a new soap?
I asked the audience this question to find out what my audience would like to see in a new soap. This information
can help me because I can try and include what I know the audience want to see to make my product more
creative and unique. When I asked my audience what they would like the see in a new soap, four of the people I
asked all said they wanted to see younger characters, and two said they would like the soap to be more realistic.
Other answers included a soap that surrounds friends more than family, with one person saying they want to see
a combination of ‘drama, romance, death and murder’. This information shows me that my audience want to see
a soap that has younger characters that are more realistic and relatable to them. They also want to see
entertaining narratives that are unique and realistic to keep them interested.

11. Question 9
What is the best time of day to broadcast a soap if I were to make one and why?
It is important to ask my audience what time they would prefer to watch the show as I can then use this
information to decide when I will broadcast the show to ensure all of my audience will be able to watch it. When
asked this question, I got a number of different answers that included a range of times. Predominantly, most of
the audience answered with times between 6 and 10. One answer in particular stated that they wanted to be
able to watch the show after they had been to school or finished work, so I decided the best time to watch the
soap was at 8:30pm. This ensures that most of my audience will be at home when the soap is on, meaning that
more people are likely to tune in. This time is before the watershed which is appropriate as no content involved
in our soap will be so inappropriate that it must be broadcast after the watershed.

12. Question 10
What are some of your favourite themes seen in soap trailers?
I gave my audience a choice of a number of different storylines and themes that have been used a number of
times in many different soaps. These are conventional themes of the soap genre as they are dramatic and include
lots of secrets that the audience can guess. By giving the audience a choice, I can understand what they enjoy
and what I can include in my soap trailer to interest them and persuade them to watch the soap because they
know that they like similar storylines.
My audience feedback showed me that the
most popular soap with 16 choices is murder
Mystery, followed by relationships with 15
Choices. Alcohol abuse was also a popular
Choice with 12 votes. This shows me that
These are the most interesting storylines for
My audience and ones that I can try and
Incorporate these into my trailer to make it
More appealing.
0
5
10
15
20
NUMBER OF PEOPLE
Number of people