OVERVIEW

Over the span of 7 weeks, our focus centered on the exploration and implementation of Experience Design principles. Our objective was to identify a client grappling with a specific challenge and develop a tailored intervention to address their needs.

ROLE:

Content Strategy, User Research, Visual Design

TEAM:

Luke Do, Justin Yu, Alex Luowan, Terence Xu

PROJECT TYPE:

Academic Project, 2023

a laptop
a laptop
a laptop
a laptop

WHO IS 88RISING

Just like me, before now you may have probably not heard of 88rising yet the uniqueness of their goal drew me in. As a music and entertainment company, 88rising stands out with the aim of representing Asian culture and bridging the East and the West. In an industry where Asians have been stereotyped for a long time, 88rising boldy challenges these stereotypes by showing that Asians deserve a presence and influence in music genres particularly Hip Hop and Rap

quotes of people saying indiscrimnate

Sean Miyashiro, Founder of 88rising

PROBLEM SPACE

Within the past 4 years, 88rising has faced an issue with discoverability as they have struggled with providing their newer artist with the same reach they previously had with older artist, loosing over 2.6million in viewership (Figure 1). This loss has stagnated their goal of introducing Asians into mainstream media and serves as a hindrance to the company and its goal.

Figure 1: Representation of viewership between 2016 - 2023

Figure 2: 88rising viewership as of 2023 (Artist based)

Comparatively, the older artists (Joji, Rich Brian and Niki) are doing better than the newer artists who appear to be struggling in reach despite putting out music releases. At this point, I realized a number of factors could be attributed to the poor viewership. Some assumption we had were:

  1. Their music weren’t just as good compared to the older artist.
  2. The audience had not been able to make a connection with the newer artist, hence their reach being low.

To test this assumptions and perhaps uncover a blind spot we may have been missing, we conducted interviews with 89 survey participants who were in one way or the other fans of 88rising. The questions revolved around the perceptions of 88rising as a brand and their artist as well as respondents music sharing habits to better understand how artists are discovered.

At the point, what kind of fans we should be targeting remained unclear to me. However, I saw the survey as a means to better under the fans through their habits, aiming to pinpoint the exact areas of disconnect between the then and artists.

SURVEY RESULTS

The 2 main points we found out from the survey was:

  1. 62% of respondents were not aware of 88rising's frequent releases
  2. 41% of respondents attributed 88rising's decline in popularity to their lack of engagement stating:

Survey Participant

While the first assumption that I made was wrong (Their music weren’t just as good compared to the older artist.), the second was more in line with the issue (The audience had not been able to make a connection with the newer artist, hence their reach being low.). After the survey, we were clearly able to identify 2 kinds of fans:

  1. die hard fans: those who actively seek out and engage with 88rising be it through social media or song listen and are fairly up to date with latest releases or their favorite artists.
  2. Casual fans: those who gravitate towards 88rising’s renowned artists but show limited awareness of other talents on the roster. While they are interested in knowing more about these lesser-known artists, casual fans most of the time, will only engage with artists if they appear in their feeds.

Moving forward we chose to target casual fans as we observed they are the segment of fans that has experienced a decline of engagement with the brand. Focusing on this fan segment will provide 88rising with more opportunities to foster stronger brand loyalty and spur growth by leveraging their diverse roster of talents.

Figure 3: Journey mapping and HMW’s generated during a working session.

Figure 4: Simplified journey of fans

We discovered a notable gap between fans and 88rising during the consumption phase. While fans encounter content sporadically, the effort required to seek out more is often hindered by the scattered distribution of 88rising's content across various online platforms.

EXISTING TOUCHPOINT

Figure 5: 88risings current website and YouTube channel

88risings current site only focuses of sale, lacking information about artist themselves or music, which may give the wrong impression of the label. Additionally, their YouTube channel houses content sparsed across various platform making it hard for fans to discover and further engagement.

This led us to the question:

How might we create a centralized platform for casual fans, simplifying the discovery and supporting lesser-known artists to further their reach and engagement while establishing connections with the audience

CONTENT STRATEGY

Collaborative promotion: Promoting discovery and increasing exposure for the lesser-known artists of 88rising by surfacing collaborative content with established talents.

Personifying artist: Showcasing the personalities of artists, to create a memorable first impression through unconventional means: using stickers and short clips that personify the artists and highlight them in a more relatable light.

Script by Claret Egwim & Luke Do, Video by Justin Yu, Voiceover by Angie Yu

LANGUAGE DRIVEN ARTIST DISCOVERY

The landing page features an array of Asian languages alongside their respective countries, fostering exploration and discoverability. Designed with the aim of initiating connections, it invites users to gravitate towards a language or country they resonate with, facilitating the discovery of artists from the same cultural background.

BEHIND THE BEAT COLLABORATIONS

The collaboration page adopts an emotion-centric approach, showcasing behind-the-scenes content from music videos to humanize the artists. This aims to present artists in a more relatable light. Additionally, fans are offered direct links to the song on various streaming platforms, enhancing their immersive experience.

CELEBRATING UNIQUE PERSONALITIES

The artist page adopts an innovative approach, aiming to highlight the distinctive personalities of the artists, which 88rising themselves consider. Utilizing a brief introductory video to offer insight into their essence, a diverse collection of quirky stickers tailored to each artist, and an assortment of video content including music videos, behind-the-scenes footage, and exploratory content, the page offers a multifaceted glimpse into the artists' worlds.

REFLECTION

The process of landing this project, was not an easy one. It took us quite some time to believe this was the right space, because we were constantly seeking for something more. Something to make it “perfect”. This project was yet again another reminder that the process is never linear. There’s always something that can be done to improve your work, but being a good designer is also knowing when to look at your project and say “stop, this is it”.

So grateful for my team. This was a challenging one for all of us, but we held each other down and continued to work as a team and as friends!