Black-led media platform: News and information

Our client is a Black-led media platform dedicated to creating, highlighting, and uplifting the diverse stories of Black identity. Magnified by the power and reach of  an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, our client umbrella includes an editorial division, book publishing arm, film and television division, and music publishing group, each united by the shared mission of illuminating the culture and experience of Blackness.

The Challenge

Our client is interested in gathering information to increase the clarity of what their marketplace currently is and the key performance metrics of the brands and their competitors among their core and peripheral audiences.

Our challenge is to establish a deep understanding of the core and peripheral client audience’s behaviors and preferences; how they define culture, and what key elements resonate most with them. While also establishing their view and interpretation of the brand, and how they could maintain allegiance over time.

Our approach

Savanta is currently delivering a robust online quantitative survey to our client. All fieldwork is being done in the US and each wave is to be completed within a two-week span. The total sample for each wave is planned as n = 1200 for a total of 8 waves and a final sample of n  = 9600. The first six waves are to be done once a month while the final 2 are to be fielded quarterly. Currently, the project has completed the first two waves of the study for a sample size of n = 1200.

The sample for each wave is split into two cell groups, the first being the Design Audience, which is the core audience for the client cell, while the second is the Consumption Audience which is the general population cell. Respondents need to be between the ages of 18-45, identify as African American, and be interested in understanding society and culture from a black perspective to qualify for the Design Audience cell. While the Consumption Audience qualification includes meeting the age requirement between 18-56 and identifies as someone who keeps up with current events.

The outcome

Through our research of the first two waves, the client was able to identify key components of its Audience. Family, Food, and Music (more than 72% of respondents claimed these are key components in defining black culture)  defining Black Culture for both audience groups. Both groups have a strong interest in receiving news about Music and Food (more than 64% of respondents claimed to be very interested in getting news for these categories). A key finding was the strong interest in the concept of the client’s platform, which the client used to assist the internal sales in identifying key selling points for the brand.

Savanta’s research was able to pinpoint key behavioral trends for our client’s core audience and established baseline metric reads for the brand. Building brand awareness (2% aware of the brand on average) and familiarity (18% familiar with the brand on average) were areas of focus to improve our client’s standing in the marketplace. Book reading frequency was very similar among both cell groups and a clear preference for physical books over audiobooks was evident (average 67% physical versus 30% audio). Our client identified key social media spaces to focus efforts, as YouTube was noted as the #1 social platform used on a regular basis among both audiences (over 72% used the platform regularly), and Twitch being the top social platform to use when attempting to connect to new and upcoming artists (over 35% of respondents asked used the platform to connect to the new and upcoming artists).