Boiler Room approach to cultivating and amplifying a fragmented audience

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 !

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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. !


at scale

BOILER ROOM BACKGROUND !

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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.


at scale

They have also done incredibly well at building loyal audiences.

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7MM+ Monthly Audio and Video plays !

35 mins average time on site !

1.4MM Active Subscribers !

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Source: Boiler Room


at scale

What can we learn from Boiler Room about cultivating 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.

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•They don’t have as much coverage online. !

•Their content is harder to find and access.


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

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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

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22.5

45

67.5

90

Views on YouTube set as a % of Facebook fans

Avicii Fred P

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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.

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•Niche artists with smaller followings feel more intimate and personal to their fan base.

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•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.

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So rather than one large ‘blasé’ audience, they have multiple engaged audience groups.

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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



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.

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•Invest in multiple bits of niche content rather than one broad piece of content.

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•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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Boiler Room approach to cultivating and amplifying a fragmented audience

Marketing