The Fitting Room's MD, Charlotte Mair, looks at Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces as two new places brands can listen to people, and learn things
Kevin Hart talks to fans and it gets heated in Clubhouse
Clubhouse has landed. Part talkback radio, part Houseparty, part podcast and part conference call. First launched back in March 2020, Clubhouse was positioned a highly exclusive audio chat, with an invite-only door policy. Created by Silicon Valley professionals Paul Davison and Rohan Seth and funded by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Clubhouse initially had a slim 3,500 members, that included some of the biggest names in Hollywood. The brand drove a high level of hype, demand, and FOMO in the later part of 2020 with its user list including Oprah, Drake, Bow Wow, Jared Leto, and Kevin Hart. Kevin Hart propelled the social media platform into the mainstream when a room was set up called ‘Is Kevin Hart funny?’. Kevin Hart pulled up to the room, metaphorically to defend his craft and accolades. That’s how it works, members set up rooms for discussions on any subject. People can join the rooms and listen in, and can also be invited on ‘stage’ by the rooms’ moderators to join the discussion and ask questions. Over the last few weeks, the platform has shown some teething problems when big names have appeared to crash the audio-chat. Most recently, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, whose rooms filled within seconds, making multiple ‘overflow’ rooms where people discussed what was happening on stage in the ‘main’ room’. Clubhouse have focused very much on user experience, with the co-founders hosting weekly town halls where they discuss updates and changes coming to the platform. The timing of the platform opening up to a wider audience couldn’t be more apt, at a time where influencers and celebrities are being called out for over-filtered images, Clubhouse makes a great spot for focusing on conversation. Recently we also saw Twitter launch their voiced based ‘Spaces’. Twitter has been testing this area with individuals from underrepresented backgrounds over the last twelve months. The challenge they are all going to find is, how do you moderate these conversations? Particularly around the rise in conversation around the boundaries of freedom of speech, with the recent downfall of Parler app and the removal of Donald Trump on Twitter. Bloomberg reported that the app made a brief uncensored stint in China and was quickly banned after users began discussing the Chinese government's genocide of Uighur Muslims.
In December, the cast of The Lion King performed the hit musical in a Clubhouse room - it was exceptional and was a great example of how voice can bring people together. Since then, there have been interviews with the cast of Hamilton and auditions for the upcoming Dreamgirls tour. While we’re at a time when the world feels very noisy, and most want to use Clubhouse as a platform to be heard, it’s a fantastic place to listen. As brands are challenged with finding more authentic storytelling, businesses are under pressure to deliver diversity and inclusion agendas, Clubhouse offers a space to hear the unheard and discover the undiscovered. You might also be lucky enough to catch a little Hakuna Matata on a Sunday afternoon from The Lion King cast.
