Sony Music's Pave Program: Understanding Gen Z Fanatics Through Digital Ethnography

Always On with Your Customer Through Digital Ethnography

Sony Music's Audience Closeness Program

The demand for digital ethnography is increasing due to various factors, including the prevalence of digital transformation in businesses and the rise of Gen Z and Gen Alpha, who expect seamless, personalised experiences. With most customer journeys taking place online, understanding human behaviour in different contexts is becoming increasingly challenging. Digital ethnography offers a powerful methodology to solve this problem. The rapid pace of technological change has also made it impossible for researchers to keep up, leading to a trend of customer closeness. 

Companies are seeking lean and agile approaches that provide contextual insights faster and at lower costs. This presents an opportunity for digital ethnography to evolve and provide richer insights through mobile-first approaches. Researchers can run a panel over two to three months, staying connected to participants through video and smartphones. This allows for always-on, always-connected customers and relevant insights to navigate the accelerating pace of change.

Sony Music is a world-renowned record label that has nurtured some of music's most iconic artists and produced some of the most influential recordings in history. With a roster of international superstars and developing artists, Sony Music's insights team plays a crucial role in helping their labels understand their artists' audiences and connect with them in the most effective and creative ways possible. In this context, Sony Music's insights team faced a challenge in getting closer to their audiences, particularly Gen Z Fanatics, who are the company's heaviest streamers and most vocal supporters of new artists. 

To address this challenge, Sony Music launched an audience closeness program called Pave using Digital Ethnography to gain insights into their Gen Z audience's preferences, behaviours, and engagement with music. In this article, we will discuss how Sony Music used Digital Ethnography to build a stronger bond with their Gen Z Fanatics audience and create music that resonates with their most passionate fans.

Background

Sony Music is one of the largest record labels in the world, responsible for nurturing some of music's most iconic artists and producing some of the most influential recordings of all time. With a roster of international superstars and developing artists, the company's insights team's role is to help their labels best understand their artists' current and potential audiences so they can connect with them in the most effective and creative ways possible.

Solution

In 2019, Sony Music launched an audience closeness program called Pave, with the intention of bringing Sony staff beyond the insight team closer to the world of Gen Z in a more ongoing fashion. Instead of a traditional community, the company made the bedrock of the program Indeemo and digital ethnography. They collaborated with the team at The Mix and generated an audience closeness program called Pave.

Given that this was an audience closeness program, Sony Music jumped into it without too many research questions or hypotheses on purpose. They wanted to let the lives of their audiences reflect in the ethnography and guide the topics they explored. Once armed with the themes that matter to their respondents, they brought them together in person, and members in the Sony team to code co-create a zine reflecting their views and impressions of the UK rap scene.

Benefits of Digital Ethnography for Customer Closeness

Digital ethnography provides several benefits over traditional community approaches, as exemplified by Sony Music's audience closeness research. 

Ongoing Relationships with Participants

Firstly, digital ethnography allows for a more ongoing relationship with the target audience, as participants can provide regular updates on their lives and opinions. This provides deeper insights into their preferences, behaviours, and engagement with music, as well as a more personal and nuanced understanding of their lives.

Unobtrusive Observation

Secondly, digital ethnography allows for a more natural and unobtrusive observation of the target audience, as they go about their daily lives. This can lead to more authentic and honest responses, as participants are not constrained by the presence of researchers or the pressure to conform to group norms.

Collaboration & Co-Creation

Finally, digital ethnography can facilitate collaboration between researchers and participants, allowing for co-creation of content and deeper engagement. This can lead to a sense of empowerment for participants and a greater sense of ownership over the research process.

Overall, digital ethnography provides a powerful tool for gaining a deeper understanding of target audiences and building stronger relationships with them, as demonstrated by Sony Music's successful Pave program.

Conclusion

By launching an audience closeness program, Sony Music was able to gain a deeper understanding of their Gen Z Fanatics audience and learn about their preferences, behaviours, and engagement with music. The program allowed Sony Music to move beyond traditional communities to take a closer look at the lives of their audiences and create a more ongoing relationship with them.

By generating a powerful zine that showcased their learnings and perspectives, Sony Music was able to build a stronger bond with their Gen Z Fanatics audience, empowering them to create music that resonates with their most passionate fans.

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