The Quest For Curiosity

In the era of information abundance, curiosity is a useful tool for navigating an increasingly complex world––a pair of shears for working through the weeds. As the pace of change accelerates, so does the need for parsing out signals from noise, escaping our filter bubbles, and supporting the exploration of a range of topics that help us make sense of the world, ourselves and our lives. PBS Digital Studios (PBSDS), with its original programming across 16 channels, aims to inspire and nourish such curiosity in young, diverse viewers about history, science, culture and the world around them. To continue to grow their mission, PBSDS sought an evidence-based approach for identifying programming that not only reaches these viewers but engages their curiosity in meaningful ways.

In a unique research partnership, PBS Digital Studios and Harmony Labs embarked on a comprehensive study about curiosity designed to spark a genuine desire among YouTube viewers under 40 to explore and learn, while maintaining PBSDS’ existing audience base. This “research-to-brief” journey was underscored by bespoke audience toolkits and a set of strategic recommendations for producers. Doing it this way meant equipping PBSDS with a nimble source of inspiration to create compelling content for new audiences.

The study focused on YouTube, the main home of PBSDS’s content series, analyzing nearly two years of data––25 million+ video encounters across 5 million+ channels––to determine what kinds of informational content audiences are already seeking out. Our hybrid data combined PBSDS’s YouTube analytics with Harmony Labs’ values-based audience framework to see where existing content was landing among diverse groups of young people in order to identify opportunities of audience expansion.

The goal was three-fold: identify promising new audience segments, understand how curiosity manifests in those groups, and develop tools for content creators to engage them authentically.

Values, not demographics, define an audience for expansion

PBSDS’s initiative specifically aims to engage younger, diverse audiences. But, of course, "young people" is not an audience. The members of an audience share a set of values that define how they relate to the world, their needs and desires. And the content they engage with is aligned with those worldviews. Each audience inhabits a very specific media world. To create for an audience, you need to understand the audience. To understand the audience, you need to immerse yourself in their media world.

The audiences on this map derive from a set of universal human values. Every channel has a home somewhere on this map. The community, equity, and environment-oriented PEOPLE POWER audience finds PBS Vitals––a series about making health approachable – especially appealing. This is because PEOPLE POWER is an audience that values “universalism” which is wellbeing for all people, not just people they know. It is no surprise to find PBS Terra’s Weathered in cozy, home-focused TOUGH COOKIES, and PBS Voices’ Hip-Hop and the Metaverse in fantasy, music, and fun-loving IF YOU SAY SO.

We identified key audiences for expansion across three PBSDS properties––one audience per channel––based on distinct core values that the channel would benefit from expanding into in order to attract younger audiences.

Arriving at these strategic targets was data-informed. We used category tags, creator-specified video tags, and user behavior to highlight channels that overlapped with PBSDS’ storytelling style, or what we call “audience neighborhoods,” revealing what PBSDS’ audience tends to seek out in informational content, which offers everything from exciting stimulation to a cozy sense of tradition.

We then breathed life into each expansion audience through personas complete with biographies, preferred platforms, formats, themes and styles of content.

Tailor your content to real people, not just demographics

It can sometimes be challenging to create content that really resonates with audiences that are very different from us. To do that, we learned from producers and storytellers that it is useful to put yourself in the shoes of who will be receiving the content and to know how to satisfy what they are really looking for. You need to go from abstract audiences, a list of values and, sometimes, stereotypes about a group of people, to concrete personas, the description of individuals with a story behind who they are and what they care about, what they watch and how that shapes their views of the world and of themselves.

In order to create personas that really inspire compelling content, it is useful to base it on people who you admire or, at least, would be interested in having a conversation with: you are interested in them, where they are coming from and why they make the choices they make. With this simple tool, you are better equipped to create content that satisfies the needs and curiosities of the audience.

Informative content is never purely about the topic

We found that curiosity is driven not just by the information itself, but by the emotional payoff of learning. We counted dozens of distinct emotions that different types of content were intended to elicit, from curiosity to outrage to coziness to suspense. Content that evokes feelings of belonging or individual empowerment resonates strongly with different audience segments.

A sense of being connected to others and to our inner selves, for instance, is distinctive of PEOPLE POWER, who seek out shows like The Great British Bake Off to evoke feelings of trust, belonging and hope. DON’T TREAD ON ME, on the other hand, is not motivated by collectivist values and seeks out channels like BBQwithFranklin, which evokes empowerment, confidence and assertiveness. Curiosity-driven content can meet either of these emotional needs, but rarely meets both together.

This emotional dimension of curiosity highlights a crucial point: informative content is never purely about the topic. Whether it serves as a salve or a stimulant, information unlocks emotions that people hope to access by seeking it out. Starting with the formats and themes each audience already engages with when consuming informative content can create an instant thread between the world they like to inhabit and the world you'll be creating for them, making the content feel like it was tailor-made.

Escaping the tyranny of comps

We heard from producers and storytellers that when creative endeavors rely too heavily on comparable content, it can stifle originality and innovation. Rather than trying to replicate a winning formula (“create the new TED-Ed”), use comps to unlock creativity by breaking them down into components that engage an audience (“thoughtful, well-researched explanations”).

When used right, comps can help producers and storytellers pull inspiration from specific elements of what the audience is already engaging with. It's not about copying the most popular YouTube channel. It's about learning all the different approaches that create the emotional payoff the audience is seeking. You're expanding your creative toolkit to reach a specific audience and you can decide which tools from this newly acquired toolkit you want to use to do the job.

Content that puts audiences front and center

A producer’s job is multifold: to help realize the creative vision, but also to ensure that topics, scripts, casts, and camerawork all culminate into a product greater than the sum of its parts. Such complex work warrants research tools that unlock creativity, instead of guidelines that constrain ideas. What we accomplished with this project was developing a shared vocabulary between researchers and creatives that bridges the gap and maximizes the utility of audience insights through actionable toolkits for storytellers.

We continue to engage with media makers who want to be equipped with narrative landscaping, audience research, media behaviors, content testing and other evidence-based methods that yield effective storytelling. If this describes you, get in touch.