Twitter Japan Hip-Hop Content Opportunity Analysis™ 2019-2022

Content Opportunity Methodology

1. Measure & Categorize. Sample a large number of social posts to find ones that are significantly outperforming the average.
2. Identify Top Themes. Identify the themes that are resonating most with the audience by sorting the themes by their aggregated performance metrics.
3. Identify a Benchmark. Identify content themes that are performing above and under an average benchmark for the industry based on views & engagements.
4. Identify Opportunities. Look at the data and find the content themes that are resonating with the audience based on a set of top creators.
5. Repeat For Each Platform. Repeat the analysis for every platform that matters to your brand and audience to find platform-specific opportunities.

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Twitter Content Bucket Definitions

• Sample Challenge: Content creators filming themselves throughout the day while they capture everyday sounds to sample in music they make.

• Pre-Performance Moments: Behind-the-scene footage from before artists perform their “First Take”. 

• Rap Battle: Top rappers battling it out on stage with freestyle raps incorporating boasts, insults and wordplay to see who has the best verses. 

• One-Take Performance: Clips taken from “First Take” a series where artists perform a song recorded in one-take in a white studio with a microphone. 

• Freestyle Clip: Clips of artist freestyle rapping in various formats such as a rapper walking and rapping while a friend films them on their iPhone.

• Remixes: Rappers or producers reworking or jumping on existing songs.  

• Reggae vs. Hip-Hop: Clips from rap battles between two artists, one performing reggae and the other rapping in hip-hop.

• Cultural Mash-Up: Videos mashing up North American popular hits with Japanese hip-hop songs.

• Hip-Hop x Sneakers: Clips from McGuffin’s Sneaker Addict and GQ’s SNEAKER HOLICS video series where artists discuss their favourite sneakers or pick a pair to wear.

• Live Studio Performances: Performances by artists in a studio with live accompaniment or by themselves.

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Content buckets that had the highest average views & engagement in the Japanese hip-hop space include:

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Good performing content opportunities for the Japanese hip-hop audience on Twitter include:

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Substandard performing content opportunities for the Japanese hip-hop audience on Twitter include:

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Low performing content opportunities for the Japanese hip-hop audience on Twitter include:

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Content Opportunities:

‍1. Sample Challenge

Sample Challenge videos entail music producers and rappers sampling unexpected sounds from everyday life to create new melodies and tracks.

Tactics to Implement:

• Reaching Target Audience: As of January 2021, Twitter has an 80% penetration rate* among 20 to 29-year-olds and a 48% penetration rate among 30 to 39-year-olds in Japan, making it Twitter's largest audience next to the US.
• Collabs: In the video on the far left, Matt Cab collaborates with the Japanese rapper MIYACHl. The two recorded a song together by sampling sounds from a local grocery store and having MIYACHl rap over it.

Content Opportunities:

• The current sample challenge videos are all created in the moment. Find a way to set up a challenge with pre-chosen objects in a set studio where artists are invited in to try making something out of nothing.

*Penetration rate is the the percentage of the relevant population that has app downloaded.

212K  Views

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68K Views

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2. Pre-Performance Moments

Pre-recording moment videos showcase the rituals and shenanigans that happen moments before artists perform at The First Take. Tweets promote the premiere of the full videos, usually the day before the video launches. 

‍Tactics to Implement:

• Consistent Format: All tweets follow the following format: 

• Announcing the premiere, date and time
• The link to the full video
• The tag of the artist(s)
• Their branded hashtag: #THEFIRSTTAKE

• BTS: Sharing pre-recording moments gives viewers the rare opportunity to see the human side of artists before they perform.
• Posting Times: In 2022, video premieres alternate between Wednesdays and Fridays at 22:00 local time.  

‍Content Opportunities:

• Use pre-recording footage or clips from behind-the-scenes to tease upcoming video premieres on Twitter a day before the launch. 

226K  Views

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178K Views

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3. Rap Battle

Tweets feature clips from various rap battles hosted by 真・ADRENALINE and 凱旋MCbattle. Rap battle videos feature rappers competing on a stage to see who has the best verses.

Tactics to Implement:

• Video Length: The top five videos range from 40 seconds to 1:30 minutes, with the top three all falling between 40-50 seconds in length. 
• Emojis: 93% of all Rap Battle tweets utilized at least one fire emoji. 
• Post Cadence: 凱旋MCbattle posts daily on Twitter, helping boost its visibility and grow engagement. Additionally, their tweets often feature rich media such as images and videos.

Content Opportunities:

• Currently there is a lack of rap battle content made specifically for Twitter. Create 60-second rap battles in studio to be shared on Twitter.

126K  Views

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121K  Views

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4. One-Take Performance

Studio Snippets are teasers from artists' performances at The First Take. These tweets aim to drive traffic to the full performance video on YouTube.

Tactics to Implement:

• Optimize:  Both of the tweets shown on the left include 3 purposeful hashtags, line spaces to help break up text, and a clear call to action.
• Simplicity: Videos feature medium and close-up shots of the performers set against a white backdrop, with only a microphone in view.

Content Opportunities:

• The First Take has mastered cross-platform content distribution. Their approach of breaking up their videos across Twitter, Instagram and TikTok drives viewers to watch the full video on YouTube. Follow their lead to optimize content for each platform specifically. 

122K  Views

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50K Views

Viral Videos:

These videos were omitted from their content buckets as ‘viral’ outliers for exceeding 3x the views and engagements of their respective benchmarks.

1. Style Hero

Tactics - In this video, rapper Travis Scott discusses his style heroes. The video is in English and features subtitles in Japanese. This video generated 70x benchmark for views and engagements. 

2.4M Views

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2. Sample Challenge

Tactics - In this video, Matt Cab creates a beat only using his son’s “Anpanman” toy. Think outside the box and get creative with sounds to sample.

437K Views

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3. Rap Battle

Tactics:

Length: Both the viral rap battle videos were between 40-50 seconds in length.

Content: Top videos were from 凱旋MCbattle’s East-West Selection Summer Nojin 2019 battle and East-West Selected Winter Nojin 2020 first rounds.

255K Views

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162K Views