37 GENIUS INTERVIEW Stephen Mai
we were able to make 4:3 generate such massive viewing numbers since its launch. Ultimately we knew what our audience was interested in, but rather than serving up similar stuff, we said let’s be a little bit creative and serve them things that we think they’ll like because we actually understand them. FEED: Given Boiler Room’s ethos, and the types of people you’re trying to reach – young, independent, politicised – are you using audience data or algorithms in different ways? SM: There are obviously algorithms on all these social channels. Some media brands – and some that I’ve worked with in the past – spend a lot of time trying to hack those algorithms to drive audiences to their platforms, because they sell video pre-roll or other advertising. We’re in quite a unique situation because we’re not trying to drive people offsite. We just have a community that we want to engage and share interesting stuff with. So rather than producing ten or 15 pieces of content that might be designed to drive engagement, because we need to drive people off platform, we’re allowed to curate our content. That’s the ethos around 4:3, that hyper- curation. Even in terms of Boiler Room, we really curate the artists that we play with. We don’t necessarily look at our insights and say: these are the artists our audiences love. We look at the insights and say: this is the type of music that they love. Let’s try and show them artists that aren’t getting attention elsewhere. Or tell them stories that aren’t getting served on other platforms. Our different business model means we have the luxury of not necessarily
having to succumb to creating 50 pieces of content a day to try and garner a reaction from our audience to service another business need. FEED: You’ve had an impressive career in working with some of these hugely successful media start-ups, like Vice and LADBible. What have you learned in that time about using video to build brands? SM: Something I’ve definitely done through my career is try to go against expectation and go against the general narrative and the rules of how content should work, how marketing should work, and how they should both come in line together. Using LADBible as an example: I went into a viral publisher that was really struggling around its credibility. Their whole platform was built around driving engagement and they were very successful at that, and driving really massive numbers. I almost did the opposite of what a traditional marketer would do in that situation. I saw a massive audience and saw opportunity to leverage that audience and use it to drive positive social change. We used marketing to create real meaningful movements like the Trash Isles (LADBible focused global attention on plastic pollution by asking the UN to declare the Great Pacific Garbage Patch a new, independent country) or U OK M8? (a LADBible initiative to raise awareness around mental health) to shift perception around a brand that was tied to a word, “lad”, that had a negative connotation. I had massive success in redefining what “lad “ meant by challenging almost every preconceived notion of that
TURNTABLES & WEBCAMS Boiler Room’s events are live streamed around the world and are accessing and augmenting global underground music culture
OUR DIFFERENT BUSINESS MODEL MEANS WE HAVE THE LUXURY OF NOT NECESSARILY HAVING TO SUCCUMB TO CREATING 50 PIECES OF CONTENT A DAY TO TRY AND GARNER A REACTION FROM OUR AUDIENCE
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