Profiling the social media footprint of niche entertainment audiences for Web 3

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The 20,000 foot view

Entertainment audiences are evolving, with digital-first habits – driven by both lockdowns and technology innovations – changing their relationship to the content they consume. Big hits are now just as likely to result from going viral on social media as through traditional paid mass-marketing campaigns. Fans are now choosing to ‘lean-through’, creating covers, memes, and even their own related content using social creator tools. In this environment, it is more important than ever to understand entertainment audiences and their relationship with social platforms: where is best to find them, engage them, and retain them, and how best to inspire them to return. While audience segments may differ slightly in engagement, they are largely turning towards creative behaviours and personalisation of content feeds. This is particularly visible when related to ads, but the preference is apparent throughout their digital habits. It impacts which platforms they use and how they use them – with the likes of Reddit and Twitch fostering a preference for anonymous fan communities, whereas the more lean-in audiences prefer immediate social-first networks on apps like Snapchat and Instagram.

Key Insights

• Most video genre fans have roughly average distributions of social media usage, except for news fans, who significantly under-index for weekly use of most social platforms 
• While they are tuning out the social buzz, however, ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) streamers are tuning in. High-volume AVOD viewers (those who spend        hours per week) index higher than overall high-volume streamers for all social platform weekly use
• They also significantly over-index for every social media behaviour, most notably ‘creation’        compared to the all-consumer average       
• Audiobook and podcast listeners over-index for creative behaviour on social, with        of high audiobook listeners usually creating their own content on social media (compared to an        all-consumer average), and        recreating with the likes of duets and Reels (compared to a        all-consumer average)
• Both high music streamers and gig attendees are highly engaged at all levels on social media, from likes / comments / shares        each) to selling / buying items        for streamers,        for gig attendees), all the way to creation        and        respectively)
• Google Stadia and Apple Arcade, both relatively new-entrant games streaming subscriptions, have audiences who hugely over-index across all social media platforms. Weekly active use of Reddit        and        respectively), Discord        and        respectively), and Twitch        and        respectively) are particularly high
• While these gaming cohorts engage on social a lot, they do not spend much time on social media platforms, with        and        respectively only engaging for        hours per week
• Audiences who block ads only slightly under-index for weekly active use of social platforms, like Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram. Meanwhile, they over-index for weekly use of Discord        compared to        all-consumer average), Twitch        compared to        and Reddit        compared to       
• High content creators under-index strongly for viewing content without engaging        compared to the all-consumer average of        For them, social platforms are not necessarily social, but rather are personal marketing opportunities
• Live event AR consumers are more likely to be on Snapchat        and Instagram        than VR consumers        and        respectively). Live event AR users are more likely to be social creators        than VR users / owners        whereas VR owners / users are far more likely to browse without engaging        compared to       

Methodology Statement

The high and low consumer segments used in this report are based on the following survey question (question        in the MIDiA quarterly consumer survey):  “During the last WEEK how much TIME did you spend doing each of the following?”

Low consumer segments are those who said they spent zero hours or between one and five hours per week engaging in the specified consumer behaviour. High consumer segments are those who spend above six hours per week engaging in the specified consumer behaviour.

Companies and brands mentioned in this report :Apple Arcade, BandLab, DAZN, Discord, Facebook, Google Stadia, Instagram, Meta, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter, WhatsApp