Work / Case study 01
A Detroit media brand. 46 million views. No paid reach.
RAW Detroit reached 46 million organic views in 2025. We did not pay for one. It began with free photo walks in 2015.
- Role
- Co-owner and Head of Growth
- Since
- 2019
- Team
- Shawn Mangenje, founder, and a roster of Detroit creatives
- Channels
- Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, rawdetroit.org
Where it started
Shawn Mangenje started RAW Detroit in 2015, not long after moving here from the UK. He held free photo walks. The people who came kept seeing the same thing: the Detroit in front of them did not look like the Detroit on the news. That gap became the assignment.
I joined as co-owner in 2019. I lead growth and strategy, live in the numbers and make a large share of the work that goes out. Shawn leads creative direction.
What the work is
RAW covers Detroit the way residents want it covered: food, events, neighborhoods, development, news and the people making things happen. If we post a restaurant or a block, someone on the team has been there. We do not pull it from a national feed.
Our growth came from knowing what each format does. Short vertical video brings in new people on Instagram and TikTok. On Facebook, where the audience is older and more suburban, a photo with a sharp headline beats video. Longer stories and guides live on the site.
Who is watching
Sixty percent of the audience lives in Metro Detroit, and another 20 percent is elsewhere in Michigan. The 2026 media kit reports that 57 percent are homeowners and 64 percent are college educated. That local concentration is why one post can sell out a product or fill a sign-up list that same day.
| Organic views, 2025 | 46M |
|---|---|
| Followers, all platforms | 245K |
| Interactions, 2025 | 5M |
| Audience in Metro Detroit | 60% |
| Paid amplification | None |
Source: 2026 RAW Detroit media kit, platform analytics for calendar year 2025.