Bronzeville Audio Series Surpasses 20 Million Downloads, Captivating Audiences Worldwide

You may know Larenz Tate for roles such as Menace II Society’s O-Dog or Love Jones’ Darius Lovehall. Maybe you recognize Laurence Fishburne from his portrayals of Morpheus in The Matrix trilogy or Pops on Black-ish and Grown-ish. These prominent actors are certainly household names. But their latest project, Bronzeville, is an audio series that explores the themes of Black community, entrepreneurship, and self-sufficiency during the 1940’s in Southside Chicago. After a successful run of the podcast’s first season in 2017 with over 20 million downloads, Season 2 was released on iTunes in March 2021, with another all-star cast including Larenz Tate, Laurence Fishburne, and heavy hitting talent such as Mekhi Phifer, LeVar Burton, Tika Sumpter, Lalah Hathaway, and Harold Perrineau.

Bronzeville needed an agency that could deliver an integrated marketing strategy that could also incorporate an understanding of the multicultural nature of the podcast’s content to better connect with its listenership around a storyline steeped in Black history. DAX US and the producers of Bronzeville: Cinema Gypsy & TateMen Entertainment, reached out to CAP SOC once again, this time to develop and implement a marketing strategy that would result in more content and an even more engaging social media imprint for Season 2. A shift in processes and tactics was necessary due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; and CAP SOC rose to the challenge by producing additional visual content during the week of recording sessions, developing virtual events for fan engagement, and fine tuning the look and feel for Bronzeville content online. Through an updated content and influencer marketing strategy, Bronzeville was able to once again wow its listeners with Season 2 of the audio series.

60 DAY RESULTS

20 million+ downloads
359,000 impressions
2500 virtual event attendees
Over 15k followers across social platforms

TACTICS

Content Production

Development of bonus content - filming & editing of exit interviews with all cast and the production team.

BTS content captured for development into social media graphics

Influencer Marketing
- Cast interaction strategy - Instagram Live, recorded answers to listener questions
- Dissemination of talent interviews to their networks
Live & Virtual Event Strategy
- Traveled with cast on press run (Chicago) in order to gather content and maximize press -- i.e. BTS and imagery with interviewers, on shows, etc.
- Gathered content from events - Fireside chat & after party
- Virtual Fireside panel via Zoom with key talent
- Clubhouse convo with key talent
Engagement
- Focus was on authentic engagement with audiences - reaction pics/gifs
Campaign Development
- Season 1 marathon
- Tune in to Season 2
Social Media Management
- Content development, implementation and engagement for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram profiles
Website management
- Press and blog post updates
- Season 2 revamp to include new cast and episode information