When HBO greenlit an adaptation of Issa Rae’s innovative web series, Awkward Black Girl, in 2016 – taking it from YouTube to premium network television – the network decided to utilize an equally-innovative promotional campaign to market the show.

Leveraging podcasting trailblazers Francheska Medina of the wildly successful HeyFranHey and TheFriendZone podcasts and Crissle West from the award-winning The Read podcast, HBO designed a podcast to take viewers through the latest episode of HBO's Insecure with a dynamic dissection, known as “InsecuriTEA.” Four seasons and three million listeners later, the InsecuriTEA Podcast has evolved alongside its Emmy-Nominated subject, HBO Insecure – growing into its own household name.

For season 4 of Insecure, the objective of the InsecuriTEA podcast was to build on the highly-engaged community, established throughout the previous seasons, and act as an omnipresent touchpoint for fans to stay connected in the world of Insecure.

Understanding the target demographic and their affinity for consuming content, demands not only a great show, but also a platform/community to facilitate conversation about that content. That’s why HBO and its partners decided to create a podcast that would air weekly. A podcast used to engage the show’s community to discuss central themes and topics of the series including dating, friendship, racial/social issues and all-around culture. The podcast would allow for the conversation regarding the show to continue on after the episode was over.

Beginning after the Season 4 premiere of Insecure on April 12, 2020, through the season finale, the InsecuriTEA podcast accompanied every episode of the show for 10 weeks! To meet the demands of fans and keep them engaged, the InsecuriTEA podcast episodes released earlier for Season 4 (directly after each episode concluded), increasing availability via the HBO apps, in addition to regular amplification through its distribution partner, Loudspeakers Network.

To increase engagement throughout the season, for the first time, HBO created weekly digital assets to promote each podcast episode and each written recap by Luvvie Ajayi Jones. Assets were shared via talent handles (Crissle, Fran and Luvvie) and the official @insecureHBO handles. Fans were also ecstatic to live tweet with Crissle and Fran every Sunday – sharing in laughs, hot takes and colorful commentary – leading into the weekly episode, as well as after the show.

The InsecuriTEA podcast reached over 3 million listeners across all podcast platforms, and held the #1 spot on Apple Podcast’s TV & Film charts for 10 weeks in a row (the entirety of season four). The HBO InsecuriTEA podcast finished with nearly one million listeners for the season and a total of 3.58 million plays in the history of InsecuriTEA on Soundcloud.

Beyond metrics, the podcast continued its success in bringing the Insecure community together to become the cultural epicenter for conversations surrounding the show and its themes. Week after week, podcast hosts Crissle & Fran set Twitter ablaze by live tweeting before, during and after each episode, followed by the written episode recap on HBO.com. While the podcast is well-received and highly engaging during normal times, the podcast truly provided an escape as much of the country grappled with the harsh reality of the pandemic and racial injustices.