Why, Universal, Why?

POSTED BY: ecgordon
UPDATED: Monday, January 9, 2006 05:36
VIEWED: 3925
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CHRISTHECYNIC

Monday, January 9, 2006 2:15 AM

SergeantX, I agree with almost everything you have said, in fact I don't strictly disagree with any of it. I do have a question though,

Quote:
There are also far more female fans than the typical sci-fi show attracts.

How do you know? I mean aren't the ones who say women don't like sci-fi the same ones who think Firefly is only marketable to horny teenage boys who want to see "cosmic hookers"?

In my personal experience, which is nowhere near enough to build a coherent picture, females like individual sci-fi shows, books, or movies as much as men, though they are not as likely to call themselves sci-fi fans. I’m not saying that this is how it always is, I freely admit that it is probably not, but I would like to know exactly where the statistics about females are coming from.

-

Odd little note: Only one of the people I have shown Firefly to did not like it, he was a horny teenage boy who fell into the 18-25 year old sci-fi fan category. (Kind of narrows down what his actual age was doesn’t it?)

ZOID

Monday, January 9, 2006 2:34 AM

christhecynic wrote, in part:

Quote:
...Odd little note: Only one of the people I have shown Firefly to did not like it, he was a horny teenage boy who fell into the 18-25 year old sci-fi fan category. (Kind of narrows down what his actual age was doesn’t it?)

Ummm... 18 or 19? Did I get it right?

Clairvoyantly,
-zed

P.S.
3rd-best guess: Pistachios.
_________________________________________________

"I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDBOF'

SERGEANTX

Monday, January 9, 2006 2:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by christhecynic:
How do you know? I mean aren't the ones who say women don't like sci-fi the same ones who think Firefly is only marketable to horny teenage boys who want to see "cosmic hookers"?

I've never been a part of a fan scene before, so I can't say for sure what the demographics of most scifi shows are. The common wisdom is that they're mostly young males, but common wisdom could be wrong - usually is at some level. I do remember the documentaries on the Firefly dvd's mentioning that Firefly did much better with women than fox expected. But I don't have any numbers to back it up, mostly just the experience of hanging out on the boards. I wonder if anyone has seen any compiled statistics? Not that I generally trust compiled statistics, but it would be interesting.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

NOSADSEVEN

Monday, January 9, 2006 5:36 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SergeantX:
I can't speak to the particulars of the situation you describe, but in general network executives have proven they have no clue how to market something like Firefly. To them, this translates to the conclusion that Firefly isn't very marketable and therefore not worth the effort. I think it's just part of their system that's broken.

There are two factors that make Firefly a problem for the typical marketing schemes.

One, it's unique. They don't have anything to compare it to and most of them don't get it. Without some roadmap to follow, the only thing they seem to be able to do is pretend it's something else, something they do know how to market. Anyone who saw the original ads for the series saw this. The ads made it out to be a whacky bunch of nuts on a spaceship, with a "cosmic hooker" (unfortunately, that's an actual quote). The problem with this is that the people who do tune in aren't getting what they came for and the ad only manages to turn off most of the people who will appreciate what Firefly has to offer.

Also, Firefly appeals to a broad range of fans. Most marketing strategies these days are centered around the idea of defining a narrow target audience and marketing intensely to their (presumed) preferences. Sci-fi is almost almost always tagged as going for the 18-25 yr old male demographic. The thing is, any of us who've been on this board for long know that the age range of Firefly fans is much broader than that. There are also far more female fans than the typical sci-fi show attracts. From what I've seen, networks can't figure out what ties us all together. They clearly don't feel confident in promoting Firefly as a witty family drama with great character development. Their research tells them people don't want to see that. Their research blows.

Amen to that, SergeantX.

Complicating matters even more, I think the people who enjoy Firefly the most are those predisposed to have already been fed up with Hollywood - people who no longer pay attention to tv or movies anymore. Even if the marketing execs understand the breadth and diversity of the fanbase, they still will (understandably) focus their marketing on the demographic groups that watch tv and go out to the movies routinely across the board. No amount of advertising in the world would have gotten me out to see Serenity if I hadn't already been so invested in Firefly, so I'm not exactly a fruitful target market for that. But DVDs... that's something I do buy and rent, yet they plaster on a cover that would send me running.

I think it was an exceptionally important opportunity that Uni. missed by not advertising the DVD during the marathon, precisely because the marketing can be so tricky. We all know the best way to sell Firefly is to show it, and despite what a previous poster suggested, only a small minority of viewers would actually look up the show on the internet - most people just don't have that kind of time. The DVD needs to be bought by people who are simply interested, not just those of us who are obsessed.

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Ain't. We. Just.

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