Dorm Life Retention Bests Rest of Top 50
We were intrigued by AdAge’s piece on web video series (subscription required). According to data compiled by TubeMogul, the average top-50 web series lost 64% of its viewers from episode 1 to episode 2. What’s more, less than 2 in 10 first-episode viewers stuck around to watch episode 8 of the typical top-50 series.
This didn’t seem to mesh with what we knew about ASM’s original web series, Dorm Life. So we compiled our viewing stats, and this is what we found out:
- Dorm Life’s episode 1 to episode 8 retention rate was 170% higher than the average top-50 web series
- Dorm Life retained 95% of viewers from episode 2 to episode 8
While we would have loved it if 100% of the people that watched episode 1 of Dorm Life went on to watch episode 2, we realize the show isn’t for everybody. It’s the people that watched episode 2 that we’re interested in – those are the people who liked what they saw in episode 1 and wanted another helping. The fact that we were able to keep those who watched episode 2 coming back through episode 8 says something flattering about Dorm Life and our approach to social content, in our humble opinion. Put succinctly, getting people to pay attention to the show is just the first step; making sure the show pays attention to its viewers is the real key.
We’ll be interested to see if Dorm Life: Semester 2 plays out in a similar fashion. Right off the bat, the retention bar got jacked up pretty high when YouTube put Episode 201 on its front page. Not the stickiest of referral methods, but we’ll take the view count. The success of a Web series doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a challenge we’re happy to accept.
