Demographics are dated, capture curiosity for next level content

Demographics are dated and only tell you where your audience are, not who they are and why they engage with the world. Here’s why I believe Curiosity is better way to connect with your audiences and create better content.

The world is changing. So-called pensioners are taking part-time jobs to travel like gap-year students. People are reshuffling traditional life markers to their own plans. Young people unable to afford towns are moving out into the countryside, turning traditionally blue counties red. Retirees are taking flats in the city, not the suburbs. We can no longer rely on the marketing tropes of old. Demographics are dying.

We have more data than ever, but while data can tell us what people did. It isn’t always an accurate representation of what they will do. The last five years of data are savage outliers in almost all regards, and the world before the pandemic feels centuries old and out of touch. As Google evolves even our access to data is changing. The cookies we collect are crumbling.

But what to put in their place?

Harnessing the power of curiosity

At Sticky, we trust in people—who they are, what they love, and how they explore the world. We’ve combined the past (over 70 years of academic research), the present (a deep dive into the nation’s thoughts) and the future (overviews of current world events and how they may evolve) to create a new way of thinking about audiences—their curiosity.

From the moment we’re born, we are curious. As people, we have an in-depth thirst for knowledge. Without knowing it, this thirst feeds our social media algorithms, allows us to explore new places, try new foods, or simply decide between Love Island and News at 10.

So, what if we, as marketers, could harness this curiosity? Create content that fuels and fulfils it. Inspire audiences to want to know more about our brands, and in turn trust us as educators and entertainers. We believe we can do just this with the Power of Curiosity.

Meet the Curiosity Cohorts

Our research has shown that people’s baseline curiosity comes to life in one of five ways, our five Curiosity Cohorts. Well, technically, six. There are a magic 5% of the population who can tap into multiple cohorts and don’t have a dominant trait.  Each of these cohorts represent how someone explores and interacts with the world around them. Do they open their hearts and minds to serendipitous encounters, connecting abstract moments and thoughts? Are they laser-focused on the details? Is the world just a Minority Reportesque scrapbook of ideas they use to inspire their own creativity or thoughts? Is a freedom to explore and push themselves out of their comfort zone what gets them out of bed in the morning? Or do they simply love to know more about people and make connections and stories?

Each of us, be we Clarity Seeker, Socio-Eco Empath, Novelty Explorer, Expressive Individual or Exhilaration Hunter carves our own path in this world. And brands have the opportunity more than ever to leverage those individual paths through targeted intelligent content.

Targeted intelligent content

We are working with clients to do just that. Working with a leading telco brand we mapped their sales data, using our Curiosity database, to discover that their buyers were predominantly Exhilaration Hunters. Unsurprisingly, content we had created with an Exhilaration Hunter edge performed significantly better than any other. We took these insights forward into a new curiosity-led content strategy.

We now want to bring this work to new clients and work with you to supercharge and create better content, ditching demographics, getting ahead of the collapse of cookies, and fuelling your audience’s passions. 

But before you drop us an email to better understand your audience’s curious minds, why not take five minutes out of your day to discover your own Curiosity Cohort at quiz.sticky.co.uk. We’d love to hear your results.