Clubhouse in B2B marketing - hyped, tested, completed

Not even 2.5 months ago – Clubhouse, the audio-based social network app, created a lot of hype in Germany: Everyone in their area had heard of the app, many were wondering whether or how they could participate in a Clubhouse date, and in the B2B marketing people were even thinking about possible ways to use it, such as webinars or similar.  But what has become of it now – 2.5 months later? Is the hype already over? We wanted to answer this question with a survey.

 

Clubhouse – our test in B2B marketing

Let’s start from the beginning: When the hype really took off and many were thinking about possible uses such as brand building or podcast similarity, we just wanted to give the app a chance. We thought about what format would make sense for Clubhouse, looked around at other Clubhouse sessions, and then decided to give “Let’s talk about B2B Marketing” a try. Thematically, we first tested an open topic that addressed the questions, “What has changed as a result of the Corona pandemic? What were the challenges, what measures worked and how?”. The next meeting was to focus on specific actions in 2021 and then other specific topic areas would follow. So much for the draft.  

 

Specifically, we invited experts from our community and colleagues to the first meeting via LinkedIn, Facebook and in person. We opened a clubhouse room, organized the active parts of the moderators and speakers, came up with questions and a basis for discussion, and looked forward to our first dialog.


On 10.2. the time had come: Shortly before 3.00 p.m. we opened our room and were excited to see what would happen in the next 60 minutes. Quickly all participants – moderator and speaker as well as some listeners – were present. We were able to get started and quickly realized that we didn’t even need our prepared list of questions, as the attendees were directly discussing the impact of the Corona pandemic on B2B marketing. Time flew by very quickly and after an hour we were surprised how easy it was to use Clubhouse as a communication and exchange platform. But what was the next step? How could we build on this first experience? 

Based on our first experiences, we decided to hold Clubhouse meetings on a regular basis. For this purpose, different topics were to be addressed and priorities set. The approach was to remain the same and our test expanded. But as others have noticed, we soon had the feeling that the hype around Clubhouse was weakening. Already at the beginning of March – that is, after 1.5 months – the first analyses came on the market, which proved that Clubhouse was losing its appeal in Germany. Whether this was due to the lack of an Android version or to data protection or other reasons remains to be seen.

 

Survey confirms: Hype is over

The initial euphoria around our own format weakened, listeners stayed away and so we also decided to close “Let`s talk about B2B Marketing” on Clubhouse again. But since the topic didn’t quite leave us alone, we asked our LinkedIn community whether or not they considered Clubhouse to be a useful tool in B2B marketing. And what can we say – the answer is clear: 74% do not consider the app useful at the moment or are of the opinion that the hype is over. 17% can still imagine using it as a communication tool and only 11% still find it useful as a variant in the overall B2B marketing mix.

 

 

Conclusion:

Our Clubhouse test was a very interesting experience. The exchange in the different sessions was exciting. The time invested was fun, but now we are also of the opinion: The hype is over. In German-speaking B2B marketing, the app – at least in its current version – will probably not establish itself. That’s why we will now conclude our test, but will of course continue to follow the developments surrounding the audio-based social network. It’s exciting to see how the founders are now maintaining and developing their position: for example, the test phase for a payment function was recently launched in the USA.