Our Head of Client Services, Bell, on why audience first is her favourite approach to all marketing, and what the absolute car crash reception of Halo can teach us.
Nick (Gooey’s Top Dog) likes to joke that I “bang on” about audiences. And he’s right. Without fail, the first questions I put to a client are: Who is your customer? Who are you speaking to? Where are they? And, critically, what do they want?
It sounds like marketing basics. But as recent events have shown, everyone can get it wrong.
It is not enough to simply know who your audience is. You have to understand what they want. And, perhaps more importantly, you need to understand what they don’t want. When you ignore the “don’t wants”, there are brand-damaging possibilities to getting it wrong.
The Pinkification of Sporting Prowess
The internet’s recent dismay at (and the subsequent removal of) Sky Sports’ ‘Halo’ is the perfect case study in demographic disconnection.
For the uninitiated, Halo was launched as a TikTok channel for women/sport. The positioning was LITERALLY the ‘lil sis’ of Sky Sports (yes, they said that). It framed women in sport as a secondary character, a sweet little extension of the main event.
The branding was bathed in pastel colours. The content was widely deemed ‘infantilising’, focusing on “hot girl walks” and admiring male athletes. You can find a full breakdown on just how bad it was on various news sites, but essentially, it was crass.
Here is where the audience understanding failed.
We are currently in a golden era of female sport. Women are dominating headlines for success, grit, and sporting prowess. We are back-to-back Euros winners; Arsenal have just won the Champions league; we are seeing phenomenal growth in rugby and cricket amongst a female audience; huge athletics success; and an increasing representation on SPOTY, to name just a few examples.
Halo failed because the female sport fan doesn’t need a “soft” entry point. They are looking for analysis, stats, and respect. It offered a caricature instead of a community. It failed because it assumed that “women” is a genre of personality rather than a demographic of people who, in this specific context, wanted sports content, not lifestyle fluff.
The “Test and Learn” Imperative
If Halo had truly utilised a “test and learn” phase, this backlash could have been avoided. A test and learn, for those unfamiliar with the vernacular, is basically a small controlled experiment to test (marketing) theories and use the insights to optimise future campaigns. In this case the data would have shown immediately that the female sports fan does not view herself as the “little sister”. She views herself as a fan, or even as an athlete.
This brings me to a controversial pivot: Monster Energy’s new drink, FLRT, which has been held up as another example of ‘female stereotyping’ in the wake of Halo.
Why FLRT Might Work (Even If I Hate It)
Monster is launching FLRT, an energy drink targeted explicitly at women. And, after seeing a few comparisons between Halo and FLRT, I took a look at their website. It doesn’t scream sports at me (my initial thoughts for people requiring a caffeine drink). Out of sheer marketing curiosity – and considering myself something vaguely resembling a female “sporty type” – I signed up for their newsletter.
I was immediately greeted with the subject line: ‘Hey bestie’.
My visceral reaction was to cringe, but then to realise this is not targeted at me. And here’s why this matters.
The critical difference between the FLRT launch and the Halo disaster:
- Halo targeted sports fans with content that insulted their intelligence.
- FLRT is likely targeting a lifestyle audience, not necessarily a performance athlete audience.
There is a strong possibility that the FLRT audience exists amongst a “softer” demographic. They are not selling themselves on high-performance, sweat-wicking sports science. They are selling an aesthetic, a vibe, and a lifestyle. A comparison between the two is somewhat unjustified. Whilst the ‘pinkification’ of brands often frustrates me, there is occasionally a place for it.
This is a tricky overlap in understanding your customer’s pain points against their personality. It’s where understanding the pain point (needs caffeine) meets understanding the archetype (who ARE they, what do they need that caffeine for, what motivates their purchase).
While the “Hey bestie” approach alienates me, it might be the exact vernacular that resonates with a Gen Z lifestyle consumer looking for a caffeine boost that fits their feed.
The Takeaway
The lesson here isn’t that pastel colours are bad or that “Hey bestie” is always wrong. The lesson is about alignment.
Halo failed because the creative (pastels, fluff) contradicted the core desire of the audience (sport, respect). FLRT might succeed, as much as I wish it wouldn’t, because the creative (soft, chatty) aligns with a specific subset of consumers they have identified as it solves their pain point (caffeine me up).
As a brand at any level, understanding who your audience are is critical to dissecting where best to spend your budget and time for your marketing strategy.
—————–
Want to make me a happy chap and chat audiences? Drop me a line – bell@gooeydigital.co.uk