From Audience to Co-Creator: Rethinking Story Development through Cultural Thinking

In a crowded content landscape, finding truly engaged audiences has become as important as telling great stories. While the TV industry often relies on instinct and experience, the marketing world has long focused on identifying communities, subcultures, and cultural signals - especially in digital spaces.

What can series creators learn from this approach? Shows like Heated Rivalry may seem like surprise hits, but they build on established traditions of queer romance storytelling in manga, anime, and fan fiction with deeply engaged fan communities already in place. The opportunity lies in recognising and understanding these audiences earlier in the development process.

How can producers and writers discover such communities, and even involve them in shaping ideas? And does this mean rethinking TV storytelling as less of a one-way street and more of an ongoing dialogue? Or is this approach taking away creative agency from writers?

In cooperation with KÖLN BUSINESS.