Connect

Case Study

PBS

Seeking to reinvigorate their connection with their social audience, we dove deep into PBS’ organic social channels and identified several key focus areas to improve reach and engagement metrics.

Social media bubbles appearing on top of a woman looking at her phone and laptop

The Challenge

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is known for their high-quality, educational broadcast shows that are beloved by audiences of all ages. PBS has an incredible content catalog, including throwback classics The French Chef with Julia Child and Bob Ross’s The Joy of Painting, as well as recent favorites such as Downton Abbey and Antiques Roadshow, along with high-quality news and interview format offerings. Despite this engaging content mix, PBS’s organic content metrics were declining over time and they were seeking advice on how to reestablish audience connections and help their content reach more followers.

What We Did

  • Social Audit
  • Social Strategy

The Approach

Diving into PBS’s Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok communities, we reviewed year-over-year performance data and month-to-month fluctuations in engagement metrics. We took into account how social platform algorithms have evolved and how they have become more adept at keeping our attention in-platform. Key metrics for the algorithm are impressions and engagement, which, when evaluated side by side, paint a picture of how users and the platform algorithms are responding to content.

The Impact

Our audit led us to five key opportunity areas that we are delving deeper into with the PBS marketing and content team to execute:

  1. Establishing a brand-driven content and channel strategy
  2. Be selective with program promotion
  3. Leverage paid moments to drive specific audience actions
  4. Integrate top-performing organic content into paid campaigns
  5. Establish a regular cadence of reporting and metrics review

With focus on these areas over the next 6-12 months, we expect to see improvements in reach and engagement metrics, which we’ll monitor with regular reporting and content audits to ensure ongoing alignment and results.

400m

total impressions

97%

decrease in CPMs

40

countries