TORONTO – When it comes to our steadily evolving media world – one which is branching out like a spider web in all directions – there are a total of eight different media consumer personas, according to Richard Bullwinkle (pictured below).
He is the “chief evangelist” for Rovi Corp., the digital media company perhaps best known for supplying the electronic program guides found in so many cable and satellite boxes, and Wednesday evening was the guest speaker for a CTAM Canada event held at the Rogers Centre.
The company conducted a trio of studies in 2009/10 with businesses and consumers in more than 10 countries, often right in the homes of some of the consumers. Data mined from the research reveal there are eight different media consumption personas which people can find themselves in (either wholly, partially, or perhaps aspire to).
These are the personas media companies and distributors have to serve – and in many cases, change how they do business in order to serve them better.
They are:
Persona 1: Music Lover. He wants to know everything about his music, subscribes to music blogs, gets most of his songs online and brings those tunes everywhere.
Persona 2: Simple and Serendipitous. She wants to know what’s on now, to see movies and pictures on TV – and to share their media through their computers. And, if they stumble upon their favourite movie while channel surfing, “they’ll say ‘oh my gosh Caddyshack is on,” said Bullwinkle, and watch it to the end.
Persona 3: Hearth-like TV + Personal Music. He knows everyone in the house has their own media tastes, but works hard to make sure the whole family can watch something together. He’s a heavy DVR user in order to accomplish that.
Persona 4: Film and TV Lover: She loves to sit and relax after work and watch her favourite shows or movies and plan things like a weekly movie night. She’s very active with VOD and her DVR (which she says never has enough space). She’d love an efficient guide and a better way to search for those shows.
Persona 5: PC + TV. While his television is the main place to watch TV, that laptop is always there while he researches shows and watches movie trailers at the same time. He’ll log on to catch up on shows he missed, online. “These are the semi-nerds,” said Bullwinkle.
Persona 6: PC for all Media. She only needs her PC for everything and has a huge collection of tunes and videos, even though she surfs a lot while that media plays.
Persona 7: Shared, Social and Abundant Media. He downloads music and videos recommended by his Facebook friends (he’s a rabid sharer, too) and rarely uses DVDs unless his kids want to see something specific.
Persona 8: Living Together with Individual Media. She leads a family that may all watch the same thing, but on different screens and would love it if the content on the DVR could be shared on other screens. Her family might sit together in front of the TV, but they all could be using their personal screens to watch or surf other things.
One hundred CTAM Canada members attended the sold-out event yesterday evening.
– Greg O’Brien
