Brave Bison reports six-month growth in user metrics following roll-out of new publishing strategy
Brave Bison, the social video company, has experienced a sharp rise in channel KPIs including 1-minute video views and engagement, amongst other measurements of success, following the adoption of its new publishing strategy.
In October 2019 Brave Bison rolled out its new Facebook publishing strategy and original slate of content across its portfolio of owned and operated channels including Mutha, VTRND, Bluntly, Canvas, Super Crafty and Yellow Teeth. Since rolling out the new strategy Brave Bison has seen a sharp increase in the channels’ daily KPIs from 1 October 2019 to 31 March 2020, including:
—the number of at least 3-second views for videos has risen 272%;
—the number of video views over 1 minute increased by 351%;
—the total amount of minutes viewed daily increased by 283%;
—the amount of new followers gained each day increased by a staggering 1,231%; and
—engagement including viewers reacting, commenting on or sharing content increased by 136%.
The growth across several of these KPIs for Brave Bison’s original owned content can be attributed to the full strategy evaluation and refresh, investment in original content, the creation of a production unit working from development to delivery, and deeper data partnerships and usage. Additionally, Brave Bison has undertaken the restructuring of its wider Publishing team over the last year, including the appointment of Ben Sinden as Managing Director of Publishing in August 2019 with experience as Head of Visual Communications at Netflix EMEA. Ben is well placed to lead the charge on publishing at Brave Bison after the Company faced a challenging year, given the demonetisation of Facebook channels. Brave Bison’s reliance on Facebook pushed the Company to branch out into other platforms, including driving more content and growing its audiences on TikTok and Instagram.
Brave Bison has led the push for “quality content over quantity” and over the past six months has been focusing resources on key channels. The Company has reduced the number of channels that it is investing in from 20 to 6 and is taking a proactive approach when testing new content formats and platforms. Through focusing on these key channels, the Company has been able to achieve deeper engagement by diversifying platforms and continuing to steadily progress e-commerce and branded content, connecting global audiences and reaching over 135 million followers. Brave Bison’s aim is to grow strong business across rights and channel management and continue to establish itself as an expert in social media growth and cross-platform brand strategy.
Although the full effects of Coronavirus on publishing are unknown, with people now consuming more content from the comfort of their homes, Brave Bison’s owned and operated brands remain resilient to disruption.
Ben Sinden, Managing Director of Publishing and Brave Bison, comments: “I was brought on board last year to focus on developing our key channels into brands, growing them across multiple platforms and turning them into diverse revenue stream drivers across the publishing ecosystem. Brave Bison has a rich heritage of monetising video and doubling down on our key owned and operated content provides us with a robust long term business to compliment the other arms of the company.”
Kate Burns, CEO of Brave Bison, adds: “These results are a testament to all the hard work going on behind the scenes at Brave Bison to implement our new approach to publishing. The Company has proved agile during this period of refinement and will continue to rapidly evolve. By reducing the number of channels we invest in, we are in a prime position to optimise our approach towards testing new content formats and platforms.”