Rafael Balbi
Work / Café com Dungeon; case 3 of 5

Café com Dungeon: running an award-winning podcast like a product

I founded and run a tabletop RPG media brand with more than 1,000 episodes. Rebuilding its production system grew listener support by 45% and ad and partnership revenue more than five times.

Role
Founder, creator and content strategist
When
February 2018 to now
Channels
Podcast, YouTube, Instagram, blog, workshops, Telegram
Recognition
Three Goblin de Ouro awards for best podcast

Context

After 1,000 episodes and two national awards, the question was no longer how to make more. It was how to go deeper into dense game-studies content without losing the audience and the experience that made the show work.

What I did

  1. One production system. I rebuilt production in Notion and indexed years of episodes so research could be found and reused instead of starting from zero. Modular scripts connect to databases of partners, promotions, topics and formats.
  2. A content funnel. Short cuts on Instagram lead to longer formats on YouTube, then to the podcast, workshops and the Telegram community.
  3. New products. Paid workshops (Hexcrawl, and Notion for RPG) at the bottom of the funnel, and new ad slots for partners.
  4. Craft on every touchpoint. Episode covers, YouTube thumbnails tested and iterated, and Instagram carousels.

Figures

10 figures from the project.

Media kit cover
Fig. 1; Media kit cover
The Notion production system the show runs on
Fig. 2; The Notion production system the show runs on
Episode cover system
Fig. 3; Episode cover system
Episode cover
Fig. 4; Episode cover
YouTube thumbnails, tested and iterated
Fig. 5; YouTube thumbnails, tested and iterated
YouTube thumbnail
Fig. 6; YouTube thumbnail
Instagram carousel
Fig. 7; Instagram carousel
Instagram carousel
Fig. 8; Instagram carousel
Receiving the third Goblin de Ouro
Fig. 9; Receiving the third Goblin de Ouro
The show's awards
Fig. 10; The show's awards

Results

+45%average listener support
5×revenue from ads and partnerships
3rdGoblin de Ouro for best podcast

The show still runs on this system today.

Let's talk.

I'm a Barcelona resident, open to Creative Operations, Brand Systems and Creative Lead roles. I work in English and Portuguese, and I'm learning Spanish.

rafael.balbi@gmail.com
LinkedIn CV (PDF)