A great segment on NPR last night explored the phenomenon of Mormon cinema, an extremely targeted film genre that seeks to serve an extremely targeted audience. Says Dave Hunter, co-founder of Hailstorm Entertainment:
We know where every single Mormon on the face of the planet lives. We have picked our audience and we are catering directly to them. We know what they like. And we’ll hit them head on.
It turns out there are 11 million Mormons in the world — all tracked by the mother church — providing sufficient density in various communities around the United States to support multiplex showings of this niche entertainment.
A bit odd, perhaps, but an interesting case in point about the benefits of serving a homogeneous marketplace. Unfortunately, our pesky mission statement, and the goal to reach a diverse audience, makes life for nonprofit cultural organizations a bit more complicated.
