See who is watching your content

Hi Friend 👋

With my trip this week to Cologne the Orbit 2024 Europe Tour comes to a close.
There I attended the Video Days Festival, the only Creator Event I know of in Europe and since the beginning of September it feels like I’ve been on one event after the other exploring the intersection of traditional media and creator communities.

If one thing has become crystal clear to me it’s that I have to host a proper international creator event in Vienna next year. There is just so much opportunity to create connections as to not do it.

If you want to help with this big endeavor please reach out—The planing starts now!

💛 Valentin

New in Orbit:
📺 He Met Ali Abdaal Once and Got a Job 
🎧 Video Days Festival Recap 
📝 My hot take on Search being Dead

Visualize Your Audience

In a call with Peter Cook yesterday we talked about a challenge every creator has to deal with.

Knowing: Who is your audience?

Having an answer for it makes all the difference because without a clear picture of who's watching, you're just guessing what’s going to connect. But when you know your audience, everything becomes clear. Which videos to make, how to present them, and value is you can deliver.

On your journey to discover this you might have already created an audience persona. Meticulously making up metrics and mindsets of a potential viewer. Maybe you listed a younger version of yourself or used some other technique. But all of that is just text on a page looking something like this

But making videos is visual communication. How do you actually capture the vibe of your audience, their lifestyle, their dreams, without turning it into a 200-page homework assignment?

Create an Audience Mood Board

• Open up a digital Whiteboard
  (Miro, Freeform, Figma, Canva, …)

• Set a 30 minute timer

• Collect images that visualize one person who is watching

  • What colors do they like?

  • What products do they use?

  • What’s their favorite brand?

  • How does their home, office, commute look like?

  • What do they do in their free time?

  • What apps do they use?

  • What other media are they consuming?

  • …

That quick practice can be your guide for any question you have about content, branding or monetization.
Giving you a clear image to look at whenever there is a decision to make.

I created my last version in January as part of the media incubator I’m a part of and it’s interesting to see that most of it still shows who I think my audience is but, as my reader, I’d be curious if you see yourself in this.
Does this capture your lifestyle in any way or am I completely off?

Hit reply with a screenshot of your Audience Mood Board and tell me what I got right and wrong.
After nearly 12 months it might be time to create a new version for Orbit.

My favorite things this week

Becca Farsace talks openly about sponsorships

Arielle Nissenblatt sharing insights how college students consume podcasts

Samir talking with spotter CEO about Creators and Data

With traveling I didn’t get to watch much. What did I miss?

If you would host an event for Creators in Europe who would you invite?