Case Study
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NERD GATE Southeast
Media Brand

Audience-Building | Community Strategy | Meta Ad Strategy

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Built an independent regional media brand covering geek-culture across North Carolina, growing it from zero through community storytelling, event coverage, newsletter publishing, social content, and Meta ad campaigns.

The goal was to create a local media brand and community that met the need to aggregate information on local geek-culture businesses and events.

0 → 400+

email subscribers

50%+

open rate

100+

YouTube subscribers

16

videos produced

12%+

click-through rate

The Opportunity
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Geek culture in North Carolina was already alive: conventions, game shops, artists, cosplayers, tabletop communities, anime fans, collectors, and local events were happening every month. But the scene felt fragmented. There was no single media brand helping people discover what was happening, meet the people behind it, and feel connected to the larger community.

The Challenge
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The challenge was building a media brand from zero in a niche community where trust matters. I needed to define the audience, create a clear editorial point of view, find the right events and stories, build a recognizable brand, and grow distribution without an existing platform, budget, or team.

My Role
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I created and operated the brand across strategy, content, community, publishing, and growth.

  • Brand positioning and editorial direction

  • Newsletter strategy and publishing

  • Event coverage and community reporting

  • Social content and Instagram growth

  • Audience research and community engagement

  • Meta ad creative, targeting, and testing

  • Website/blog setup and content packaging

  • Partnerships, outreach, and local discovery

Organic Growth
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Organic growth came from showing up where the community already was: conventions, shops, events, Instagram, and local creator networks. I used coverage as both content and relationship-building, turning each event into a chance to meet people, learn the scene, and create media that participants wanted to share.

Meta Ads
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I ran one Meta ad campaign to validate the brand’s audience and drive newsletter signups. That single campaign became the main source of early subscriber growth, showing that the positioning had real demand when placed in front of the right regional audience.

Selected Work (Video)
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Event Coverage
Event coverage helped the brand create value for both attendees and organizers by documenting the people, moments, and culture behind local nerd events.

Business Feature
These videos helped viewers get to know the owners behind a local business, using story-driven video to create trust, familiarity, and a stronger sense of connection.

Narrative Short Film
This short film brought a small meadery event to life, capturing the mood, people, and experience of the gathering as a piece of local culture.

Results
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NERD GATE Southeast grew from an idea into a real local media brand with an engaged early audience. Starting from zero, I built the brand identity, launched the newsletter, created original event and business coverage, and developed a publishing rhythm around the people, places, and stories shaping nerd culture in the Southeast.

The newsletter grew to 400+ subscribers, with engagement consistently signaling that the audience was highly interested in the niche. Open rates averaged over 50%, with click-through rates around 12%, showing that the brand was not just attracting passive subscribers but was building an audience that wanted to discover local events, businesses, creators, and community stories. A focused Meta ad campaign drove much of the early subscriber growth, validating that the positioning resonated when placed in front of the right regional audience.