The Betches Sup is the news and politics vertical of Betches Media, serving content through a daily email newsletter, Instagram account (@betches_sup), and articles on Betches.com, with the tagline "you heard it here second." Following the mainstream 24-hour news cycle, The Sup filters out the most important stories and issues for their audience, distilling the most important points and explaining them in the signature snarky voice of the Betches brand.
The Sup was conceived to inject humor and levity into the contentious and esoteric political environment, and to serve as an access point for female millennials to understand the news cycle and engage in political conversation. Many millennials find following the news to be boring, hard to understand, extremely biased, partisan, or agenda-driven, and generally a cause of anxiety and negative feelings.
The objective of the Sup is to take both the inaccessibility and negativity out of the news. First, their philosophy is to deliver the news to their audience directly, in the places they're already scrolling: primarily through Instagram and your inbox. Their other main belief is that being an informed person doesn't have to mean being depressed and anxious about everything you read. Their intention is to deliver all the news through a lens of entertainment, and expose the political stage for the Real Housewives reunion it really is.
The Betches Sup fills the space between news, entertainment, and activism through humorous, informative, and accessible content, delivered to where you're already scrolling. Not only does it make information easy to find, but they make it easy to understand by explaining it the way your funny, informed friend at brunch would: by making you laugh and tagging you in memes. They focus on comedic written and video content primarily through Instagram and email, where they drive traffic to the Sup vertical on Betches.com and their other social platforms (Facebook and Twitter). Their strategy comes down to four main pillars, and they aim to create distinct content to cater towards each purpose and platform differently.
1. We make it easy. We filter through the mainstream news cycle and tell you the most important things happening every day, in the places you're already reading.
a. Daily Sup email
b. Daily rundown of main news stories via Instagram story, including links out to either primary news sources (like the New York Times) or relevant betches.com content
c. Betches.com breaking news articles – For substantial news items, we publish articles on Betches.com. We typically try to take an evergreen or explanatory angle as to not simply regurgitate from major political websites.
2. We don't talk down to you. We explain the complicated issues like your friends would.
a. WTF video series – we break down major issues and how government and political organizations function in 60 seconds or less
b. Instagram slideshow explainers of major issues
c. betches.com explainer articles
3. We don't hide our opinion. We're not afraid to express our opinion, biased and left-leaning as it might be. At the same time, we keep it funny, real, and light. We're not trying to be part of the echo chamber.
a. Weekly Sup Live talk show and podcast (podcast is audio-only version of the talk show)
b. Longform sketch video (video memes & series; The Moscow Mueller Files, a series on the Russia investigation coming Spring 2018)
c. Betches.com evergreen articles
4. We actually give a sh*t. The Sup tries to get involved IRL as much as possible, and we want to encourage and enable our audience to do the same through education and access.
a. IRL events – hosted a sold out stand-up show in partnership with the 14th Street Y in NYC titled Nasty Women: A Night of Female Resistance Comedy, including performers such as Jena Friedman and Aparna Nancherla; Betches Sup at the Women's March. All IRL events are pre-promoted and covered on social channels.
b. The Sup Collection at Shop Betches (@shopbetches) – We sell funny, politically-oriented phrases on clothes and accessories through Betches ecommerce arm. Proceeds sometimes will go to organizations (e.g., Rules of Feminism t-shirt in partnership with NOW-National Women's Organization)
c. We promote causes and donations through our content on all our platforms (e.g., article explainers for how to call senators, register to vote, contribute to disaster relief, etc. with amplification on social platforms)
1) The Sup email subscriber list tripled and their Instagram following grew by 50% in 2017.
2) Their Instagram reaches 1M users on average each week.
3) Their audience is highly engaged (engagement rate on Instagram is 4.88%) and growing by approximately 10,000 followers a month.
4) They launched Sup video in June of 2017 and our videos receive an average of 60,000 views, with our top 3 most viewed videos receiving between 200,000 and 500,000 views.
