Key Takeaways:
- Amazon Prime Video’s biggest advantage over movie theaters is that it can advertise directly to the same audience on its shopping portal. So who are The Rings of Power fans, and what products will they be adding to their Amazon shopping cart?
- The Rings of Power audience skews younger than Prime Video’s, loves background beats, books, niche video game companies and comic publishers, and is twice as likely to engage with men’s clothing compared to the average Nerd.
- The stereotypes about The Lord of the Rings audience when the original trilogy came out no longer look to be completely true. This audience does not just use Amazon for video games or other “nerdy” pursuits, they want to be able to shop for things that make them feel and look good.
- Amazon should take advantage of these insights and tailor its home page more toward this audience’s interest in dressing well.
Nearly 21 years after the Fellowship of the Ring entered movie theaters, The Lord of the Rings returned to our screens with Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series is a big bet for Amazon, as Wall Street Journal estimates the first season alone costs the equivalent of 5.1 million Prime subscribers. Nonetheless, The Lord of the Rings is known for being a great return on investment, with the original trilogy grossing nearly $3 billion against a budget of $281 million. Amazon Prime Video's biggest advantage over movie theaters is that it can advertise directly to the same audience on its shopping portal. So who are these fans of the new TV series, and what products will they be adding to their Amazon shopping cart?
The Rings of Power Audience vs. the Prime Video Audience
The release of The Rings of Power provides a significant advantage for Amazon compared to its usual Prime Video audience. The two audiences differ in age; The Rings of Power audience skews younger than Prime Video’s, opening up additional marketing opportunities for Amazon to market to this younger audience with interests outside of their average Prime Video users.
We took a closer look at The Rings of Power audience and found that their top lifestyles align with Amazon’s other offerings. This audience is 1.69x more likely to engage with background beats; they love to have music on in the background and don’t mind what kind of music it is. Amazon should consider marketing their service “Amazon Music” to these users and featuring specially curated Background Beats playlists. Also, as expected for fans of a series that comes from books, The Rings of Power audience is twice as likely to be Bookworms, meaning they’ll likely find themselves in the Kindle section of Amazon. This audience is also nearly four times more likely to engage with comic books and could really enjoy exploring Amazon’s digital comic books platform, Comixology.
One Cart to Rule Them All
So what else is in The Rings of Power audience’s Amazon shopping cart? Naturally, as both Nerds and Gamers, this audience loves a wide range of video game companies and comic publishers. And forget about the big guys in Marvel and DC; this audience favors the more niche publishers.
However, comics and video games are expected to be seen in this audience’s shopping carts. What are some unexpected items? Nerds and Gamers have been stereotyped as poorly dressed slobs, but The Rings of Power audience buck that belief. They have a wide variety of interests in men’s clothing, from hand-tailored clothes to novelty socks. They are twice as likely to engage with men’s clothing compared to the average Nerd; Amazon should take advantage of these insights and tailor its home page more toward this audience’s interest in dressing well.
Dressing well is one thing, but The Rings of Power audience also takes the time to groom themselves well. This audience surprisingly has higher affinities for grooming products than men’s clothing. The Rings of Power audience definitely makes sure that they’re looking as good as one of Tolkien's elves.
Mining Mithril with Data
According to data mined from Helixa, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s audience is interested in two areas, video games and fashion, that people have assumed are as far away from each other as The Shire to Mordor. The stereotypes about The Lord of the Rings audience when the original trilogy came out no longer look to be completely true. This audience does not just use Amazon for video games or other “nerdy” pursuits, they want to be able to shop for things that make them feel and look good.
By using an audience intelligence tool like Helixa, you can look beyond the stereotypes of your audience and identify specific interests. The Rings of Power audience is a great example that audiences can be quite different from what you expect when you use a data-driven approach that delves deeper than the dwarves.
Alex is a Senior Research Analyst at Helixa, where he leverages his analytics background to help clients discover and interpret surprising insights. In his free time, he can often be found trying to locate All-Dressed chips or training his phone to stop removing the letter "u" from words.
