1. Audience Profiling –
The LaFontaines
Chloe Ward

2. Profiling
I created a survey on Survey Monkey, and I
have contacted some people who are fans
of the band on Twitter. I set a target of ten
responses.
Although this will not be wholly
representative, this will give me a slight
insight into their fan base.

3. Gender
I took a look through The LaFontaines Twitter
page and took a random sample of 100 followers.
• From this, I found that there was somewhat
of a gender divide, although it was not too
severe; there were 38 male fans in the
sample to 62 female fans. I was surprised to
see this as I had always felt that the band
was fairly gender neutral, if not more suited
towards males.
• The results from my survey supported this,
with 7 out of my 10 respondents being female
and the other 3 male. I think I may have had
a less gender biased result if my survey had
been more publicised. I had difficulty in
finding an appropriate medium to share my
survey on, and mainly relied on people I
followed on Twitter who I knew were fans. I
also asked some of my friends, of which two
were male and two female.

4. Gender and my video
I don't think that this will affect what I have
planned to do in my music video, however.
Although the central focus of it is male, I
don't think it would disengage a female
audience. I am trying to convey a universal
message. There will be some female
characters in my video, unlike The
LaFontaines original video for 'Light Up The
Background' which was featured men quite
heavily.

5. Age
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Again, my expectations were slightly off for the
target audience. It emerged that a majority of
The LaFontaines fans were actually in the 1317 age bracket (50%). The second largest
group was 18-24 year olds, which is the group I
had expected to be the largest.
This actually seems to fit better with the actor I
have in mind for my music video - he is now 16
years old and therefore an audience aged 1317 will be able to relate to him better than a
person towards the higher end of the 18-24 age
bracket might, since there are very different
things going on in their lives. For instance, a 24
year old is less likely to be feeling peer
pressure over deviant behaviour than a 14 year
old. I also had one respondent in the 36-41 age
bracket. Since there is only one respondent of
this age I cannot generalise and say that they
appeal to an older target audience, but I think
this reflects the fact that some members of the
audience are older and that I should not only
target my video towards a younger audience.
This audience member may have children that
are the same age as the character in my
video, and this may be of interest to them.

6. Fashion
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I asked the question - "How would you best
describe your style" and got a fairly varied
range of answers back.
This says to me that The LaFontaines are a
band that does not attract one stereotypical
group of people. Bands of a more defined
genre like Bring Me The Horizon may have
fans with a much more distinct look.
The most popular answers for this question
were 'smart' and 'individual' which I feel are
good descriptions of the way the band dress
as well. Whilst they may dress in smart
clothes, they are fairly individual in doing this
because most bands would probably prefer
to be more comfortable and less likely to
overheat when they are playing live.
However, there was no clear winner when it
comes to what the audience dresses like.
Therefore I do not need to worry about my
actor dressing to fit the audience profile because just dressing as himself should
mean that he meets this.

7. Social Networking
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I also asked the question - 'Which of the
following social networking websites do you
actively use? Check all that apply.'
I found that the most popular sites were all
those that The LaFontaines had accounts on.
This is not so much a question that relates to
the music video, but it helps me to build a
profile of the typical audience member.
The most popular sites were Facebook, Twitter
and YouTube. Sites like Tumblr and Vine has
reasonable success but MySpace was not a
site that any of the audience members used.
I think that the three most popular networks are
ones that The LaFontaines can use most
effectively to help them spread their music and
help them to gain popularity.
These results tell me that fans of The
LaFontaines are technologically literate and
well connected. Every respondent has a
Facebook account and 90% have a Twitter
account.
I have planned a scene where the main
character in my video is watching a video that
he has been sent, which shows a political
cartoon. I think the fact that 80% of
respondents have an active YouTube account
will help the character appeal to them even
more.

8. Radio
• As I expected, the majority
of fans has listened to BBC
Radio 1 within the last
month.
• They had also listened to
stations such as Capital
FM, a London-based radio
station that plays mainly
pop music. Kiss FM is a
national radio network that
plays a mix of pop and hiphop music. I think that this
reflects the hybrid nature of
The LaFontaines' music.

9. Musical Preferences - Genre
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I also asked the question 'Which of the
following genres of music do you most enjoy?
Check all that apply.'
The most popular answer here was rock
(70%), followed by indie and alternative.
No genre had no fans. I think this is important
because again, it reflects the fact that The
LaFontaines' music is a hybrid of different
musical styles and therefore people will like it
for different reasons and listen to it to fulfill
different gratifications. Where some people
listen to the band because the enjoy the fast
paced, high adrenaline music, others listen to
it for the meaning behind the lyrics. One
respondent added in the 'other' box that they
enjoyed other genres, such as
dubstep, metal, garage and hardstyle. This
suggests to me that fans of The LaFontaines
have a very varied taste in music, supported
by the fact that some people were also fans of
Blues, Classic & Opera and Country
music, which I did not expect to see any fans
for.

10. Musical Preferences - Gigs
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One of my questions asked
whether or not fans had seen the
band perform live. I assumed that
a majority of fans would have
seen them live, as this is an
important source of exposure for
new bands.
There was a draw between fans
having seen the band once and
not having seen them perform at
all, each of which made up around
30% of the answers.
This tells me that not all fans of
The LaFontaines have seen them
live and that they may have found
out about them from other sources
- such as word of mouth or
through social media. These are
popular streams for publicizing
music and it seems The
LaFontaines may well have made
the most of these.

11. Music Preferences - Festivals
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In the same vein, I asked whether fans had
gone to a festival before, and if not, if they
would like to.
40% had been to a festival before, and a further
40% had not, but had an interest in going to
one. No one fan had no interest in going to a
festival, which I feel implies that the audience
are a fan of live music and the festival scene.
I think this, combined with the previous
question, is reflective of the fact the band
mainly tours around Scotland and the North of
England. If a fan lives further down south it is
harder for them to see The LaFontaines.
This is a problem that I will be facing in my
music video. Most new bands feature in their
music videos, and the fact that the audience
enjoy live music suggests to me that it would be
beneficial to include the band in the video.
However, the fact that the band is Scottish and
live and tour around the Glasgow area means
that I will not be able to include them in my
video, as they live 363 miles away and the cost
of transporting them down to Norfolk would be
huge!
Therefore I will have to include other elements
in my music video to make up for the absence
of this.

12. Content Analysis
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The last question I asked was my qualitative question, which featured a small essay box.
The question was "If you are filling out this survey, you will be a fan of The LaFontaines.
What about the band most appeals to you?"
I created a world cloud on Wordle, as a form of content analysis.
The two most popular words were 'unique' and 'music'. The former word is one that I think
is important in explaining why people enjoy The LaFontaines as a band. Other popular
words include 'amazing' and 'lyrics'. Fans spoke about their stage presence, 'raw energy'
and the excellence of their live music. Again, this shows how well they come across live to
their fans.

13. A typical audience member
From my audience research, I can gather
than an average fan of The LaFontaines
is:
• A 17 year old female
• Her sense of style is be slightly
individual but quite smart.
• She is be a frequent user of
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. She
may also use sites such as Tumblr and
Vine.
• She listens to BBC Radio 1 and her
favourite genres of music are
Rock, Alternative and Indie, but she
may also enjoy some music from other
genres.
• She has seen the band perform before
and she has been to a festival and is
very interested in going to them.
• She enjoys listening to The
LaFontaines because she feels that
their music is unique and she feels
their live performances are ‘amazing’.
I think The
LaFontaines are
unique and their live
performances are
amazing