Defining your target audience in any communications campaign is absolutely key. What segment of the population are you reaching out to, who is your audience? Urban children or the illiterate? College students, vegans or single mothers? Upper-class Monopoly-style-monocle-consumers? Once you have determined your target audience, your campaign will gain the necessary focus it needs to be successful.
But what if you didn’t have a certain segment of the population? What if your target audience was the entire population?
The Census Bureau is trying to answer that very question as we speak. Their target audience is everyone in America—a lofty PR and advertising goal, to be sure.
Well, how do they propose targeting everyone in America?
One of many answers to this multi-faceted question is simple and timely: put Census information in a place with the greatest concentration of viewership at one time in a single year (and no, it’s not the latest episode of LOST). The Census information will be shown during… drum roll, please… the Super Bowl!
Let’s see…
Identified audience: check
Big event: check
Huge viewership: check
Timely: check
Interesting and memorable: we’ll have to wait and see
During an afternoon of the most outrageous, hilarious and expensive commercials of the year, I’d say the Census has picked a prime event for an infomercial that targets all of America. All I can hope is that they also remember that their audience —entertainment-addicted America—is expecting nothing short of mind-blowing.
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Did you think the Census infomercials were a stroke of brilliance or an absolute bust?