Creating a new positioning and brand strategy to empower the popular media company to leverage the algorithm and reach its potential.
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We refined Chillhop’s positioning allowing the brand to double-down on the things it is already known for.
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We redefined the relationship between Chillhop Music and its child more unknown brand “Endless Sunday”.
Chillhop Music is a popular media brand that started as a channel on YouTube, 3.2M subscribers.
GOAL
While brand love from their audience is huge, the strategic foundations of the brand had never been defined before and the path moving forward was unclear.
We set up to define a new brand strategy, solid positioning and messaging to provide internal clarity and drive sustainable long-term growth.
Challenge
Lack of brand ownership
What started as a very personal music curation channel based on Bas van Leeuwen’s (founder) creative direction, had grown to a point where it was now being defined by distribution platform algorithms, more than Chillhop’s own vision.
Lack of clarity
A “known” but not defined brand vision translated in lack of focus, and meant the team was unclear on what business verticals were to be developed or what was the priority.
We gathered information from the team, the audience, their competitors,
and cultural trends.
We conducted desktop research, user & key stakeholder interviews, a team workshop, and surveyed
their audience database.
“I would rather have a smaller business that’s true to our vision, than a huge company optimized for the algorithms”
– Bas Van Leeuwen
The Chillhop Music brand is loved by their audience, but it didn’t have the same reputation within mature artists.
The Raccoon was so popular, that there was no space for the artists’ personal brands to shine.
Making artists unhappy was not a sustainable approach for the brand long-term.
Key Insight
Distribution was alienating creation,
both needed to be disconnected.
We introduced a new
brand architecture, assigning some of the music releasing business to an already existing and underutilized brand they had: Endless Sunday.
Separating creation and distribution was a challenging but supported decision, but we still needed to define the strategy and narrative for both brands.
Key Insight
Chillhop is not a music label,
is a creator brand presented by a Raccoon.
We expanded Chillhop's category from record label to media company, putting their characters and storytelling front and center.
Results
70 new tracks releasing with Endless Sunday.
Endless Sunday takes over a part of the music releasing business securing artistic value,
giving Chillhop space to focus on building the characters and music that made it grow.
Increased Employee Satisfaction
Internal business restructuring gives employees new growth opportunities, a higher sense of ownership, and a clear direction to follow.