Beats by Dre · earned + organic social, paid in support · Oct 2026 to Sep 2027 · proposal
Twelve months of social built on what Beats' own data says works: talent in their own voice.
Earned and organic lead; paid amplifies what already earned. 18 past campaigns scored against look-alike baselines. The 5 decisions →
Earned media value · Beats 360
2,125 fan, press and creator posts scored by MVP against look-alikes.
MODELEDEarned above baseline
Campaigns whose earned posts beat look-alikes. Top: Powerbeats Fit x Travis Scott 1.61x, iShowSpeed Master of Speed 1.37x, Beats 360 launch 1.34x.
MODELEDConversation · Beats 360
Meltwater mentions, first 13 days, vs the median past launch.
MEASUREDOrganic Instagram, 12 months
Reach across 100 posts; talent posts carry 82% of it.
MEASUREDThe plan, 12 months
Includes $5.50M paid, which amplifies posts that already earned attention. 2025 paid social: $5.33M.
MODELED5best post behind each decision
7.5x25.3% · 199K reachedTravis Scott
2.0x11.0% · 325K reachedGo Behind the Design of the all-new Beats 360, our first-ever over-ear headphone
6.1x17.8% · 741K reachedOn a different frequency 🌵🔥🎶 Shop your Beats this holiday season at beatsbydre.c
1.7x10.1% · 261K reachedMade for you. Beats 360 with interchangeable cushions is available in store now.
2.2x12.2% · 108K reachedNana Ouyang0.47xmedian lift past 1M reach · the 5 largest
Three decisions this plan asks for
- Confirm the product calendar. Spring and fall windows [TBC], owner Beats product marketing.
- Fund earned first. Collabs, own-voice talent and seeding carry the plan; at least 70% of paid boosts posts that already earned attention.
- Pick a scenario. Lean $8.88M, Recommended $15.09M, Stretch $22.71M (section 09).
01 · What past campaigns changed
5 decisions, each shown by the posts that earned attention and the posts that did not.
The number on each post is its engagement against same-network, same-format, same-quarter posts. Red beat that baseline by 10% or more.
Decision 1
Lead with talent that has its own fans, and move fitness creators to paid.
Music, fashion and sport names posting in their own voice beat same-format posts; fitness creators trailed on owned and earned alike.
7.5x25.3% · 199KTravis Scott
6.0x20.5% · 157KJENNIE
5.5x13.9% · 426KShohei Ohtani
0.5x1.3% · 42KKirsty Godso
0.5x1.2% · 46KSami Clarke
IG
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Median lift vs same-format posts |
|---|---|---|
| Travis Scott | 1 post · ER 25.33% | 7.49x |
| PinkPantheress | 1 post · ER 10.01% | 3.42x |
| Shohei Ohtani | 7 posts · ER 9.93% | 3.27x |
| JENNIE | 11 posts · ER 4.66% | 1.91x |
| Kendall Jenner | 4 posts · ER 4.06% | 1.23x |
| iShowSpeed | 8 posts · ER 0.72% | 0.89x |
| Kirsty Godso | 4 posts · ER 2.07% | 0.72x |
| Sami Clarke | 4 posts · ER 2.07% | 0.63x |
| NFL athletes (3) | 2 posts · ER 1.91% | 0.61x |
| LeBron James | 1 post · ER 1.28% | 0.32x |
Decision 2
Make behind-the-design the lead paid cut, and rotate creative across all four brand audiences.
At the Beats 360 launch behind-the-design ads out-clicked talent ads on Meta and TikTok, and under 5% of paid was bought against a Beats audience.
2.0x11.0% · 325KGo Behind the Design of the all-new Beats 360, our first-ever over-ear headphone
1.7x10.6% · 86KKendall Jenner
2.2x7.8% · 56KGo Behind the Design of the all-new Beats 360, our first-ever over-ear headphone0.5x2.8% · 2.1MKendall JennerShow as table
| Item | Detail | Click-through rate, Beats 360 paid |
|---|---|---|
| Meta · behind the design | $47K · 6.7M impressions | 0.664% |
| Meta · talent | $61K · 3.6M impressions | 0.296% |
| TikTok · behind the design | $52K · 5.2M impressions | 0.720% |
| TikTok · talent | $58K · 5.7M impressions | 0.402% |
Decision 3
Boost proven posts into the 100K to 1M band; stop pushing single hero posts past 1M.
Response peaks between 100K and 1M organic reach and halves past 1M.
6.1x17.8% · 741KOn a different frequency 🌵🔥🎶 Shop your Beats this holiday season at beatsbydre.c
3.8x11.0% · 545KLocked in. Always. Photographer: @imvar
0.2x0.6% · 6.0MiShowSpeed0.3x1.3% · 1.8MLeBron James
0.3x1.7% · 3.6MJENNIE
IGShow as table
| Item | Detail | Median lift by organic reach per post |
|---|---|---|
| Under 100K | 55 posts · ER 4.07% | 0.91x |
| 100K to 300K | 36 posts · ER 8.27% | 1.28x |
| 300K to 1M | 13 posts · ER 10.12% | 1.94x |
| Over 1M | 12 posts · ER 2.57% | 0.47x |
Decision 4
Keep product at a fifth of posts, hero the cushions, and answer the price question.
Product posts turn reach into followers at twice the talent rate, and Pricing Value is the most-discussed, least-loved theme in AI answers.
1.7x10.1% · 261KMade for you. Beats 360 with interchangeable cushions is available in store now.
2.4x8.8% · 332KPersonalize your Beats 360 with interchangeable cushions in 6 colors and 2 super
2.9x7.9% · 104KNo promises. Just possibilities. Which one is your favorite? From left to right:
0.0x0.1% · 57KDesigned to move with you.
0.3x2.9% · 69KThe Pill People have entered the villa 🏝️ If you're committing to a full summer 
Decision 5
Grow the female audience on owned channels as a tracked target, not an assumption.
Women are 26.3% of known-gender Instagram followers, least of all among 25 to 34s, the biggest band.
Audiences + positioning →Show as table
| Item | Detail | Women as a share of known-gender Instagram followers, by age |
|---|---|---|
| 13-17 | 1.2% of followers | 34.2% |
| 18-24 | 16.3% of followers | 26.3% |
| 25-34 | 43.9% of followers | 22.6% |
| 35-44 | 24.9% of followers | 27.5% |
| 45-54 | 10.0% of followers | 34.6% |
| 55-64 | 2.4% of followers | 41.0% |
| 65+ | 1.2% of followers | 30.3% |
Every platform, one scoring rule
Talent clears its baseline on TikTok; on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook it sits at baseline, carried by a few names with real fans.
Each post is scored against posts on its own network, format and quarter, so platforms compare as ratios. Engagement rates never cross platforms. Where one content type is most of a network's posts, its median sits near 1.00x by construction: read those rows as "the norm", not as proof.
Tool | Date | Scope: Metricool brand 6985229 + CreatorDB (TikTok before Apr 2026, YouTube) | 2026-10-06 | instagram 116, tiktok 42, youtube 70, facebook 120, x 13 posts · MEASURED
IG
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Median lift vs same-network, same-format posts |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram · talent | 52 posts | 1.00x |
| Instagram · product | 35 posts | 1.00x |
| Instagram · Pill People | 7 posts, under 20: direction only | 0.62x |
| Instagram · behind the scenes | 6 posts, under 20: direction only | 1.60x |
| TikTok · talent | 22 posts | 1.30x |
| TikTok · product | 13 posts, under 20: direction only | 0.35x |
| YouTube · talent | 30 posts | 1.00x |
| YouTube · product | 17 posts, under 20: direction only | 0.97x |
| YouTube · Pill People | 15 posts, under 20: direction only | 1.00x |
| YouTube · behind the scenes | 5 posts, under 20: direction only | 1.00x |
| Facebook · talent | 45 posts | 1.00x |
| Facebook · product | 43 posts | 1.00x |
| Facebook · behind the scenes | 6 posts, under 20: direction only | 1.00x |
| Facebook · Pill People | 5 posts, under 20: direction only | 1.05x |
| X · product | 6 posts, under 20: direction only | 1.01x |
Tool | Date | Scope: Metricool @beatsbydre, brand 6985229 | 2026-10-06 | Instagram since Aug 2025, TikTok since Dec 2025, YouTube since Sep 2025, X since Sep 2026, lifetime-to-date counts; thumbnails read 2026-10-07; content tags are SkaFld's, from captions · MEASURED
02 · Brand fit of this plan
9 of 10 recommendations sit inside the brand strategy; the one in tension says how to resolve it.
Each recommendation is plotted against the part of the brand strategy it serves; hover a dot for the line it quotes, and follow the evidence to its chart. Launch deck for 518, not a standing brand book; states no brand KPIs.
Recommendations against the Beats 518 brand strategy
Tone for every post: Elevated but accessible. Playful but purposeful. Fashion-forward without being exclusive. We are Rhode, not Chanel. NikeSkims, not Bottega. Red dot: fits. Amber ring: in tension.
Show quotes and evidence
| Recommendation | Brand anchor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Lead owned talent content with Cultural Drivers and music and fashion names; JENNIE and Kendall Jenner in their own voice. | “Our focus for 518 is to win with women by building real cultural relevance with a highly influential audience.”slide 14 | JENNIE 1.91 and Kendall Jenner 1.23 median lift on Instagram; JENNIE conversation 81% female.Directional: under 20 posts per talent. |
| Put paid behind female talent posts that have already earned attention, instead of relying on the talent's own audience. | “We'll do that by tapping into the cultural power of the It Girl in a way we haven't done before.”slide 14 | Paid lifted the same fitness creative from 60K to 12.7M impressions; female viewership rose 32% to 47% without lifting engagement.Fuel or fame: owned reach to women needs one of the two. |
| Serve the Performance Purist through paid product and behind-the-design creative and athlete own-voice moments, not an owned fitness-creator series. | “Show product in a more direct performance and fitness setting.”slide 25 | Fitness creators 0.63 to 0.72 lift on owned; performance-purist BTD on TikTok clicked at 0.720%; Shohei 3.27 lift.The deck keeps Fitness as an always-on influencer tier. Keep the tier, but measure it in whitelisted paid on click-through, not on owned engagement. |
| Hero the swappable cushions in product carousels and short product reels; product stays at 20% of posts for follower growth. | “For Beats 360, our goal is to land the hero message of swappable ear cushions: customization and functionality built on our most premium headphone to date.”slide 08 | Product posts: 1.79 follows per 1,000 reached against 0.77 for talent.Cushion-specific posts are not tagged separately yet. |
| Seed tastemakers for organic product placement and repost their 2D and fan content on @beatsbydre. | “Tastemaker partnerships prioritize product showing up in content organically, as often as possible, rather than a traditional paid ad.”slide 23 | Talent 2D reached 84% to 98% new viewers; fan pages carried most of Travis's social EMV.Seed-to-post rate was 12% on iShowSpeed; contract for reposts. |
| Choose collab drops that give fans something over commercial talent films. | “For Jennie, we'll build a multifaceted partnership that places her in similar creative to Kendall as well as a Jennie specific "cushion drop" to excite her fans.”slide 21 | PinkPantheress custom 1,540 mentions against the Travis ad's 1,400; iShowSpeed peaked at 382 Beats mentions a day.The 518 deck plans a JENNIE cushion drop as this kind of fan gift (slide 21) [TBC owner: Beats talent team: whether it ran]. |
| Boost into the 100K to 1M reach band; no paid push past 1M on a single hero post. | “We signal taste without creating distance.”slide 12 | Over 1M reach: 0.47 lift; 100K to 300K: 1.28 lift on 36 posts.Directional: engagement rate divides by reach, so high-reach posts read lower partly by construction. [assumption: mass hero pushes read as distance rather than taste] |
| Tag every paid line with one of the four brand audiences and rotate creative across them so audience and creative can be read apart. | “We'll activate a paid media strategy that breaks through with our four audiences at notable frequency. Strategy trends by month: Routine Reset (Sep), Sports & Fashion (Oct), Holiday Ramp (Nov), Holiday (Dec). Rollout phases: Seeding Influence; Scale With Moments That Matter; Build Education Through Authenticity; Convert With Action-Oriented Formats.”slide 55 | 4.6% of paid since Jan 2025 carried a persona; Modern It Girl received $0; each persona ran one creative.Needs PMG to keep the audience_strategy field on every line. |
| Keep Pill People humour to one post a month inside the product pillar. | “Elevated but accessible. Playful but purposeful. Fashion-forward without being exclusive.”slide 17 | Pill posts: 0.62 lift on Instagram; Pill People villa 0.12 on TikTok.Playful but purposeful: the format, not playfulness, is what underperformed [assumption]. |
| Answer the price question in product content: what the premium buys (cushion swaps, battery, durability) rather than specs alone. | “Beats operates in the space between elevated and everyday, or what we're calling "accessible premium."”slide 12 | Pricing Value is the most-discussed AI-answer theme at about 60% positive; Build Durability is as split.Directional: sampled AI prompts, one launch window. |
Tool | Date | Scope: Beats 518 Early All-Up deck, commit 577e157 | 29 May 2026 | positioning, tone, talent tiers, product priorities, paid phasing, social rules · DIRECTIONAL
03 · Audiences + positioning
The four 518 audiences stay the anchor; independent data backs the Performance Purist most and the Modern It Girl least on owned channels.
Beats operates in the space between elevated and everyday, or what we're calling "accessible premium." Each profile below is the deck's, tested against owned, earned, paid, AI-answer and review data.
Trendsetter · Millennial Female, 18-34
Modern It Girl
3 support2 contradict2 untested0.75M deck figure
Talent evidence supports her; the owned Instagram base and paid data cannot confirm her yet.
Evidence
- contradict Metricool Instagram followers: The 25 to 34 band is the largest age group, but women are 22.6% of it. The owned base is a male-leaning follower snapshot, not her audience. MEASUREDMetricool IGAG01-03 via data/audience.json | generated 2026-09-28 | Instagram followers, age x gender, 2,485,971 followers
- contradict CreatorDB @beatsbydre Instagram audience: Says 78% female, the opposite of Metricool's 26% female of known. The two cannot both be right; Metricool reads Instagram's own insights, so it outranks CreatorDB's model. Flagged, not reconciled. MODELEDCreatorDB get_*_audience | pulled 2026-10-07 | @beatsbydre Instagram, TikTok, YouTube; top 6 audience countries
- untested Alli persona cells: Beats 360 paid did not buy this persona, so paid cannot test her. MEASUREDAlli (PMG) via data/paid/campaigns.json | 2026-09-10 to 2026-10-05, pulled 2026-10-06 | audiences[] persona cells, Beats 360 only
- support MVP talent lift, Kendall Jenner (Beats 360 talent) MODELEDMVP (Game Theory) via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | talent with 30+ scored posts, cohort-median-v1
- untested CreatorDB @kendalljenner Instagram audience: Half female, 25 to 34 led, but the country mix matches the US template CreatorDB returns for 11 US accounts (data/research/creators-current.json flags), so it carries no weight either way. MODELEDCreatorDB get_instagram_audience | pulled 2026-10-07 | @jennierubyjane, @kendalljenner, @shoheiohtani
- support MVP talent lift, JENNIE (Beats 360 talent) MODELEDMVP (Game Theory) via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | talent with 30+ scored posts, cohort-median-v1
- support PulseIQ, Solo Buds x JENNIE (campaign-463-launch) earned by country: JENNIE's last Beats campaign drew 13.1% of its mentions from the US. Her pull for this persona sits in Japan and Korea, not the US. MEASUREDPulseIQ recap pages in .cache/meltwater/pulseiq | as of 2026-08-20 | countries[] top 8 per campaign, share of all campaign mentions
Primary growth driver · Gen Z Female, 16-26
Aspiring It Girl
2 support2 contradict8.5M deck figure
Paid reaches her at a premium price; TikTok is where her audience shows up. Owned Instagram does not.
Evidence
- support Alli persona cell aspiring-it-girl: Clicks beat the platform median (ctr 1.41x) and completes beat it (1.77x), but CPM ran 2.04x the median. Snapchat drew 0.921% CTR. Two weeks, one campaign: under the lift threshold for a firm call. MEASUREDAlli (PMG) via data/paid/campaigns.json | 2026-09-10 to 2026-10-05, pulled 2026-10-06 | audiences[] persona cells, Beats 360 only
- contradict Metricool Instagram followers: Under-25s are 17.5% of followers and women are 26.3% of the 18 to 24 band. MEASUREDMetricool IGAG01-03 via data/audience.json | generated 2026-09-28 | Instagram followers, age x gender, 2,485,971 followers
- support CreatorDB @beatsbydre TikTok audience: TikTok is the youngest owned audience CreatorDB models. Metricool's TikTok gender (TKDG) came back empty, so there is no measured check. MODELEDCreatorDB get_*_audience | pulled 2026-10-07 | @beatsbydre Instagram, TikTok, YouTube; top 6 audience countries
- contradict Alli same-platform comparison, TikTok: At the same $10.16 CPM, the purist cell clicked at nearly twice her rate on TikTok. MEASUREDAlli (PMG) via data/paid/campaigns.json | 2026-09-10 to 2026-10-05, pulled 2026-10-06 | audiences[] persona cells, Beats 360 only
Credibility builder · Fitness Focused M/F, 18-34
Performance Purist
4 support1 contradict10.0M deck figure
The best-supported profile: paid clicks, athlete talent lift and AI sentiment all point the same way. AI answers rarely recommend Beats for the gym, though.
Evidence
- support Alli persona cell performance-purist: Highest click index of the three personas (1.55x). Completes trail the median (0.77x). CPM 1.95x median. MEASUREDAlli (PMG) via data/paid/campaigns.json | 2026-09-10 to 2026-10-05, pulled 2026-10-06 | audiences[] persona cells, Beats 360 only
- support Alli pre-360 interest cells fitnessfemale and fitnessmale: Interest tags, not the persona. Both genders ran near or above median on response; CPM ran 1.12x the median for fitnessfemale and 0.96x for fitnessmale. Tags and personas are never combined. MEASUREDAlli (PMG) via data/paid/campaigns.json | 2025-03-17 to 2026-02-28 | interest tags, not personas
- support Profound sentiment theme Sport Readiness DIRECTIONALProfound get_sentiment_report via data/audience.json | 2026-09-22 to 2026-10-04 | asset Beats, group_by theme
- contradict Profound topic Durability, Gym Use, and Water Resistance (US): AI answers mention Beats in 25.5% of gym-use prompts against 54.6% across all US prompts. DIRECTIONALProfound get_visibility_report | 2026-09-06 to 2026-10-05, pulled 2026-10-07 | category Beats, asset Beats, group_by topic x region
- support MVP athlete talent: Athletes fill most of the repeatable-over list; female fitness creators (Kirsty Godso 0.94, Sami Clarke 0.70) sit at or below baseline. MODELEDMVP (Game Theory) via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | talent with 30+ scored posts, cohort-median-v1
Conversions accelerator · Beats Owner M/F, 25-45
Brand Loyalist
3 support1 contradict10.0M deck figure
Cheapest persona to reach. The owned base matches her age band, but owners' reviews flag durability and connectivity.
Evidence
- support Alli persona cell brand-loyalist: Lowest CPM of the three personas ($7.16, 1.17x median), completes 2.52x median, clicks 0.73x. Meta CTR 0.664% at $6.95 CPM. MEASUREDAlli (PMG) via data/paid/campaigns.json | 2026-09-10 to 2026-10-05, pulled 2026-10-06 | audiences[] persona cells, Beats 360 only
- support Metricool Instagram followers: 68.8% of followers are 25 to 44, the core of her 25 to 45 band [assumption: followers skew to owners; not tested]. MEASUREDMetricool IGAG01-03 via data/audience.json | generated 2026-09-28 | Instagram followers, age x gender, 2,485,971 followers
- support Profound topics Beats Ownership and Troubleshooting and Warranty (US) DIRECTIONALProfound get_visibility_report | 2026-09-06 to 2026-10-05, pulled 2026-10-07 | category Beats, asset Beats, group_by topic x region
- contradict Yogi US review themes, Beats: Owners praise sound and design but are negative on connectivity and durability: a retention risk for this persona. MEASUREDYogi aggregate_and_group_by | 2025-10-06 to 2026-10-06, pulled 2026-10-07 | brand Beats, US/UK/China, parent theme sentences, Reviews Only default
The two It Girls
Two It Girls, one cascade: the Modern It Girl sets the look, the Aspiring It Girl copies it and buys.
The deck keeps them apart on purpose. They share a 'win with women' strategy, but differ in age, size and job, so the plan buys and measures them separately.
1 · sets the look
Modern It Girl
6.0x20.5% · 157K reachedJENNIE- Deck role
- Trendsetter
- Who
- Millennial Female, 18-34
- Size
- 0.75M deck figure
- Job
- Sets the look. Small and influential: other women watch what she wears.
- Talent
- Tier 1 Cultural Drivers: Kendall Jenner 1.57x earned, JENNIE 1.25x earned
- Lives on
- Instagram and earned press, through Cultural Driver talent
- Paid
- Never bought as its own audience before this plan. This plan: 20% of paid.
- Measured by
- Earned lift on Cultural Driver posts, and a tagged modern-it-girl paid cell read against platform medians
2 · follows and buys
Aspiring It Girl
2.2x12.2% · 108K reachedNana Ouyang- Deck role
- Primary growth driver
- Who
- Gen Z Female, 16-26
- Size
- 8.5M deck figure
- Job
- Follows the look and buys. The volume: the deck's primary growth driver.
- Talent
- Tier 2 Tastemakers and Tier 3 Authenticators: Ouyang Nana 2.20x owned (1 post), PinkPantheress 3.42x owned (1 post)
- Lives on
- TikTok, where Beats' audience skews young and female
- Paid
- Bought at the Beats 360 launch: clicks 1.41x and CPM 2.04x the platform median. This plan: 30% of paid.
- Measured by
- Click-through and completes vs platform medians on TikTok and Instagram, and follows per post from tastemaker content
Ages 18 to 26 fit both definitions. The split holds if the two paid cells respond differently in the first quarter; content pillars and talent serve both either way.
Tool | Date | Scope: Beats 518 Early All-Up deck, slide 09 (roles, ages, sizes) and slides 19 to 24 (It Girl tiers) · MVP earned lift, 30+ posts, as of 2026-10-05 · Metricool owned lift · Alli (PMG) persona cells, Beats 360 launch · plan.json audience split [assumption: weights per paid section] · MODELED
Where to grow next · within the deck's plan
United Kingdom, India and Japan already show up in Beats' earned conversation; China is deck-planned and strong where we can measure it. Each extends a deck profile.
Modern It Girl and Aspiring It Girl in the UK. Performance Purist in India, led by cricket and female fitness. Brand Loyalist and Performance Purist in Japan through a male athlete paired with a female trendsetter. Modern It Girl in China via local It Girls on local platforms, as the deck plans (slides 61 to 63).
Rationale by market
- United Kingdom The UK is the only market that ranks second-tier or better on every source and already has a Beats 360 It Girl paid line. Reviews are the weak spot: UK sentiment sits 0.33 points below the US. Deck: Slide 64: UK It Girls across every tier (Lila Moss, Rina Lipa, Alicia Roddy, Parisa).
- India India shows up in 11 of 12 past campaigns with country data and is the second country in Beats 360 conversation. Cricket talent beats baseline. AI and review data cannot see India, so the case rests on social and earned data. Deck: Slide 66: female fitness activation with Sisters in Sweat; Diva Duke tastemaker content; It Girl seeding.
- Japan Japan is the top or a top-three country in 5 of 12 campaigns and has the deepest bench of above-baseline local athletes. Owned audiences barely reach it, which matches the deck's growth-stage read. Not a Beats 360 cushion-offer market. Deck: Slide 65: Beats is in a growth stage in JP; balance men and women, strengthen core loyalists; Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Harvey of XG shown; tastemakers for price-value validation.
- South Korea Korea's signal is almost all JENNIE. That is a test case, not a market case: it shows whether her Beats 360 posts move Korean conversation the way Solo Buds did. Deck: No Korea slide in the 518 deck; JENNIE is a named Beats 360 talent (data/campaigns.json).
- China Deck-planned market with a measurement gap, not a weak one. Signals we can read are strong: AI visibility 58.1% in China prompts (UK 53.0%), the most positive review sentiment of any market (+0.43 vs US +0.29), and China in the top 8 earned-conversation countries for 8 of 12 past campaigns. Ouyang Nana, the deck's China It Girl lead, already lifts Beats 360 posts on Instagram (2.2x) and TikTok (2.18x), one post each, so direction only. [assumption: Weibo, Douyin and Rednote, where the deck's China talent lives, are outside Metricool and CreatorDB coverage, so social response cannot be scored yet.] Deck: Slides 61 to 63: It Girls of China, Ouyang Nana, Shanghai Fashion Week seeding.
- Nigeria and Ghana Nigeria out-talked the US in the World Cup campaign. Beats has not named it as a market, so no spend is proposed; monitor it in the earned read. Deck: None. Listed because the data shows it, not as a recommendation.
Tool | Date | Scope: Meltwater via PulseIQ | as of 2026-08-20 | country of earned mentions across 12 past campaigns · CreatorDB, Profound, Yogi, Alli per market in the rationale · MEASURED
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Past campaigns with the market in earned conversation's top 8 countries |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | deck-planned · extends Modern It Girl, Aspiring It Girl | 10/12 |
| India | extends Performance Purist | 11/12 |
| Japan | extends Brand Loyalist, Performance Purist, Modern It Girl | 6/12 |
| South Korea | extends Modern It Girl, Aspiring It Girl | 1/12 |
| China | deck-planned · extends Modern It Girl | 8/12 |
China · deck slides 61 to 63
In China the reach sits with the deck's It Girls: Ouyang Nana has 88x the followers of Beats' own Weibo.
- 2026-09-22 Beats 360 China launch with Ouyang Nana MEASURED
- 2026-06-08 Zheng Qinwen custom Beats Studio Pro colorway MEASURED
- 2025-09-05 JENNIE x Beats Solo 4 with Shanghai in-store experience DIRECTIONAL
- 2025-03-19 Zheng Qinwen named Beats global brand ambassador MEASURED
- 2024-03 WINDOWSEN x Beats Studio Pro (Paris Fashion Week) DIRECTIONAL
Competitors buy the same talent pool: Bose named Wang Hedi global brand ambassador (2025); Bose named Song Yuqi asia pacific brand ambassador (2025); Sony named Ouyang Nana headphone category ambassador (2022).
Scoring needs a China-capable source: Qiangua Data, Xinhong (Newrank), Newrank, Feigua Data and others cover Weibo, Douyin and Xiaohongshu [TBC: source and owner].
Tool | Date | Scope: Exa crawl of Weibo profile pages | pulled 2026-10-07 | follower counts, crawl dates not exposed · press and Beats newsroom for activations · MEASURED
Starting point
Women are 26.3% of known-gender Instagram followers today; this plan tracks that share as a KPI.
Tool | Date | Scope: Metricool brand 6985229, Instagram IGAG01-03 (age x gender of followers) | 2026-09-28 | 2,485,971 followers, a follower snapshot, not reach or buyers · MEASURED
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Women as a share of known-gender Instagram followers, by age |
|---|---|---|
| 13-17 | 1.2% of followers | 34.2% |
| 18-24 | 16.3% of followers | 26.3% |
| 25-34 | 43.9% of followers | 22.6% |
| 35-44 | 24.9% of followers | 27.5% |
| 45-54 | 10.0% of followers | 34.6% |
| 55-64 | 2.4% of followers | 41.0% |
| 65+ | 1.2% of followers | 30.3% |
Positioning check
Accessible premium has to answer the price question; content leads with what the premium buys.
Product posts carry cushion swaps, battery and durability as what the premium buys.
Tool | Date | Scope: Profound get_sentiment_report, asset Beats, grouped by theme | 2026-09-22 to 2026-10-04 | sampled AI-answer prompts about Beats · DIRECTIONAL
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Positive share of AI-answer mentions, by theme |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Value | 17.7% of theme mentions | 60.4% |
| Device Compatibility | 17.0% of theme mentions | 91.0% |
| Sound Tuning | 12.9% of theme mentions | 67.3% |
| Design Finish | 12.1% of theme mentions | 80.8% |
| Build Durability | 11.2% of theme mentions | 58.6% |
| Battery | 9.1% of theme mentions | 85.9% |
| Charging | 8.6% of theme mentions | 77.1% |
| Sport Readiness | 8.4% of theme mentions | 95.1% |
14 tests that confirm or retire each profile and market in the 12 months
Show the tests
| Profile | Market | Measure | Success signal | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modern It Girl | US and UK | Run a tagged modern-it-girl paid cell on Meta and TikTok so it gets its own index against platform medians. | index ctrVsMedian and completesVsMedian at or above 1 over 20+ cells or a full flight | [TBC: PMG paid lead] |
| All | Owned | Reconcile Instagram gender: Metricool says 26.3% female of known, CreatorDB models 78.4%. Pull Instagram insights directly once a quarter and treat it as the record. | one agreed figure with its source | [TBC: SkaFld analytics] |
| Modern It Girl, The Aspiring It Girl | Owned | Track female share of Instagram followers by age band monthly; restore TikTok gender (TKDG returned empty). | female share of 18 to 34 followers rising quarter on quarter | [TBC: SkaFld analytics] |
| Aspiring It Girl | US | Watch whether her 2.04x CPM premium falls after launch, and compare Snapchat and TikTok click rates per persona on the same platform. | cpmVsMedian under 1.5 while ctrVsMedian stays above 1 | [TBC: PMG paid lead] |
| Performance Purist | US and UK | Track Profound visibility on gym and water-resistance prompts as Beats 360 IPX4 content runs. | US gym-use visibility moving from 25.5% toward the 54.6% all-prompt level | [TBC: Beats AI visibility owner] |
| Brand Loyalist | US and UK | Track Yogi connectivity and durability sentiment for owners, including Beats 360 once it has 10+ sentences per theme. | connectivity sentiment above -0.3 | [TBC: SkaFld analytics] |
| All | Japan, Korea, China | Add Japanese, Korean and Chinese terms to the Beats 360 Meltwater search; the current export is 95.4% English. | country shares that no longer depend on English-language posts | [TBC: Beats social listening owner] |
| All | Japan, Korea, India | Ask for Japan, Korea and India regions in Profound; only China, UK and US are tracked. | visibility and sentiment rows for each new region | [TBC: Beats AI visibility owner] |
| All | All | Split Alli spend and index by market (parsed from campaign names such as _uk_), starting with the UK Beats 360 It Girl line once its cost is fixed. | a per-market persona index for the UK | [TBC: PMG paid lead] |
| Modern It Girl, The Aspiring It Girl | United Kingdom | Read UK share of Beats 360 earned mentions and UK review sentiment monthly during the UK It Girl seeding. | UK earned share above its 6.2% launch-week level; UK review sentiment above 0 | [TBC: Beats UK marketing] |
| Performance Purist | India | Measure India share of earned mentions and post lift for cricket and Sisters in Sweat content. | India holds second place in Beats 360 earned country share; talent posts at or above baseline lift | [TBC: Beats India marketing] |
| Brand Loyalist, The Performance Purist | Japan | If the deck's male athlete plus female trendsetter pairing runs, compare Japan's earned share with the Powerbeats Fit (9.9%) and Powerbeats Pro 2 (7.3%) launches using the same multilingual search. | Japan share at or above 7.3% of a launch's mentions | [TBC: Beats Japan marketing] |
| Modern It Girl | South Korea | Read Korea's share of conversation on JENNIE's Beats 360 posts against her Solo Buds campaign (10.8%). | Korea share at or above 10.8% on JENNIE posts | [TBC: Beats talent marketing] |
| Modern It Girl | China | Measure the deck's China It Girl content (Ouyang Nana, Karena Ng, Ning Chang, Leah Dou) and the Shanghai Fashion Week seeding on Weibo, Douyin and Rednote with a China-capable listening and analytics source, scored with the same look-alike lift. | Median lift at or above 1.10 over 20+ posts per platform, plus share of China earned mentions during the seeding window | [TBC: Beats international marketing lead] |
Full write-up: claudedocs/audience-research.md · gaps: No Modern It Girl paid cell, so paid can test three of four profiles. Instagram gender conflicts between Metricool (measured, 26.3% female of known) and CreatorDB (modeled, 78.4% female). No source gives country for owned post reach or for sales; Circana sales are US-only. The Beats 360 Meltwater search is almost all English, so Japan, Korea and China are undercounted. Profound tracks only China, UK and US; Yogi has no India, Japan or Korea records for Beats. PulseIQ has no country data for Shohei Ohtani, Studio Pro and the three Global Soccer campaigns. Talent nationality is assumed; talent.json has no country field. China: no official Beats Rednote or Douyin account found; Douyin and Rednote counts for the deck It Girls are third-party or missing; no Beats Shanghai Fashion Week activation found for 2025 or 2026.
04 · Content pillars
Four pillars, weighted by what each one has returned.
Share of the weekly post count across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. X carries talent amplification and culture replies only.
Pillar 1 · 40% of weekly posts
Talent + creators, own voice
Cultural Drivers (Kendall Jenner, JENNIE) and music, fashion and sport names posting as themselves, collab drops and collab posts on @beatsbydre. Fitness creators move to paid, measured on clicks.
Instagram lift: Travis 7.49, PinkPantheress 3.42, Ohtani 3.27, JENNIE 1.91; fitness creators 0.63 to 0.72.
IGShow as table
| Item | Detail | Median lift vs same-format posts |
|---|---|---|
| Travis Scott | 1 post · ER 25.33% | 7.49x |
| PinkPantheress | 1 post · ER 10.01% | 3.42x |
| Shohei Ohtani | 7 posts · ER 9.93% | 3.27x |
| JENNIE | 11 posts · ER 4.66% | 1.91x |
| Kendall Jenner | 4 posts · ER 4.06% | 1.23x |
| iShowSpeed | 8 posts · ER 0.72% | 0.89x |
| Kirsty Godso | 4 posts · ER 2.07% | 0.72x |
| Sami Clarke | 4 posts · ER 2.07% | 0.63x |
| NFL athletes (3) | 2 posts · ER 1.91% | 0.61x |
| LeBron James | 1 post · ER 1.28% | 0.32x |
Pillar 2 · 25% of weekly posts
Behind the design + on set
Carousels and short reels from shoots, studios and design reviews, built around the cushions. A fixed weekly slot, and the lead cut in paid.
BTS 8.74% on Instagram; BTD ads clicked 0.664% vs talent 0.296% on Meta at launch.
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Click-through rate, Beats 360 paid |
|---|---|---|
| Meta · behind the design | $47K · 6.7M impressions | 0.664% |
| Meta · talent | $61K · 3.6M impressions | 0.296% |
| TikTok · behind the design | $52K · 5.2M impressions | 0.720% |
| TikTok · talent | $58K · 5.7M impressions | 0.402% |
Pillar 3 · 20% of weekly posts
Product in culture
Cushion, colour, fit and sound stories tied to sport and music moments. Product carousels over product clips; no ad creative posted to the profile.
Product posts: 1.79 follows per 1,000 reached vs talent 0.77. Pill People 0.62 lift: one a month, max.
Pillar 4 · 15% of weekly posts
Community + reposts
Tastemaker seeding, fan and creator reposts, 2D talent assets, replies and stitches. The deck's 50 It Girl tastemakers (slide 23) feed this pillar.
Talent 2D reached 84% to 98% new viewers. Shares per 100 reached: 0.63 at launch vs 0.18 before.
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Views per asset |
|---|---|---|
| Lamine Yamal 2D | flat asset, reposted | 11.2M |
| iShowSpeed 2D poster | flat asset, reposted | 7.9M |
| Travis Scott 2D | flat asset, organic | 3.0M |
| Travis Scott long-form | hero film, organic | 749K |
| iShowSpeed hero video | hero film | 146K |
Weekly volume. Instagram 7, TikTok 5, YouTube Shorts 3, X 3 plus replies: about 18 a week. Instagram posts go out 7 to 9am Pacific, the audience peak in Metricool. [assumption: TikTok and YouTube Shorts volumes]
05 · Talent plan
Talent with a fan base posts in its own voice; athletes earn through fans; fitness creators move to paid.
Talent tiers for the 12 months
6.0x20.5% · 157K reachedJENNIECultural Drivers
Kendall Jenner, JENNIE
ChannelOwned + collab
PastEarned 1.57x and 1.25x; owned 1.23x and 1.91x
Own-voice posts and collab posts on @beatsbydre; one fan-gift drop each (cushion drop model).
7.5x25.3% · 199K reachedTravis ScottMusic and culture collabs
Travis Scott and PinkPantheress pattern
ChannelOwned + earned
PastTravis 7.49x owned, 1.61x earned (repeatable-over)
Custom product drops that give fans something, timed to holiday and festival season; no commercial talent films.
0.3x1.3% · 1.8M reachedLeBron JamesAthletes
Shohei Ohtani, LeBron James, Lamine Yamal, WWC roster
ChannelEarned first
PastLeBron 1.47x earned vs 0.32x owned; Lamine 2.38x earned
Seed product and supply 2D assets for fan and press reposts; post to @beatsbydre only own-voice cuts.
0.5x1.3% · 42K reachedKirsty GodsoFitness creators
Sami Clarke, Kirsty Godso and the Fitness tier
ChannelPaid
PastOwned 0.63x to 0.72x; earned 0.70x to 0.94x
Whitelisted paid to the Performance Purist, judged on click-through, not owned engagement.
2.2x12.2% · 108K reachedNana OuyangTastemakers and Authenticators
50 It Girl tastemakers, campus and Beats Elite creators
ChannelEarned + reposts
Past2D talent assets reached 84% to 98% new viewers
Organic product placement with repost rights in the contract; reposted 2D feeds the community pillar.
Tool | Date | Scope: MVP via competitive-intel production, scoring run 10 (cohort-median-v1), as of 2026-10-05 · Metricool Instagram, post shown is the tier's owned example · Beats 518 deck talent tiers · MODELED
Why athletes go earned-first
The same names that earn above baseline in fans' channels fall flat on @beatsbydre.
Owned samples per name are small; read them as direction.
IGIGShow as table
| Item | Detail | Median lift vs look-alike posts |
|---|---|---|
| Travis Scott · earned | 321 scored posts, repeatable-over | 1.61x |
| Travis Scott · owned | 1 post on @beatsbydre | 7.49x |
| Kendall Jenner · earned | 313 scored posts, repeatable-over | 1.57x |
| Kendall Jenner · owned | 4 posts on @beatsbydre | 1.23x |
| JENNIE · earned | 586 scored posts, above | 1.25x |
| JENNIE · owned | 11 posts on @beatsbydre | 1.91x |
| LeBron James · earned | 670 scored posts, above | 1.47x |
| LeBron James · owned | 1 post on @beatsbydre | 0.32x |
| iShowSpeed · earned | 158 scored posts, above | 1.38x |
| iShowSpeed · owned | 8 posts on @beatsbydre | 0.89x |
| Kirsty Godso · earned | 146 scored posts, at-baseline | 0.94x |
| Kirsty Godso · owned | 4 posts on @beatsbydre | 0.72x |
| Sami Clarke · earned | 36 scored posts, below | 0.70x |
| Sami Clarke · owned | 4 posts on @beatsbydre | 0.63x |
06 · Creators
Athletes and own-voice stars earn above baseline; the deck's It Girl tastemaker tiers are almost entirely untested.
Each creator is scored where a source can score them: earned posts by fans and press in MVP, their own posts on @beatsbydre. The two are never added together.
Current creators, on @beatsbydre
7.5x25.3% · 199KTravis ScottArtist: product leak · Brand Loyalist · earned 1.61x3.4x10.0% · 154KPinkPantheressPast campaign · Aspiring It GirlIGWe personally think Shohei would make a fantastic wide receiver 💪🏼🏈. 何刀流でもいける予感し3.3x8.3% · 1.0MShohei OhtaniPast campaign · Performance Purist · earned 1.41x
1.0x4.4% · 1.6MAryna SabalenkaAthlete: product leak · Performance Purist · earned 2.54x2.2x12.2% · 108KNana OuyangPast campaign · Aspiring It Girl0.6x2.8% · 4.9MJENNIETier 1: Cultural Drivers · Modern It Girl · earned 1.25xIGPeak performance is never an accident @Saquon. #PowerbeatsFit #BeatsbyDre #Beats0.8x2.4% · 48KSaquon BarkleyPast campaign · Performance Purist · earned 1.82x0.5x2.8% · 2.1MKendall JennerTier 1: Cultural Drivers · Modern It Girl · earned 1.57x0.3x1.3% · 1.8MLeBron JamesAthlete: product leak · Brand Loyalist · earned 1.47x
1.4x5.6% · 115KNemzzzPast campaign · Aspiring It Girl0.2x0.6% · 6.0MiShowSpeedPast campaign · earned 1.38xIGIt’s all in the details. Custom Powerbeats Pro 2 by Samuel Ross x SR_A.1.2x4.8% · 67KSamuel RossPast campaign · Brand Loyalist · earned 1.00xIGDialed in with @thatkidjayden Shop the all new Powerbeats Fit in four fresh colo1.0x3.0% · 38KJayden DanielsPast campaign · Performance Purist · earned 1.00xIGCome behind the scenes with @jordanchiles at her Beats Academy shoot 💕 Music by 0.7x2.3% · 77KJordan ChilesPast campaign · Performance PuristIGPut in the work. Staying strong this year with Kirsty Godso, whose training phil0.9x2.3% · 45KKirsty GodsoTier 3: Authenticators · Performance Purist · earned 0.94xIGBest grip in the game @jjettas20.8x2.4% · 52KJustin JeffersonPast campaign · Performance Purist · earned 0.71xIGThrowback to @skepta in Custom Studio Pro for the @mainslondon “Garage Throwback0.8x2.2% · 186KSkeptaPast campaign · Brand LoyalistIGThe moments in between - with @samiclarke 🎬✨0.6x2.4% · 69KSami ClarkeTier 3: Authenticators · Performance Purist · earned 0.70xTool | Date | Scope: Metricool @beatsbydre Instagram | owned lift on the post · MVP earned lift, scoring run 10, 30+ posts | persona per CreatorDB audience and deck tier [assumption: SkaFld mapping, reason per creator in data/research/creators-current.json] · MODELED
Deck roster with any measured result
2 of 18 named Tier 2 and Tier 3 It Girls have an earned or owned record. The plan measures each from first post.
Tool | Date | Scope: Beats 518 Early All-Up deck @ 577e157 | 69 named creators, crew and moodboard references excluded · joined by name to MVP and Metricool · MEASURED
Earned lift, creators Beats uses visibly
All 51 scored creators
| Creator | Deck tier | Persona | Earned lift | Posts | Owned lift |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bryce Underwood | Athlete: Beats Elite (college football) | n/a | 4.06x | 56 | n/a |
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | International: Japan | n/a | 3.64x | 34 | n/a |
| Naomi Osaka | not in deck | Performance Purist | 3.01x | 199 | n/a |
| Ritsu Doan | Athlete: World Cup incubation seeding | Performance Purist | 2.87x | 42 | n/a |
| Aryna Sabalenka | Athlete: product leak | Performance Purist | 2.54x | 87 | 0.99x |
| Jalen Hurts | not in deck | Performance Purist | 2.54x | 241 | n/a |
| John Mateer | Athlete: Beats Elite (college football) | n/a | 2.39x | 52 | n/a |
| Lamine Yamal | Athlete: product leak + World Cup incubation | Performance Purist | 2.38x | 579 | n/a |
| Rayan Cherki | Athlete: World Cup incubation seeding (alternate) | n/a | 2.21x | 53 | n/a |
| Jamal Musiala | Athlete: World Cup incubation seeding | Performance Purist | 2.16x | 226 | n/a |
| Shedeur Sanders | not in deck | Performance Purist | 2.03x | 451 | n/a |
| Colin Simmons | Athlete: Beats Elite (college football) | n/a | 1.97x | 44 | n/a |
| Shubman Gill | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.92x | 292 | n/a |
| Dante Moore | Athlete: Beats Elite (college football) | n/a | 1.91x | 56 | n/a |
| Saquon Barkley | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.82x | 30 | 0.81x |
| Tommy Fleetwood | not in deck | n/a | 1.71x | 202 | n/a |
| Travis Scott | Artist: product leak | Brand Loyalist | 1.61x | 321 | 7.49x |
| Kobbie Mainoo | Athlete: World Cup incubation seeding | n/a | 1.59x | 133 | n/a |
| Kendall Jenner | Tier 1: Cultural Drivers | Modern It Girl | 1.57x | 313 | 1.23x |
| Tiger Woods | not in deck | Brand Loyalist | 1.50x | 250 | n/a |
| LeBron James | Athlete: product leak | Brand Loyalist | 1.47x | 670 | 0.32x |
| Shohei Ohtani | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.41x | 120 | 3.27x |
| Collin Morikawa | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.39x | 181 | n/a |
| iShowSpeed | not in deck | n/a | 1.38x | 158 | 0.89x |
| Tom Kim | not in deck | n/a | 1.34x | 184 | n/a |
| JENNIE | Tier 1: Cultural Drivers | Modern It Girl | 1.25x | 586 | 1.91x |
| Raphinha | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.23x | 280 | n/a |
| Josh Allen | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.16x | 223 | n/a |
| Nate Frazier | Athlete: Beats Elite (college football) | n/a | 1.11x | 34 | n/a |
| Billy Horschel | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.11x | 235 | n/a |
| Cole Palmer | Athlete: World Cup incubation seeding | Performance Purist | 1.10x | 46 | n/a |
| Alex Albon | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.09x | 163 | n/a |
| Thibaut Courtois | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.09x | 345 | n/a |
| Lionel Messi | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.08x | 35 | n/a |
| Kim Kardashian | Reference imagery only (not a partner) | Modern It Girl | 1.00x | 405 | n/a |
| Nickmercs | not in deck | Brand Loyalist | 1.00x | 213 | n/a |
| Samuel Ross | not in deck | Brand Loyalist | 1.00x | 137 | 1.18x |
| Jayden Daniels | not in deck | Performance Purist | 1.00x | 205 | 1.01x |
| Daniel Ricciardo | not in deck | Performance Purist | 0.99x | 484 | n/a |
| Ryan Williams | Athlete: Beats Elite (college football) | n/a | 0.98x | 51 | n/a |
| Kirsty Godso | Tier 3: Authenticators | Performance Purist | 0.94x | 146 | 0.72x |
| Antonee Robinson | Athlete: World Cup incubation seeding | n/a | 0.93x | 31 | n/a |
| Joao Pedro | Athlete: World Cup incubation seeding | n/a | 0.90x | 88 | n/a |
| Lucy Davis | not in deck | Performance Purist | 0.89x | 197 | n/a |
| Caleb Williams | not in deck | n/a | 0.89x | 210 | n/a |
| Antoine Semenyo | Athlete: World Cup incubation seeding | Performance Purist | 0.86x | 69 | n/a |
| Brenda Anton | not in deck | n/a | 0.84x | 186 | n/a |
| Justin Jefferson | not in deck | Performance Purist | 0.71x | 198 | 0.82x |
| Sami Clarke | Tier 3: Authenticators | Performance Purist | 0.70x | 36 | 0.63x |
| Aurelien Tchouameni | not in deck | Performance Purist | 0.66x | 169 | n/a |
| Sam Taylor | not in deck | n/a | 0.57x | 201 | n/a |
Tool | Date | Scope: MVP via competitive-intel production | 2026-10-05 | talent verdicts with 30+ scored earned posts · followers: CreatorDB, 2026-10-07 · MODELED
Who to add · inside the deck's tiers and markets
22 candidates, 10 of them already earning above baseline for Beats in fans' and press channels.
The strongest leads already post about Beats unpaid. Fitness creators are paid-only, as decision 1 sets. Persona fits are assumptions until audience splits are pulled.
Tool | Date | Scope: CreatorDB profile, performance and sponsorship | 2026-10-07 | 22 vetted, 17 rejected · MVP earned lift, 30+ posts · MODELED
UK
Owned voice · medium confidence
Amelia Dimoldenberg
4.1Mon tiktok
Aspiring It Girl · International: UK It Girls
Why and risks
- TikTok 4.1M followers, recent videos average 1,539,385 views at a 14.29% engagement rate; CreatorDB get_tiktok_profile + get_tiktok_performance | pulled 2026-10-07
- Instagram 2,994,581 followers, reels average 4,023,274 views; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- UK is rank 1 of the five market proposals and the only market second-tier or better on every source; claudedocs/audience-research.md | 2026-10-07
- Own-voice culture names beat baseline on owned (Travis 7.49x, PinkPantheress 3.42x); data/content.json pillars | Pillar 1
- risk No MVP history with Beats, so lift is unknown.
- risk Her format is interview comedy; product must sit in content, not be scripted in (deck: show, don't tell).
- risk TikTok consistency score 42 (low): views swing widely.
- [assumption: London culture host posting as herself; fashion and awards-season niche tags (whattowear, Prada Beauty, Oscars). No audience split was pulled, so the female skew is untested.]
Owned voice · medium confidence
RAYE
5.4Mon instagram
Modern It Girl · Tier 1: Cultural Drivers
Why and risks
- Reels average 5,726,159 views at an 8.60% engagement rate, the highest rate on this shortlist; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- Music names posting as themselves lead owned lift: PinkPantheress 3.42x on Instagram; data/content.json pillars | Pillar 1
- Fits the talentPlan 'Music and culture collabs' row: custom drops that give fans something; data/content.json talentPlan
- risk No MVP history (a 'Raye Mckinney' row in MVP is a different person).
- risk Tier 1 fee level; may sit outside the always-on budget.
- risk Overlap with PinkPantheress in the same UK music lane.
- [assumption: UK music artist with a female-led fan base by reputation; no audience split pulled.]
Earned seeding · high confidence
Ollie Bearman
3.25xearned lift, 41 posts
Performance Purist · Athletes
Why and risks
- MVP verdict repeatable-over: median lift 3.2541 on 41 scored posts, beat rate 0.7317; MVP via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | run 10 talent verdict
- Reels 6.24% engagement, 1,863,634 average views; CreatorDB niche tag id_beats_All; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- Athletes work earned-first (LeBron 1.47x earned vs 0.32x owned); data/content.json talentPlan Athletes row
- risk Already MVP-tracked (custom-ollie-bearman campaigns), so a relationship may exist; confirm status before outreach.
- risk Team kit and audio deals in F1 are common; check contract exclusivity.
- [assumption: Gen Z British F1 driver; sport credibility. Female reach untested.]
Earned seeding · low confidence
SuperSaf (Safwan AhmedMia)
2.3Mon youtube
Brand Loyalist · PR reviews and seeding: pre-briefed media and tech creators
Why and risks
- Off-roster earned posts about Beats: 3 scored, SkaFld ER lift 5.1051 (ordering only, not MVP lift); 5 posts in total across launches 463, 465, 487, 607; MVP via data/research/mvp-creators.json (full: .cache/mvp/creators/mvp-creators-full.json) | run 11, as of 2026-10-06
- YouTube 2,260,000 subscribers, country GBR; CreatorDB get_youtube_profile | pulled 2026-10-07
- risk Last Beats post 2024-06-25.
- risk Reviews are independent: coverage can be negative (UK review sentiment is -0.04, connectivity -0.62; claudedocs/audience-research.md).
- [assumption: tech review audience reads as owners and upgraders.]
India
Earned seeding · high confidence
Yuzvendra Chahal
2.18xearned lift, 38 posts
Performance Purist · Athletes
Why and risks
- MVP verdict above: median lift 2.1806 on 38 scored posts; MVP via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | run 10 talent verdict
- India is rank 2 of the market proposals and second in Beats 360 earned share (7.9%); claudedocs/audience-research.md
- Reels average 2,479,978 views at 4.41%; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- risk Beat rate 0.5789 is the lowest among the athlete picks; the median is carried by some large posts.
- risk Posts came through the Punjab Kings IPL activation; solo value outside IPL is untested.
- [assumption: India cricket; nationality from public knowledge.]
Earned seeding · medium confidence
Smriti Mandhana
15.4Mon instagram
Performance Purist · Athletes
Why and risks
- Reels average 10,019,941 views (median 4,160,658) at 4.47%; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- Cricket talent beats baseline in MVP (Shubman Gill 1.92 on 292); claudedocs/audience-research.md
- Deck plans female fitness in India via Sisters in Sweat; data/research/deck-creators.json programs
- risk No MVP history.
- risk Heavy existing endorsement slate (Hyundai, OnePlus, Google Gemini tags).
- [assumption: India women's cricket star; brings the female audience the Purist cricket line otherwise lacks. No audience split pulled.]
Owned voice · high confidence
Aaquib Wani
7.52xearned lift, 60 posts
Brand Loyalist · Tier 3: Explore
Why and risks
- MVP verdict repeatable-over: median lift 7.5208 on 60 scored posts, beat rate 0.8333, the highest lift of any person on the n>=30 list; MVP via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | run 10 talent verdict
- Already posted for Holi 2026, Diwali 2024 and the India market launch seeding; MVP via data/research/mvp-creators.json (full: .cache/mvp/creators/mvp-creators-full.json) | run 11, as of 2026-10-06
- Reels views per follower 1.64, reach beyond his own base; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- risk Small account (146,810); lift is relative to his own cohort, not absolute reach.
- risk Already MVP-tracked, so an India team relationship likely exists; confirm.
- [assumption: designer and art content (design, one-of-one niche tags); culture audience, gender untested.]
Earned seeding · low confidence
Komal Pandey
2.1Mon instagram
Modern It Girl · India It Girl seeding (deck slide 66 names no talent) and Tier 2 tastemakers
Why and risks
- Reels average 5,363,853 views, 2.60 views per follower; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- Deck plans India It Girl seeding with 'key talent and influencers', no names given; data/research/deck-creators.json programs
- risk No MVP history.
- risk Frequent beauty and tech tie-ins (Maybelline, L'Oreal, Samsung tags) may dilute a Beats placement.
- [assumption: India fashion creator; female audience by reputation, not pulled.]
Earned seeding · low confidence
Kusha Kapila
4.4Mon instagram
Modern It Girl · India tastemaker content
Why and risks
- Reels average 1,904,644 views at 2.65%; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- Fills the Modern It Girl gap in India, where the deck names only Diya Dukani; data/research/deck-creators.json
- risk No MVP history.
- risk Comedy-led; fit with the accessible premium tone needs a creative check.
- [assumption: millennial India fashion and comedy creator.]
Japan
Earned seeding · high confidence
Miho Nonaka
3.56xearned lift, 78 posts
Performance Purist · International: Japan
Why and risks
- MVP verdict repeatable-over: median lift 3.557 on 78 scored posts, beat rate 0.7692; MVP via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | run 10 talent verdict
- Japan has the deepest bench of athletes above baseline (Yamamoto 3.64, Nonaka 3.56, Osaka 3.01); claudedocs/audience-research.md
- Reels average 380,213 views, 0.97 views per follower; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- risk Last Beats post 2025-09-24; relationship may have lapsed.
- risk CreatorDB country CHE conflicts with her nationality.
- [assumption: Japanese Olympic climber; nationality from public knowledge. CreatorDB lists her country as CHE, which is flagged.]
Earned seeding · medium confidence
THE D SoraKi
1.59xearned lift, 31 posts
Aspiring It Girl · Japan Tier 2 and 3: real tastemakers for price-value validation
Why and risks
- MVP verdict repeatable-over: median lift 1.586 on 31 scored posts, beat rate 0.7742; MVP via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | run 10 talent verdict
- Posted for the Beats 360 (518) launch and Fit for Every Move, last post 2026-10-02; MVP via data/research/mvp-creators.json (full: .cache/mvp/creators/mvp-creators-full.json) | run 11, as of 2026-10-06
- Reels consistency score 62 (moderate), 218,673 average views; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- risk A team account, not an individual voice.
- risk Already seeded for 518, so this is an extension, not a new name.
- [assumption: Japanese D.League dance team; movement content fits 'built for a life in motion'.]
Owned voice · low confidence
Kiko Mizuhara
7.4Mon instagram
Modern It Girl · International: Japan female trendsetter
Why and risks
- Instagram 7,386,073 followers, reels average 716,001 views; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- Deck Japan plan needs one female trendsetter beside a male athlete; data/brand.json international
- risk Views per follower 0.097: reach is small against follower count.
- risk Leans high fashion; deck tone says Rhode, not Chanel.
- risk No MVP history.
- [assumption: Japanese model and fashion figure; female trendsetter role in the deck's Japan pairing.]
US
Earned seeding · medium confidence
Shayla Mitchell
1.12xearned lift, 74 posts
Modern It Girl · Tier 2: Tastemakers
Why and risks
- MVP verdict above: median lift 1.1171 on 74 scored posts; MVP via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | run 10 talent verdict
- Modern It Girl needs creators who bring women: women are 26.3% of known-gender Instagram followers; data/content.json decisions d5
- Reels average 547,489 views at 4.25%; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- risk Lift only just clears 1.1.
- risk Last Beats post 2025-01-07.
- risk CreatorDB flags hasSponsors true but returned no brands.
- [assumption: beauty and GRWM creator; female audience by content, not pulled.]
Owned voice · low confidence
Emma Chamberlain
14.0Mon instagram
Modern It Girl · Tier 2: Tastemakers
Why and risks
- Reels average 865,522 views (median 480,749); CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- MVP carries a 'seeding-chamberlain-coffee' campaign tag (on Joshua Weissman's posts), so a past Beats touchpoint with her coffee brand exists; data/research/mvp-creators.json run 11
- risk Views per follower 0.062: reach small against 14M followers.
- risk Runs her own brand; luxury fashion ties may pull toward high fashion.
- risk No MVP verdict for her.
- [assumption: Gen Z to millennial lifestyle and fashion; female audience by reputation.]
Earned seeding · high confidence
Angel Reese
1.24xearned lift, 150 posts
Performance Purist · Athletes
Why and risks
- MVP verdict above: median lift 1.237 on 150 scored posts; MVP via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | run 10 talent verdict
- Reels average 1,532,572 views, 13,152 comments over the recent window; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- Posted for the 518 launch (2026-09-24, handle angel.reese); MVP via data/research/mvp-creators.json (full: .cache/mvp/creators/mvp-creators-full.json) | run 11, as of 2026-10-06
- risk Has custom Beats campaigns (custom-angel-reese, signature logo): likely an existing partner missing from creators-current.json; confirm before treating as new.
- risk Four handles in MVP (angelreese5, angelreese10, angel.reese, areese).
- [assumption: WNBA star with fashion crossover; Gen Z female fan base by reputation.]
Earned seeding · high confidence
Frances Tiafoe
969Kon instagram
Performance Purist · Athletes
Why and risks
- MVP verdict repeatable-over under key frances-tiafoe: median lift 4.1438 on 68; a second key francis-tiafoe reads above, 1.2588 on 115. The keys are not summed; MVP via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | run 10 talent verdict
- Reels 5.54% engagement, 792,166 average views; CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- Last Beats post 2026-09-15; MVP via data/research/mvp-creators.json (full: .cache/mvp/creators/mvp-creators-full.json) | run 11, as of 2026-10-06
- risk Duplicate talent keys in MVP; the true lift sits between the two readings.
- risk Existing relationship likely (custom Roland Garros 2025 campaign).
- [assumption: tennis credibility; pairs with Sabalenka x Wimbledon leak.]
Earned seeding · low confidence
Olivia Dunne
5.1Mon instagram
Aspiring It Girl · Athletes / campus creators
Why and risks
- Reels average 2,679,399 views (median 1,387,678); CreatorDB get_instagram_profile + get_instagram_performance (reelsPerformanceRecent) | pulled 2026-10-07
- risk No MVP history.
- risk Large NIL portfolio; engagement 1.88% is the lowest of the athlete picks.
- [assumption: gymnast with a Gen Z lifestyle following.]
Earned seeding · high confidence
Nikias Molina
2.55xearned lift, 48 posts
Brand Loyalist · PR reviews and seeding: tech creators
Why and risks
- MVP verdict repeatable-over: median lift 2.551 on 48 scored posts, beat rate 0.875; MVP via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | run 10 talent verdict
- Posted for the 518 launch, last post 2026-09-24; MVP via data/research/mvp-creators.json (full: .cache/mvp/creators/mvp-creators-full.json) | run 11, as of 2026-10-06
- Product posts convert reach to follows at twice the talent rate (1.79 vs 0.77 per 1,000); data/content.json pillars | Pillar 3
- risk Already seeded; extension rather than new.
- risk Reel views skew: median 66,886 vs average 240,853.
- [assumption: 'Everything Apple' tech and desk-setup creator; owner audience.]
Earned seeding · low confidence
Quinn Nelson (Snazzy Labs)
301Kon x
Brand Loyalist · PR reviews and seeding: tech creators
Why and risks
- Off-roster earned: 6 posts about Beats across 453, 487, 518 launches and iPhone 17 cases, SkaFld ER lift 28.107 on 6 scored, beat rate 1.0 (ordering only); MVP via data/research/mvp-creators.json (full: .cache/mvp/creators/mvp-creators-full.json) | run 11, as of 2026-10-06
- risk Not indexed in CreatorDB under YouTube @snazzylabs, so not vetted there.
- risk Independent reviewer; coverage may be critical.
- [assumption: Apple-focused tech reviewer.]
Owned voice · low confidence
Kerwin Frost
2.58xearned lift, 45 posts
Brand Loyalist · Tier 3: Explore
Why and risks
- MVP verdict repeatable-over: median lift 2.578 on 45 scored posts, beat rate 0.9778; MVP via data/mvp/talent.json | vendorAsOf 2026-10-05 | run 10 talent verdict
- Collab drop model fits the talentPlan music and culture row; data/content.json talentPlan
- risk Evidence is from one 2022 drop; four years old.
- risk Reels median views read 0 in CreatorDB (mixed content window), so reach is unclear.
- [assumption: art and internet culture artist; Beats custom-drop heritage.]
Paid only · medium confidence
Julia Bartrom
3.65xearned lift, 30 posts
Performance Purist · Always-on Tier 2: Fitness
Why and risks
- MVP talent row repeatable-over: median lift 3.6547 on 30 scored posts (run 11; not in the run 10 talent.json); MVP via data/research/mvp-creators.json (full: .cache/mvp/creators/mvp-creators-full.json) | run 11, as of 2026-10-06
- Fitness creators go to paid, judged on click-through; the purist cell had the highest click index (1.55x); data/content.json talentPlan; claudedocs/audience-research.md
- risk Her lift contradicts the fitness trend (0.63x to 0.72x owned); test it in paid before changing the rule.
- risk Small reach: 84,291 average reel views.
- [assumption: fitness and lifestyle GRWM creator.]
Paid only · low confidence
Shevon Salmon
53Kon x
Performance Purist · Always-on Tier 2: Fitness
Why and risks
- Off-roster earned: 8 posts, SkaFld ER lift 26.2074 on 8 scored (ordering only); posted for 518 and Powerbeats Pro 2 launches; MVP via data/research/mvp-creators.json (full: .cache/mvp/creators/mvp-creators-full.json) | run 11, as of 2026-10-06
- risk Only X posts in MVP; Instagram and TikTok not vetted (CreatorDB not called to save credits).
- risk Canada is not a deck market; whitelist to US Purist only.
- [assumption: fitness creator; MVP country field Canada.]
Gaps: No CreatorDB audience splits were pulled; persona fit for every candidate is an assumption. Sponsorship is unreliable: Instagram returned empty for all 8 accounts checked. Competitor ties may exist that this file cannot see. Quinn Nelson's YouTube is not indexed in CreatorDB (NOT_FOUND); Shevon Salmon was not vetted. Several MVP-backed names (Angel Reese, Frances Tiafoe, Ollie Bearman, Nikias Molina, THE D SoraKi, Aaquib Wani) are MVP 'roster' talent with past Beats campaigns but are absent from creators-current.json. [TBC: Beats talent marketing] confirms whether they are lapsed or active. China: no Weibo, Douyin or Rednote coverage; see data/research/china.json. Korea: no candidates; JENNIE extension only, per the brief. UK It Girl discovery in CreatorDB was noisy; the two UK It Girl picks are named fits, not search results. A UK agency list would do better. Off-roster MVP earned is dominated by X; Instagram and TikTok earned creators below the n>=5 bar were not mined.
07 · 12-month calendar
Paid peaks land on holiday, Super Bowl LXI, the NBA Finals and World Cup, and the fall launch.
Bar shows the month's share of paid working media; the figure is that month's paid budget for the selected scenario. Last year had 1 Instagram post in February and 0 in May; every month here has at least 28.
Beats 360 sustain
Sports & Fashion phase (518 deck). Behind-the-design and tastemaker wave off the launch; JENNIE cushion drop [TBC owner: Beats talent team]; NBA season tips off; five McKenna seeding kits ship.
Talent voice · BTSApplies D2D4Holiday gifting
Holiday Ramp phase. Cushion and colourway gift carousels; Black Friday 27 Nov; Rookie Tape episodes start in Canada. Every paid line tagged to one of the four brand audiences, Modern It Girl funded for the first time.
Product carousels · Paid peakApplies D2D4Talent drop month
Holiday phase. One custom collab drop that gives fans something, not a commercial talent film: Dec 2025's Travis and PinkPantheress posts were the two best rates on record (19.39%, 10.01%); the iShowSpeed film peaked at 382 daily Beats mentions. Talent [TBC].
Talent voiceApplies D1Athlete own-voice
Training season; an athlete-led series in the Ohtani pattern (9.93%, Jan 2026). Performance Purist reached in paid with behind-the-design and product cuts, not an owned fitness series. Rookie Tape finale.
Talent voice · SportApplies D1Super Bowl LXI, Los Angeles
Game 14 Feb at SoFi, Inglewood. NBA All-Star mid-Feb. First Shift trailer 1 Feb.
Culture moment · Paid peakApplies D3March Madness
College athletes through Beats Elite and student creators; build the Women's World Cup roster in public.
Sport · CreatorsApplies D1Final Four + festival season
Final Four 3 and 5 Apr. Spring product window [TBC].
Culture · ProductApplies D4First Shift colourway
From Whitehorse colourway and retail; WWC athlete reveals.
Product · SportApplies D4NBA Finals + WWC opens
Women's World Cup, Brazil, opens 24 Jun. NBA Finals. Female athletes in their own voice with paid behind posts that earn attention: owned reach to women needs fuel or fame.
Sport · Paid peakApplies D1D5Women's World Cup
Tournament runs to the final on 25 Jul. Athlete-shot daily content.
Sport · Talent voiceApplies D1D5Back to school
Beats Elite campus seeding and student creators; US Open opens 29 Aug.
Creators · ProductApplies D1Tool | Date | Scope: sportsbrackets.net 2027 sports calendar | 6 Oct 2026 | Super Bowl LXI 14 Feb, Final Four 3 and 5 Apr, WWC 24 Jun to 25 Jul, US Open 29 Aug to 12 Sep · McKenna First Shift brief, 30 Sep 2026 · paid phases from the Beats 518 Early All-Up deck, slide 55 · product windows [TBC]
08 · Paid media
TikTok gains share for the Performance Purist and behind-the-design; every line buys one of the four brand audiences; X gets no paid budget.
Recommended working media of $5.50M, split by platform and by brand audience. Planning CPMs are Beats' own medians from 2025 on; on Meta, TikTok and YouTube the Beats 360 launch ran 1.6x to 2.4x those medians, so tentpole months buy fewer impressions.
Platform split · Recommended
X is zero because the Kendall X post drew 84% of launch X impressions at 0.18% engagement. Organic X stays for talent replies.
| Platform | Share | Spend | Plan CPM | CPM source | Impressions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram + Facebook (Meta) | 38% | $2.09M | $5.27 | Beats median across 19 campaigns, Alli cross_channel Jan 2025 to Oct 2026 | 397M |
| TikTok | 30% | $1.65M | $4.22 | Beats median across 12 campaigns, Alli cross_channel Jan 2025 to Oct 2026 | 391M |
| YouTube (Shorts + :15) | 24% | $1.32M | $6.27 | Beats median across 9 campaigns, Alli cross_channel Jan 2025 to Oct 2026 | 211M |
| Snapchat + Pinterest | 8% | $440K | $12.05 | Beats median across 3 campaigns, Alli cross_channel Jan 2025 to Oct 2026 (Snapchat; no Beats Pinterest buys) | 37M |
| X | 0% | $0 | n/a | no paid budget | 0 |
Tool | Date | Scope: Alli (PMG) cross_channel | 2026-10-06 | Beats platform medians across 2025-01-01 to 2026-10-05 campaigns; shares are this plan's, moved from Meta to TikTok on launch click-through · MEASURED
Paid by brand audience · Recommended
Modern It Girl is funded for the first time. Weights follow each audience's role in the 518 deck [assumption: reasoning per row].
| Audience | Role | Share | Spend | Platforms | Creative | Why this weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aspiring It Girl | Primary growth driver | 30% | $1.65M | TikTok, Instagram | Cultural Driver own-voice cuts, then behind-the-design | [assumption: largest share because the 518 deck names her the primary growth driver] |
| Performance Purist | Credibility builder | 25% | $1.38M | TikTok, YouTube | Behind-the-design and product; fitness creators whitelisted | [assumption: TikTok behind-the-design clicked 0.720% at launch, the best cell] |
| Brand Loyalist | Conversions accelerator | 25% | $1.38M | Meta | Behind-the-design and product, cushion swaps | [assumption: the loyalist line was the cheapest and best-clicking Meta cell at launch] |
| Modern It Girl | Trendsetter | 20% | $1.10M | Instagram, TikTok | Tastemaker and collab-drop content | [assumption: never funded before; a test budget sized to read results within a quarter] |
Tool | Date | Scope: Beats 518 Early All-Up deck audiences, slide 09 · Alli (PMG) cross_channel, Beats 360 launch cells | 2026-10-06 · MODELED
Rule 1
70%Behind proven posts
Boost organic winners (above 5% engagement in 48 hours) into the 100K to 1M reach band, through whitelisting and Spark Ads.
Rule 2
BTS firstLead paid with the behind-the-scenes cut
The Kendall BTS carousel drew 10.55% the week the hero reel drew 2.81%.
Rule 3
4 audiencesBuy all four brand audiences, by platform
Loyalist and It Girl on Meta (the loyalist line ran the behind-the-design cut: $6.95 CPM, 0.664% CTR at launch; one cell, so audience and creative are not separable). Performance Purist on TikTok and YouTube with BTD and product creative (0.720% CTR on TikTok). Fund Modern It Girl, which had $0.
Rule 4
SplitRead audience and creative apart
Every paid line carries a brand audience and a creative message, and each audience sees at least two messages. Report promoted and organic TikTok apart.
Rule 1 evidence · decision 3
Boosts go into the 100K to 1M band, where response peaks.
Posts past 1M organic reach engaged at under half the baseline; the paid budget buys reach for posts that already earned attention instead.
Tool | Date | Scope: Metricool @beatsbydre Instagram | 2026-10-06 | Aug 2025 to Oct 2026, lift vs network x format x quarter median · DIRECTIONAL
IGShow as table
| Item | Detail | Median lift by organic reach per post |
|---|---|---|
| Under 100K | 55 posts · ER 4.07% | 0.91x |
| 100K to 300K | 36 posts · ER 8.27% | 1.28x |
| 300K to 1M | 13 posts · ER 10.12% | 1.94x |
| Over 1M | 12 posts · ER 2.57% | 0.47x |
Rules 3 and 4 evidence · decision 2
Every paid line carries one of the four brand audiences; until now almost none did.
Only the Beats 360 launch used the brand audiences, each with one creative, and Modern It Girl was never funded. From October every line is tagged and each audience sees at least two creative messages.
Tool | Date | Scope: Alli (PMG) cross_channel | 2026-10-06 | all Beats paid, audience_strategy field · MEASURED
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Paid spend by audience, Jan 2025 to Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Interest tags or untagged | not a Beats audience | $15.96M |
| Aspiring It Girl | Beats 360 only | $324K |
| Performance Purist | Beats 360 only | $274K |
| Brand Loyalist | Beats 360 only | $166K |
| Modern It Girl | never funded | $0 |
09 · Budget
Recommended is $15.09M; creators and paid media are 57% of it.
Three scenarios. Agency and production rates are modeled from 2026 survey ranges, not quotes. Headline ambassador fees and Apple-held data licences sit outside this plan.
Where the money goes · Recommended
Total $15.09M. Creators and paid working media together are 57% of it; red bars mark them.
Show as table
| Line | Lean | Recommended | Stretch | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic social management + community Agency of record for always-on: strategy, editorial calendar, 7-day community management, copy, weekly reporting. Lean 5 FTE, Rec about 6, Stretch about 9, at a blended $150 to $175/hr. | $900K | $1.50M | $2.20M | MODELED |
| Content production Rec: four tentpole shoots at $250K each plus $65K a month of always-on behind-the-scenes crews, editing, motion and design. | $1.00M | $1.78M | $3.00M | MODELED |
| Creator + seeding program Rec: 12 macro creators × 3 posts at $25K, 60 mid-tier × 2 at $8K, 300 seeded micro creators at $1.5K, plus 40% usage and whitelisting on macro and mid-tier. Excludes headline ambassador fees. | $1.20M | $3.05M | $5.00M | MODELED |
| Paid social working media Anchored to the 2025 paid social actual of $5.33M. Platform split in the Paid media section. | $3.50M | $5.50M | $8.00M | MEASURED |
| Paid media agency fee 10% of working media; survey range is 10 to 15% above $50K a month. | $350K | $550K | $800K | MODELED |
| Measurement Platform brand-lift studies plus geo-holdout incrementality tests (1 Lean, 2 Rec, 3 Stretch). | $100K | $200K | $350K | DIRECTIONAL |
| Tools, data + AI generation Incremental seats and credits only: Metricool, Postiz, Higgsfield, ComfyCloud, CreatorDB, Bright Data. Apple-held data licences stay on Apple's own budget line. | $120K | $240K | $400K | DIRECTIONAL |
| SkaFld IQ + Foundry operating support Oct to Dec 2026 is already under PO at $75K a month. Jan to Sep 2027 at the same rate is [TBC]. | $900K | $900K | $900K | MEASURED |
| Contingency 10% of the lines above. | $807K | $1.37M | $2.06M | MODELED |
| Total, 12 months | $8.88M | $15.09M | $22.71M |
Rates: Swydo Agency Pricing 2026 (hourly $100 to $300 by seniority; paid fee 10 to 15% above $50K/mo) · ContentGrip 2026 rate card · Influencer Marketing Hub 2026 (usage and whitelisting +30 to 100%) · PMG cross_channel 2025 paid social $5,332,022, read 2026-10-06 · PRD AW_93205967 ($75K/mo)
10 · KPIs + measurement
Every target sits next to a number Beats has already hit.
Targets for the 12 months
Reported weekly in Metricool and PMG; a full readout 30 days after each tentpole; geo-holdout reads in Q2 and Q4.
| KPI | Target | Baseline from past campaigns | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram engagement rate (per reach) | ≥ 5.0% | 4.45% pre-launch · 5.91% launch | Metricool |
| Shares per 100 reached, Instagram | ≥ 0.45 | 0.18 pre-launch · 0.63 launch | Metricool |
| Avg organic reach per IG post, always-on | ≥ 250K | Sep 2026 average 243,199 | Metricool |
| Instagram cadence | 7 posts / week | 1.7 pre-launch · 7.3 launch | Metricool |
| Net new IG followers, 12 months | ≥ +150K [assumption] | −121/day pre-launch · +15,392 launch week | Metricool |
| TikTok organic engagement per view | ≥ 4.4% | 9 campaign posts 7.09% · industry 4.4% | Metricool |
| YouTube :15 view rate (paid) | ≥ 45% | Tier 1 average 39% | PMG |
| TikTok :15 view rate (paid) | ≥ 30% | Average 28% | PMG |
| Paid share of spend behind proven posts | ≥ 70% | Not tracked | PMG + Metricool |
| Meta engagements per $ | ≥ 20 | 19.9 at launch; range 4.8 to 38.8 by audience | Metricool Meta Ads |
| Share of IG posts in the 100K to 1M reach band | ≥ 40% | 38 of 100 posts, last 12 months | Metricool |
| Months with zero IG posts | 0 | 1 (May 2026) | Metricool |
| Incremental lift, geo holdout | read twice a year | Not run | Measurement line |
| Paid CTR vs platform median (spend-weighted) | ≥ 1.0 on every tentpole | Beats 360 1.30 · PB Pro 2 0.85 · PB Fit 0.90 | PMG Alli |
| Paid spend tagged to a brand audience | ≥ 90% | 4.6% since Jan 2025 · Modern It Girl $0 | PMG Alli |
| Net sentiment, first 14 launch days | ≥ +0.35 | Beats 360 +0.35 (13 days, Reddit 80% of negative) | Meltwater |
| Earned EMV rank among Beats campaigns (MVP) | top 3 on every tentpole [assumption] | Beats 360 #2 of 9, provisional while live | MVP |
| Women as a share of known-gender IG followers | ≥ 30% by Sep 2027 [assumption: about 4 points in a year] | 26.3% (Sep 2026 snapshot) | Metricool |
| Pricing Value, positive share of AI-answer mentions | ≥ 66% [assumption] | 60.4% (22 Sep to 4 Oct 2026) | Profound |
11 · What we stop
7 habits this plan defunds; the strongest of them reached 63% of its comparator.
0.2x0.6% · 6.0MiShowSpeedHero carousel pushed past 1M reachXOne headphone. Every Kendall. Beats 360, ft. Kendall Jenner. And Kendall Jenner.0.3x0.2% · 5.6MKendall JennerPaid hero video on X0.0x0.1% · 57KDesigned to move with you.Ad creative posted to TikTok
0.1x1.5% · 63KThe Pill People have entered the villa 🏝️. If you're committing to a full summerPill People series0.5x1.3% · 42KKirsty GodsoFitness-creator series on ownedEach habit against its comparator
Habit result ÷ a comparator from the same source and window. Dashed line is parity.
IGShow as table
| Habit | Result vs comparator | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned fitness-creator series | Sami Clarke 0.63x, Kirsty Godso 0.72x vs same-format posts | 0.63x |
| Talent film with no fan hook | iShowSpeed peak 382 daily mentions vs 12K talent baseline | 0.03x |
| Hero push past 1M reach | 9 Instagram posts at 2.29% vs 4.34% for all posts | 0.53x |
| Ad clips posted to TikTok | 13 product clips at 1.56% per view vs 10.80% for talent videos | 0.14x |
| Paid hero posts on X | Kendall Jenner at 0.19% vs 5.19% for a culture post | 0.04x |
| Pill People humour | 6 posts at 1.90% vs 4.34% for all posts | 0.44x |
| Low posting cadence | 1.9 Instagram posts a week vs the plan's 7 | 0.27x |
Tool | Date | Scope: Metricool brand 6985229, 2026-10-06, Instagram since Oct 2025, TikTok and X since first post · Meltwater via Campaign Metrics Jan 2026 p.17 · DIRECTIONAL
12 · Tools we already have
The plan runs on connectors Beats and SkaFld already hold; the gap is direct ad-platform APIs.
Job, tool, status
AI generation is gated: unreleased-product creative stays out of external generators until the written safety answer for Alex Bowring is signed off.
| Job | Tools | What it does in this plan | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan + listen | Metricool (brand 6985229: IG, TikTok, X, Meta Ads), Yogi, Profound, Similarweb, Semrush, DataForSEO, Exa | Post and reel performance, Meta campaign spend and CPM, best time to post; reviews, AI answers, search demand | live |
| Find talent | CreatorDB, Bright Data, beats-talent-scan, tier-jump valuation | Creator shortlist with measured engagement and modeled audience; fee brackets | live |
| Make content | Higgsfield, ComfyCloud (NB2), Adobe Firefly + Express, Canva, Frame.io, Beats Marketing Studio plugin | Variations, resizes, cutdowns and review on non-confidential assets only | gated |
| Publish | Metricool, Postiz | Scheduling across IG, TikTok, YouTube, X; publishing always needs human approval | live |
| Buy + measure paid | PMG Alli (MCP), Stackline Beacon, Supermetrics | Paid spend and delivery by platform; Amazon ads and sales | degraded |
| Earned value | MVP Index (S3), Meltwater | Talent and earned reach; EMV never summed with paid spend | live |
| Not connected | Meta, TikTok, Google ads APIs direct; brand-lift vendor | Fallback if PMG lags; lift studies run through platforms | gap |
Evidence appendix
The past-campaign scoring behind every decision above.
Each source scored against a like-for-like baseline in its own source; nothing summed across sources.
13 · Evidence · past campaigns
Collabs and talent with a fan base beat their baselines; hero pushes and fitness-creator series did not.
18 campaigns since 2021, each scored against a like-for-like baseline in its own source: owned posts against same-network, same-format, same-quarter posts; paid against each platform's median. Columns never add up across sources: MVP and Meltwater value earned media on different rate cards, and sales are outcome context only.
Campaign scorecard · one column per source
Red beat its baseline by 10% or more. Owned covers 7 campaigns, paid 9, earned value 18, conversation 13; a blank means the source has no record, not zero.
| Campaign | Owned IG lift DIRECTIONAL | Paid CTR vs median MEASURED | Earned lift, MVP MODELED | Mentions, first 14 days MEASURED | Sales a day, wk 1 MEASURED |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beats 360 launch2026 | 1.01x15 posts · ER 5.89% | 1.30x$1.20M · CPM 1.73x | 1.34x$10.98M · above | 10K13 days so far · net sentiment +0.35 | $1.31Mwk ending 26 Sept 2026 |
| Beats x Shohei Ohtani2026 | 3.27x7 posts · ER 9.93% | 1.54x$33K · CPM 0.73x | 0.73x$1.58M · below | ||
| Men's World Cup 20262026 | 0.90x11 posts · ER 4.49% | n/a$199K · CPM 0.87x | 1.18x$3.06M · above | 3Knet sentiment +0.03 | |
| Nike x LeBron PBPro 2 SE2026 | 1.10x4 posts · ER 2.22% | 1.08x$394K · CPM 1.19x | 0.71x$3.85M · below | 6Knet sentiment +0.32 | |
| Global Soccer 20252025 | 0.37x$301K · CPM 1.21x | 0.99x$22.03M · at-baseline | |||
| iShowSpeed Master of Speed2025 | 0.89x8 posts · ER 0.72% | 0.86x$235K · CPM 0.84x | 1.37x$568K · above | 847net sentiment +0.19 | |
| Powerbeats Fit launch (Fit for Every Move)2025 | 1.00x10 posts · ER 4.44% | 0.90x$2.46M · CPM 0.92x | 1.26x$1.46M · above | 4Knet sentiment +0.35 | $180Kwk ending 4 Oct 2025 |
| Powerbeats Fit x Travis Scott2025 | 7.49x1 post · ER 25.33% | n/a$1.65M · CPM n/a | 1.61x$819K · repeatable-over | 1Knet sentiment +0.29 | |
| Powerbeats Pro 2 launch2025 | 0.85x$5.98M · CPM 1.14x | 0.67x$1.36M · below | 5Knet sentiment +0.30 | $3.00Mwk ending 15 Feb 2025 | |
| Beats Pill launch2024 | 1.01x$1.71M · at-baseline | 204net sentiment +0.15 | |||
| Global Soccer 20242024 | 1.01x$38.65M · at-baseline | ||||
| Solo 4 launch2024 | 0.51x$1.38M · below | 4net sentiment +0.35 | $211Kwk ending 4 May 2024 | ||
| Solo Buds launch2024 | 1.00x$2.34M · at-baseline | 228net sentiment +0.27 | $142Kwk ending 22 Jun 2024 | ||
| Global Soccer 20232023 | 0.89x$16.98M · below | ||||
| Studio Buds+ launch2023 | 0.97x$1.40M · at-baseline | 105net sentiment +0.27 | $454Kwk ending 20 May 2023 | ||
| Studio Pro launch2023 | 1.00x$2.12M · at-baseline | $503Kwk ending 22 Jul 2023 | |||
| Fit Pro x Kim K LE2022 | 1.00x$31.37M · at-baseline | 1Knet sentiment +0.10 | |||
| Beats Fit Pro launch2021 | 1.03x$7.46M · at-baseline | 199net sentiment +0.22 |
Tool | Date | Scope: Metricool brand 6985229, 6 Oct 2026, Instagram median lift (under 20 posts is directional) · Alli (PMG) cross_channel, 6 Oct 2026, spend-weighted CTR against each platform's median (Beats 360 spend excludes $50K of UK YouTube cost that cross_channel reports as $0 from 1 to 5 Oct.) · MVP (Game Theory) via competitive-intel production, as of 5 Oct 2026, median EMV lift vs look-alike posts (scoring run 10, cohort-median-v1) · beats-360 Meltwater export (R2 beats-360-meltwater, base_2026-09-28_1651.csv, plus committed increments); PulseIQ recap pages (competitive-intel production Meltwater tables, as of 2026-08-20), social and news; Instagram and Facebook coverage is weak · Circana US POS, first retail week, 3 days
Owned Instagram lift by talent
8 talent names ran above baseline and 8 below. Music and fashion names and Shohei Ohtani sit on top; fitness creators, NFL athletes and LeBron James sit at the bottom.
Tool | Date | Scope: Metricool Instagram feed and reels, brand 6985229 | 6 Oct 2026 | 22 Aug 2025 to 1 Oct 2026, talent named in caption, lift = post ER ÷ network x format x quarter median · DIRECTIONAL
15 · Evidence · paid audiences + creative
Only 4.6% of paid since 2025 was bought against a Beats audience, so the plan tags every line from Oct 2026.
$16.72M of paid media from 1 Jan 2025 to 5 Oct 2026. The four brand audiences appear only on the Beats 360 launch, and each was paired with one creative message; Modern It Girl received no spend.
Brand audiences · Beats 360
On Meta the loyalist line cost $47K at $6.95 CPM and clicked at 0.664%. Audience and creative move together here, so read these as the pair, not the audience alone. Beats 360 spend excludes $50K of UK YouTube cost that cross_channel reports as $0 from 1 to 5 Oct.
| Audience | Spend | CPM vs median | CTR vs median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aspiring It Girl | $324K | 2.04x | 1.41x |
| Performance Purist | $274K | 1.95x | 1.55x |
| Brand Loyalist | $166K | 1.17x | 0.73x |
| Modern It Girl | $0 | n/a | n/a |
Tool | Date | Scope: Alli (PMG) cross_channel, audience_strategy field | 6 Oct 2026 | campaign-518-launch, CPM below 1x is cheaper, CTR above 1x is better · MEASURED
Creative message · all paid
Across every flight, talent bought cheaper impressions with fewer clicks; product and lifestyle drew more clicks per impression.
| Message | Spend | CPM vs median | CTR vs median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talent | $7.62M | 0.96x | 0.78x |
| Product | $4.32M | 0.85x | 1.10x |
| Lifestyle | $1.05M | 1.00x | 1.12x |
| Behind the design | $708K | 1.14x | 0.94x |
Tool | Date | Scope: Alli (PMG) cross_channel, creative_message field | 6 Oct 2026 | 1 Jan 2025 to 5 Oct 2026, spend-weighted against platform medians · MEASURED
16 · Evidence · against competitors
Beats 360 took 25.7% of $300+ headphone dollars in launch week; on social, Beats out-follows Bose and JBL but trails the corporate Sony and Apple accounts.
$300+ headphone dollars · week ending 26 Sept 2026
Rank 2 of 35 products in the band.
Tool | Date | Scope: Circana (NPD) US Tech POS Weekly Retail, total US retail (Apple Store + apple.com + Remaining Retail) | week ending 26 Sept 2026 | Around the Ear and On the Ear headphones at a $300+ Circana price band; Beats 360 sold on 3 retail days of this week, competitors on all of them · MEASURED
Instagram followers · 6 Oct 2026
Sony and Apple rows are company-wide accounts, not audio-only. Meltwater share of voice [TBC: competitor exports, owner Mike Belloli].
Tool | Date | Scope: Social Blade public profiles via Firecrawl and Exa | 6 Oct 2026 | Instagram follower counts · DIRECTIONAL
14 · Evidence · what worked, what didn't
Beats gets attention when talent gives fans something; it loses it when paid scale stands in for a reason to care.
12 findings, each shown as the chart that proves it. Our own scoring across Metricool, Alli, Meltwater and Circana, checked against Beats' own post-mortems (32 findings that worked, 29 that did not, 19 mixed).
01 · worked
Talent with its own fans beats the baseline; fitness creators and NFL athletes do not.
Music, fashion and sport stars posting in their own voice lifted engagement above same-format posts. Fitness creators sat below on every network they posted. Each name has under 20 posts, so read the order, not the decimals.
Metricool | 6 Oct 2026 | @beatsbydre Instagram, Aug 2025 to Oct 2026, lift vs network x format x quarter median · DIRECTIONAL
IGShow as table
| Item | Detail | Median lift vs same-format posts |
|---|---|---|
| Travis Scott | 1 post · ER 25.33% | 7.49x |
| PinkPantheress | 1 post · ER 10.01% | 3.42x |
| Shohei Ohtani | 7 posts · ER 9.93% | 3.27x |
| JENNIE | 11 posts · ER 4.66% | 1.91x |
| Kendall Jenner | 4 posts · ER 4.06% | 1.23x |
| iShowSpeed | 8 posts · ER 0.72% | 0.89x |
| Kirsty Godso | 4 posts · ER 2.07% | 0.72x |
| Sami Clarke | 4 posts · ER 2.07% | 0.63x |
| NFL athletes (3) | 2 posts · ER 1.91% | 0.61x |
| LeBron James | 1 post · ER 1.28% | 0.32x |
02 · worked
Athletes earn above baseline in fans' channels, even where their posts on @beatsbydre fall flat.
Earned media from fan pages, press and creators scores LeBron James and iShowSpeed above look-alike posts; on the Beats account the same names sat below baseline. Fitness creators trail in both. Earned lift rests on 36 to 670 scored posts per name; owned lift on under 20.
MVP via competitive-intel production, scoring run 10 (cohort-median-v1), as of 5 Oct 2026 · Metricool Instagram, Aug 2025 to Oct 2026 · MODELED
IGIGShow as table
| Item | Detail | Median lift vs look-alike posts |
|---|---|---|
| Travis Scott · earned | 321 scored posts, repeatable-over | 1.61x |
| Travis Scott · owned | 1 post on @beatsbydre | 7.49x |
| Kendall Jenner · earned | 313 scored posts, repeatable-over | 1.57x |
| Kendall Jenner · owned | 4 posts on @beatsbydre | 1.23x |
| JENNIE · earned | 586 scored posts, above | 1.25x |
| JENNIE · owned | 11 posts on @beatsbydre | 1.91x |
| LeBron James · earned | 670 scored posts, above | 1.47x |
| LeBron James · owned | 1 post on @beatsbydre | 0.32x |
| iShowSpeed · earned | 158 scored posts, above | 1.38x |
| iShowSpeed · owned | 8 posts on @beatsbydre | 0.89x |
| Kirsty Godso · earned | 146 scored posts, at-baseline | 0.94x |
| Kirsty Godso · owned | 4 posts on @beatsbydre | 0.72x |
| Sami Clarke · earned | 36 scored posts, below | 0.70x |
| Sami Clarke · owned | 4 posts on @beatsbydre | 0.63x |
03 · worked
Collabs and own-voice talent out-talked commercial talent films.
Conversation follows a reason to care: a custom drop or an athlete's own story. Talent films with no fan hook barely moved Beats mentions, and some of that talk never named Beats.
Meltwater via Campaign Metrics Jan 2026 p.84, p.85, p.126 | Dec 2025 to Jan 2026 | campaign windows differ, so compare the order · DIRECTIONAL
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Total Beats mentions in the campaign window |
|---|---|---|
| Shohei Ohtani | athlete, own voice | 4.5K |
| PinkPantheress custom | collab drop | 1.5K |
| Travis Scott | talent film | 1.4K |
| iShowSpeed | talent film | 845 |
04 · worked
Flat 2D talent assets reached new people; hero films did not.
Posters and reposts travelled to non-followers. Long-form held attention longer but was mostly bought: it carries a story, not reach.
Instagram, YouTube native via Campaign Metrics Jan 2026 p.7, p.67, p.68 | 2025 | talent campaigns · MEASURED
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Views per asset |
|---|---|---|
| Lamine Yamal 2D | flat asset, reposted | 11.2M |
| iShowSpeed 2D poster | flat asset, reposted | 7.9M |
| Travis Scott 2D | flat asset, organic | 3.0M |
| Travis Scott long-form | hero film, organic | 749K |
| iShowSpeed hero video | hero film | 146K |
05 · worked
Behind-the-design ads out-clicked talent ads at the Beats 360 launch.
On Meta and on TikTok. Each audience saw one creative, so this is the audience and creative pair, not creative alone.
Alli (PMG) cross_channel | 6 Oct 2026 | campaign-518-launch, creative x platform, 23 Sep to 5 Oct 2026 · MEASURED
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Click-through rate, Beats 360 paid |
|---|---|---|
| Meta · behind the design | $47K · 6.7M impressions | 0.664% |
| Meta · talent | $61K · 3.6M impressions | 0.296% |
| TikTok · behind the design | $52K · 5.2M impressions | 0.720% |
| TikTok · talent | $58K · 5.7M impressions | 0.402% |
06 · worked
Product posts turn reach into followers best.
Product and talent sit at baseline on engagement, but product posts convert reach into follows at about twice the talent rate. Content tags are SkaFld's, assigned from captions.
Metricool | 6 Oct 2026 | @beatsbydre Instagram feed posts, follows per 1,000 organic reach · MEASURED
07 · did not work
Response peaks between 100K and 1M reach and halves past 1M.
Engagement rate divides by reach, so part of the drop past 1M is arithmetic. The plan boosts proven posts into the 100K to 1M band instead of pushing single hero posts.
Metricool | 6 Oct 2026 | @beatsbydre Instagram, Aug 2025 to Oct 2026, lift vs network x format x quarter median · DIRECTIONAL
IGShow as table
| Item | Detail | Median lift by organic reach per post |
|---|---|---|
| Under 100K | 55 posts · ER 4.07% | 0.91x |
| 100K to 300K | 36 posts · ER 8.27% | 1.28x |
| 300K to 1M | 13 posts · ER 10.12% | 1.94x |
| Over 1M | 12 posts · ER 2.57% | 0.47x |
08 · did not work
Ad creative posted to TikTok drew views, not response.
Product clips published from ads manager took most of the account's views at a fraction of the talent videos' engagement.
Metricool | 6 Oct 2026 | @beatsbydre TikTok, Apr to Oct 2026, engagement per view · DIRECTIONAL
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Engagement per view, @beatsbydre TikTok |
|---|---|---|
| Talent videos | 22 videos | 10.80% |
| Creator | 1 video | 7.87% |
| Behind the scenes | 2 videos | 7.81% |
| Pill People | 4 videos | 4.13% |
| Product clips | 13 videos | 1.56% |
09 · did not work
Powerbeats Fit read as "for athletes" and sold sixth of seven launches.
Beats' own post-mortem: low awareness, below-average ad recall, a confusing name and a launch week shared with AirPods Pro 3. Beats 360, led by It Girl talent, sold the second-best first week.
Circana US POS, first retail week (3 days) · Powerbeats Fit Investigation Apr 2026 p.12, p.23 · MEASURED
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Circana sales a day, first retail week |
|---|---|---|
| Powerbeats Pro 2 | wk ending 2025-02-15 | $3.00M |
| Beats 360 | wk ending 2026-09-26 | $1.31M |
| Studio Pro | wk ending 2023-07-22 | $503K |
| Studio Buds+ | wk ending 2023-05-20 | $454K |
| Solo 4 | wk ending 2024-05-04 | $211K |
| Powerbeats Fit | wk ending 2025-10-04 | $180K |
| Solo Buds | wk ending 2024-06-22 | $142K |
10 · did not work
Under 5% of paid was bought against a Beats audience.
Only the Beats 360 launch used the four brand audiences, each with one creative, and Modern It Girl was never funded. No earlier launch can be read by audience.
Alli (PMG) cross_channel | 6 Oct 2026 | all Beats paid, audience_strategy field · MEASURED
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Paid spend by audience, Jan 2025 to Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Interest tags or untagged | not a Beats audience | $15.96M |
| Aspiring It Girl | Beats 360 only | $324K |
| Performance Purist | Beats 360 only | $274K |
| Brand Loyalist | Beats 360 only | $166K |
| Modern It Girl | never funded | $0 |
11 · did not work
Beats' Instagram audience is three-quarters male, and least female among 25 to 34s.
Of followers with a known gender, 26.3% are women. The 25 to 34 band holds 43.9% of followers and is the least female at 22.6%. Win with women starts well below parity on owned channels, which makes female share a KPI to move, not a given.
Metricool Instagram IGAG01-03 via beats-360 | Sep 2026 snapshot | 2,485,971 followers; follower base, not reach or buyers · MEASURED
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Women as a share of known-gender Instagram followers, by age |
|---|---|---|
| 13-17 | 1.2% of followers | 34.2% |
| 18-24 | 16.3% of followers | 26.3% |
| 25-34 | 43.9% of followers | 22.6% |
| 35-44 | 24.9% of followers | 27.5% |
| 45-54 | 10.0% of followers | 34.6% |
| 55-64 | 2.4% of followers | 41.0% |
| 65+ | 1.2% of followers | 30.3% |
12 · did not work
AI answers praise Beats on sport readiness, compatibility, battery and design, and split on price, the most-discussed theme.
Pricing Value carries the most theme mentions and runs about 60/40 positive, with Build Durability as split. Accessible premium has to answer the price question in content: what the premium buys, and why it is worth it.
Profound via beats-360 | 22 Sep to 4 Oct 2026 | sampled AI-answer prompts about Beats, by theme · DIRECTIONAL
Show as table
| Item | Detail | Positive share of AI-answer mentions, by theme |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Value | 17.7% of theme mentions | 60.4% |
| Device Compatibility | 17.0% of theme mentions | 91.0% |
| Sound Tuning | 12.9% of theme mentions | 67.3% |
| Design Finish | 12.1% of theme mentions | 80.8% |
| Build Durability | 11.2% of theme mentions | 58.6% |
| Battery | 9.1% of theme mentions | 85.9% |
| Charging | 8.6% of theme mentions | 77.1% |
| Sport Readiness | 8.4% of theme mentions | 95.1% |
What this changes in the plan. Product posts earn 1.79 follows per 1,000 reached against 0.77 for talent, so product keeps its 20% share. Fitness creators move from owned series to whitelisted paid, judged on clicks. Collab drops replace commercial talent films. Every paid line carries a brand audience and a creative message.
17 · Last 12 months in Metricool
Posts reaching 100K to 1M people engaged four times better than posts reaching over 1M.
Every @beatsbydre Instagram post and reel from 1 Oct 2025 to 2026-10-06: 100 posts, 37.88M organic reach, 4.34% engagement per person reached. 9 posts passed 1M reach; they carried 66% of all reach and engaged 2.29%.
Posts, 12 months
42 carousels, 41 reels, 17 images. 1.9 a week; 1 in February, 0 in May.
MEASUREDEngagement rate
Interactions ÷ organic reach, pooled. Median post 4.61%.
MEASUREDShares per 100 reached
Reels 0.60, carousels 0.26, images 0.26.
MEASUREDMeta paid, launch
4 campaigns from 24 Sept 2026, 13.47M impressions at $11.82 CPM.
MEASUREDBest time to post
Instagram audience activity peaks 7 to 9am Pacific every day of the week (week of 12 Oct 2026).
MODELEDEngagement rate by reach size
The 100K to 1M band is where Beats posts travel and still land. Above 1M, attention per person collapses.
Tool | Date | Scope: Metricool getAnalyticsDataByMetrics IGPO + IGRE, brand 6985229 | 2026-10-06 | 100 Instagram posts and reels, 1 Oct 2025 to 2026-10-06, organic reach · MEASURED · posts over 1M likely include paid delivery labelled organic
Engagement rate by content type
Talent posts carried 82% of reach at 3.99%. Behind-the-scenes ran 8.74%. Pill People posts ran 1.90%.
Same pull · content type tagged by SkaFld from caption text, so MODELED · product feed posts drove 1.92 follows per 1,000 reached vs 0.91 for talent
Meta Ads, Beats 360 launch
Same creative, different audiences, a 4x spread between the it-girl and performance-purist reels buys. The plan moves Meta money toward the audiences that respond.
| Campaign audience | Objective | Spend | Impressions | CPM | Engagements per $ | Cost per ThruPlay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loyalist FB + IG, video views | engagement | $46,746 | 6.72M | $6.96 | 38.8 | $0.06 |
| It girl IG trending reels | awareness | $56,427 | 3.42M | $16.50 | 18.8 | $0.14 |
| Cupertino IG standard | awareness | $4,328 | 0.20M | $22.07 | 10.5 | $0.45 |
| Performance purist IG trending reels | awareness | $51,749 | 3.14M | $16.49 | 4.8 | $1.04 |
| Total | $159,251 | 13.47M | $11.82 | 19.9 | $0.13 |
Tool | Date | Scope: Metricool getAnalyticsDataByMetrics, network metaAds, connector campaigns (FACA05, FACA03, FACA07, FACA10, FACA12, FACA13, FACA14, FACA149, FACA46), ad account act_10155702561949110 | 2026-10-06 | 4 campaigns starting 24 Sept 2026 · MEASURED · engagements are Meta post interactions, not comparable with organic engagement rate
What this changes in the plan. Paid boosts target the 100K to 1M band, not the 1M+ hero push (38 of 100 posts sat in that band last year). Meta audiences shift to loyalist and it-girl segments. Behind-the-scenes gets a fixed weekly slot. Pill People content moves inside the product pillar at no more than one post a month. Posts go out at 7 to 9am PT. The calendar has no empty months.
18 · What earns attention
Talent in their own voice and behind-the-scenes posts beat paid-scale hero reach, every time we measured it.
Beats talent campaigns on @beatsbydre Instagram since Aug 2025, plus the Beats 360 launch. Red earned above the pre-launch baseline; grey is the baseline and the high-reach pushes.
Instagram engagement per person reached
The campaigns that averaged 700K or more reach a post all engaged under 4%.
Tool | Date | Scope: Metricool Instagram reels and posts, brand 6985229 | 2026-10-06 | launch-window posts per campaign, engagement ÷ organic reach, pooled · MEASURED
19 · Flags + method
Open items, owners and assumptions.
Flags
- Product calendar [TBC]: spring and fall launch windows and any new colourways. Owner: Beats product marketing via Andrew Wiese.
- PMG 2026 spend [source needed]: all paid was $2.08M Jan to Sep 2026 against $9.21M Jan to Sep 2025 (Alli cross_channel, read 6 Oct 2026; $1.25M at the 23 Sep audit, before Beats 360 launch spend). Paid social: $1.10M against $3.75M. The paid baseline uses 2025. Owner: Charles with PMG (Shirley Liu).
- Agency, production and creator rates [assumption]: modeled from 2026 public survey ranges, not quotes. Replace with PMG and agency-of-record quotes before sign-off.
- Headline talent fees excluded: Kendall Jenner, JENNIE, Travis Scott, McKenna and other ambassador contracts sit in the talent budget [TBC owner].
- SkaFld Jan to Sep 2027 [TBC]: current PO runs 14 Sep to 13 Dec 2026; PRD to 31 Dec. Renewal not agreed.
- AI generation gate: no unreleased-product creative in external generators until the safety answer to Alex Bowring is signed.
- Organic reach caveat: Meta campaigns from 24 Sep may lift fields Metricool labels organic; the nine 1M+ posts likely include paid delivery.
- Metricool Meta Ads history: only the four launch campaigns are returned (account connected 15 Sep 2026). Earlier Meta spend is in PMG.
- Metricool TikTok: reach, watch-through and follower count fields return empty for @beatsbydre, so TikTok engagement is per view.
- Content-type tags [assumption]: assigned by SkaFld from captions, not a Beats taxonomy.
- Follower target [assumption]: +150K is about ten launch weeks of growth across a year.
- MVP and Meltwater scope: MVP figures are post-level earned EMV scored by competitive-intel against look-alike posts (scoring run 10, cohort-median-v1, as of 5 Oct 2026); the vendor restates history between drops. Meltwater for 13 campaigns is read from PulseIQ recap pages (competitive-intel production, as of 20 Aug 2026); Beats 360 comes from the beats-360 export, a broader all-mentions search, so compare its volume with care. Studio Pro, Global Soccer 2023 to 2025 and Shohei have no campaign-scoped search, and competitor share of voice still needs Meltwater chart exports (claudedocs/meltwater-export-request.md). [TBC owner: Mike Belloli]
- Deck-sourced findings: figures quoted from Campaign Metrics Jan 2026 and the Powerbeats Fit investigation are Beats' own reads, not recomputed here. Some slides disagree (Travis EMV $354K vs $640K); the slide cited is used.
- Persona tags [assumption]: owned posts are assigned to a brand audience from named talent and caption cues by SkaFld. Paid personas come from PMG's audience_strategy field.
- Brand source: brand anchors come from the Beats 518 Early All-Up deck (29 May 2026). It is a launch deck, not a standing brand book, and states no brand KPIs.
- Owned lift method: each post's baseline is the median of its network, format and quarter cell including the post itself, so lifts are pulled toward 1.0 and single-post cells read exactly 1.0. Conservative, not inflating; a leave-one-out baseline is the next refinement.
Likes, comments, saves and shares ÷ organic reach, pooled across posts.
Working media ÷ CPM × 1,000, per platform. Never summed with organic reach.
10% of all lines, held centrally and released by the steering committee.
MEASURED read from source. MODELED built from a named rate or survey. DIRECTIONAL shape only.