Boiler Room approach to cultivating and amplifying a fragmented audience
Post on 05-Dec-2014
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THE BOILER ROOM APPROACH TO CULTIVATING AND AMPLIFYING A
FRAGMENTED AUDIENCE
Michael Goldstein Creative digital planner at CHI&Partners NYC
@MickeyG77
When TV was first established, advertisers could reach 40% of viewers with a single ad.
This was because there were only three channels, so one broadcast message had a
huge reach.
Source: Mindshare Media Data
0
40
80
120
160
1955 1985 2010
Networks Ad reach %
But as time moved on, networks diversified and exploded in number. Reach went to a
max of only 12% of audiences.
Source: Mindshare Media Data
In the 50’s, audiences were under a musical ‘taste dictatorship’. People were fed genres via limited radio stations, as there was no
other source of music discovery.
Today that ‘taste dictatorship’ has been abandoned for genre discovery. People have open access to thousands
of genres of music, as obscure as you can imagine.
Online, audiences are also increasingly fragmented. Both by channel…
…and by taste.
But what’s good for audiences hungry for diverse media is bad for advertisers. It’s
harder for a broadcast message to achieve reach, and with audience interests becoming increasingly fragmented, it’s hard to deliver
relevant messages at scale.
Today, the most effective and relevant way to reach and engage modern audiences is through fragmented cultivation and engagement.
Today, the only way to reach and engage with modern audiences is with fragmented audience cultivation and fragmented
messages….
Boiler Room is a great example of how to cultivate and engage a fragmented audience
at scale.
BOILER ROOM BACKGROUND !
!
!
Boiler Room is a live music streaming platform. They have a focus on underground artists, curating a party atmosphere with DJs that represent niche
tastes from cities around the globe. !
Boiler Room is a great example of how to cultivate and engage a fragmented audience
at scale
BOILER ROOM BACKGROUND !
!
They are famous for their signature camera angle. Featuring the DJ in the foreground with the crowd
behind them, creating intimacy between the DJ and online viewers as well as conversation on the
trendies in the crowd.
Boiler Room is a great example of how to cultivate and engage a fragmented audience
at scale
They have also done incredibly well at building loyal audiences.
!
!
7MM+ Monthly Audio and Video plays !
35 mins average time on site !
1.4MM Active Subscribers !
!
Source: Boiler Room
Boiler Room is a great example of how to cultivate and engage a fragmented audience
at scale
What can we learn from Boiler Room about cultivating a fragmented audience?
Boiler Room is a great example of how to cultivate and engage a fragmented audience
at scale
Boiler Room use underground artists to attract an online audience hungry for rare content: !
•They play smaller club shows and don’t tour as much as mainstream artists.
!
•They don’t have as much coverage online. !
•Their content is harder to find and access.
Boiler Room is a great example of how to cultivate and engage a fragmented audience
at scale
The events that Boiler Room curates and broadcasts feature multiple niche DJs who have
small but passionate fans that are far more engaged than the fans of mainstream artists…
ENGAGEMENT BATTLE
AVICII
Facebook Fans: 17.1 Million Views on recent YouTube set: 326,500
Facebook Fans: 29,800 Views on recent YouTube set: 24,875
Fred P
0
0.125
0.25
0.375
0.5
Engagement on their Facebook pages (Talking about metric as a % of fans)
Avicii Fred P
Caveat: Whilst this is not a thorough and holistic proof of deeper engagement for niche underground artists, it is a data point that illustrates the theory
Comparing engagement within fan page platform
Comparing cross-platform engagement
0
22.5
45
67.5
90
Views on YouTube set as a % of Facebook fans
Avicii Fred P
0
15
30
45
60
Likes on YouTube set as a % of Facebook fans
Avicii Fred P
Caveat: Whilst this is not a thorough and holistic proof of deeper engagement for niche underground artists, it is a data point that illustrates the theory
ENGAGEMENT BATTLE WINNER:
Fred P
Niche artists enjoy more passionate followings !
•Fans have gone out of their way to discover them away from mass-streaming services, leading to an emotional connection.
!
•Niche artists with smaller followings feel more intimate and personal to their fan base.
!
•Discovering lesser known artists is a likely brag point on social media, whereas sharing a well known artist is not.
This means that the Boiler Room audience is far more likely to engage with and advocate their
favorite content than your mainstream audience.
Boiler Room curates lineups of different niche artists with varied and passionate fan groups.
!
So rather than one large ‘blasé’ audience, they have multiple engaged audience groups.
!
Traditional audience cultivation and amplification model
Huge reach
Weak amplification
Mainstream genre artist:EDM
Mainstream audience:
Low rate of advocacy:
Boiler Room approach to cultivating and amplifying a fragmented audience
Stronger amplification
Multi-faceted amplification, intersecting a diverse audience, leads to true cultural impact
Stronger amplification
Stronger amplification
Grime Deep Techno ‘Sad Boy’ Rap
Niche Genre Artist:
Niche Audience:
Passion fueled advocacy:
Smaller reach
Smaller reach
Smaller reach
Boiler Room are able to achieve this approach at scale as they amplify curated events with
real-time streaming. This ‘in the moment’ approach also increases
cultural relevance to a diverse audience fragmented by taste and geography.
How brands can learn from Boiler Room, some key lessons:
•Recruit talent based on their search interest rather than popularity of their content. This will give you valuable content as it is high in demand, low in supply.
!
•Invest in multiple bits of niche content rather than one broad piece of content.
!
•Fragment and deliver messaging and content by audience, increasing relevance to a diverse crowd.
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Want to argue about it?! tweet @mickeyg77 !
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