成人论坛

Blue Planet II went out around four months ago now, and the original Blue Planet an amazing 17 years ago (the day after September 11 2001) but for many, both series still linger strongly in the memory.

In fact, if you think back to everything you have watched, listened to or read in the media over the past week, month, year, or even across your lifetime, the chances are there are a few things that have particularly stuck in your mind.

With changes in media including the rise of on-demand or binge viewing, a decline in shared viewing, more ways of watching and the vast increase in ‘noisy’ competition, for producers, becoming part of the select group of memorable content-makers is perhaps more challenging than ever. It’s simply more difficult to stick in people’s minds over the longer term.

But that ability really matters to the 成人论坛. When we looked at what drives people’s perceptions of the value they get from the licence fee, what they can remember having experienced has a particularly strong impact.

成人论坛 Audiences decided to explore this further - to identify which media content is most readily recalled by the audience and why, and to see what we could learn about how to make what we do more memorable in a crowded marketplace.

We started by asking people to think back over their lifetimes and tell us what they could remember on TV, radio, and online. (成人论坛 staff can get a flavour of what they told us .) There was clear evidence of what psychologists call the 'reminiscence bump', whereby there are more memories from childhood, adolescence and early adulthood when people are forming their identity than from later adulthood. It also became clear that although the 成人论坛 dominates the memory space of the older audience, this wasn’t the case for those under 35. We are at risk not making the memories of the future.

As well as what people remember we also wanted to know why they remembered it. So we spoke to a section of the audience in depth over a period of months. We talked about what they could remember - and perhaps just as important, what they had forgotten. We wanted to see what elements of an experience had made it stick in their mind.

Context

First, we found that context is important in determining what’s recalled: who you’re with, the time of day, the mood you are in and so on. Shared media experiences often felt more special (as they get rarer) and are therefore more clearly recalled, particularly where people ‘make an occasion of it’ such as a Eurovision Party or a bake-along with Mary Berry - both of which were examples mentioned in our talks with viewers.

In fact, the specific context of consumption is sometimes more salient than the memory of the content itself, particularly for radio. People can remember the smell of dinner cooking at their grandma’s whilst watching EastEnders more than they can remember what happened in the programme.

Relevance

Second, we found that content that’s relevant to the person in some way is more likely to be remembered. This can take a number of forms: it can have ‘personal relevance’ in that it resonates with your own identity or interests (for instance, a black woman said she particularly remembered Scandal because it had a strong black female character in it). Relevance can also be ‘local’ relevance where people tend to remember places or accents they know (Peaky Blinders for those in Birmingham). Then there’s ‘temporal relevance’ which taps into a particular period in history (so there was high memorability for the drama 24 reflecting the fear and uncertainty that was felt around terror threats in the early noughties).

Characters

Strong characters are also likely to be remembered over time, particularly if they are relatable, aspirational or have changed significantly over time or in terms of their personality. The story arc in Breaking Bad is a good example of this. People who are challenging/annoying also leave a greater trace, as do those who have some sort of distinctive style that makes them stand out from the crowd.

Emotion

There’s also a close link between emotion and memory. Exciting or distressing media experiences stick in the mind, helping explain why drama titles and news events often top the lists of media memories. This can be understood from an evolutionary perspective: the experiences that give us the greatest positive or negative feelings are worth remembering as they will guide our future actions. We found this to be true in our research as well. Highly exciting or distressing media experiences were more likely to be remembered.

Originality

Being seen as the first or distinctive, challenging and stretching existing genres and formats, also increases the likelihood of being remembered. That’s why Monty Python has stuck in the mind for decades after it was first broadcast.

Controversial

There is also a memory premium on being controversial or unexpected. Content that shocks can stay in the mind for a long time. Many episodes of Brass Eye from the 90s still linger in people’s minds.

Packaging

The way media is packaged (with credits, theme tunes, jingles, iconic imagery, soundtracks and the overall look and feel) also affects the likelihood of it being remembered. That means short-form video or audio presented as items, clips, competitions or features can also be memorable in their own right - and make their ‘parent’ brands more sticky.

Rehearsal

A phenomenon called rehearsal is a key mechanism of memory encoding (which is why we revise for exams to try and make things stick). The more an audience hears, sees, talks, or reads about content, before or after it airs, the greater likelihood it has of staying with them. A media provider can heavily influence this through marketing and PR, with teasers or clips, interviews, articles, shareable content and so on.

So what does this all mean for the 成人论坛? Well, the reminiscence bump (more memories being retained when you are young) is a real issue. We already struggle to attract younger people to our content but knowing that this is the time of their lives when many of their lifetime memories will be formed gives us added reason to win their hearts and minds. Otherwise, we risk losing them forever.

But improving the 成人论坛’s memorability is not just about age. The focus on context has made us think about how we can better reflect other periods of life such as when people are leaving home, forming relationships, having children, retiring and so on. Can we help make more of an occasion of the viewing experience to enhance the context? For example during Eurovision we provided party packs with sweepstakes and scorecards for audiences to host their own judging panels.

More generally we’re using the insights from this project to help create a ‘memorability culture’ at the 成人论坛 to get staff thinking about how to increase our memorability. And we’re exploring the opportunities offered by sign-in and personalisation to target audiences with content they personally connect with and thus affect memory. How we can shape our social media and marketing strategies and improve our approach to packaging and branding to maximise memorability? For example, after Glastonbury 2017, the 成人论坛 pushed audiences to ‘relive’ their favourite moments – increasing the likelihood of creating a lasting 成人论坛 memory.

The study also highlights that distinctiveness is a real opportunity. Being original increases the 成人论坛’s chances of being remembered and gives commissioners and production teams a new impetus to take risks.