On Reddit, brands are uniquely positioned to reach self-selected, niche communities. For book and audiobook fans, there is a space for every book, series, and author imaginable, including those often ignored by the mainstream entertainment industry. Audible recognized this as incredible whitespace to engage with these communities big and small — from Harry Potter fandoms to lesser-known video-game-inspired audiobook lovers.
Although the platform’s key value of anonymity has set it apart from other social platforms, leading (historically) to less commercialization by brands, Audible was up for the challenge to enter Reddit organically through a community-first approach. The goal here was to show this community that Audible is truly aware of their passion points and understanding their particular preferences. The ultimate goal was to earn genuine community acceptance and build long-term loyalty in spaces where corporate presence had previously been unwelcomed.
So, we joined these spaces to offer exclusive and unique content to these fans who wouldn’t expect the brand to even necessarily be aware of them.
Rather than focusing on conventional KPIs, Audible optimized for Karma: a user’s reputation score and Reddit's own measure of valuable contribution. Ultimately, we succeeded, earning the right to participate in conversations through sustained authentic engagement across 28 subreddits, demonstrating that brands can belong when they genuinely celebrate and contribute to the fandoms they serve.
Starting from very little organic brand presence on Reddit in early 2025, we set out to achieve 8,000 accumulated Karma within 12 months — identified through an analysis of best-in-class brands’ annual Karma totals — a goal we significantly surpassed.
While Audible’s goal was to build authentic connections with passionate audiobook fans where they already gathered, there was one key challenge upfront: brands are notoriously unwelcome through organic measures on Reddit. The platform's community-driven culture actively punishes promotional content through downvotes and bans, with Redditors wielding their finely-tuned radars for inauthenticity. Each subreddit has moderators who set specific guidelines for their communities, keeping a watchful eye for corporate interlopers.
Rather than viewing this as a barrier, Audible saw this as an invitation to engage in a new way.
Certainly, some brands have found ways to engage organically (outside of paid advertisements) on Reddit. But most of these examples functioned more like glorified customer service reps. For Audible, the overall approach seemed clear: demonstrate fluency in fandom-centric communities, showing up as genuine audiobook enthusiasts who happen to work at Audible.
This began with a slow beginning, familiarizing a small group of relevant subreddits with the brand’s presence. In r/HarryPotter, we discussed beloved characters and celebrated upcoming adaptations. Inr/DungeonCrawlerCarl, we geeked out over Matt Dinniman's world-building and engaged in fandom conversations with the gritty language used in the DCC world. Within r/ProjectHailMary, we hosted multiple AMAs featuring Author Andy Weir, Narrator Ray Porter and collaborated with the film production on an AMA (“Ask Me Anything” Q&A thread) with directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
None of these comments used “marketing speak.” These showcased authentic enthusiasm in each community's unique dialect. We learned what mattered to each fandom, referenced inside jokes, and contributed meaningfully to ongoing conversations without ever linking to product pages or pushing sales.
Building collaborative relationships with subreddit moderators became foundational to our success. Before engaging in a subreddit, Audible’s handle communicated with moderator(s) transparently, introducing ourselves and our community-first philosophy while seeking guidance on how to engage respectfully within their unique cultures. Moderators became trusted partners who appreciated our genuine approach, often providing valuable feedback that helped us better serve their communities and eventually vouching for our authentic presence.
We created exclusive experiences through carefully coordinated AMA sessions with beloved authors and narrators such as Matt Dinniman and Jeff Hays in the r/DungeonCrawlerCarl subreddit. While brands have historically hosted AMAs in the r/AMA subreddit, it is rare for a similar activation in a community-specific space. Importantly, these AMAs were designed as exclusive opportunities for communities rather than promotional events for the brand, providing an additional layer of appreciation for loyal fans.
Coinciding with live-events like San Diego Comic-Con, we gave users the unique ability to have their questions answered directly by their creators during a live-panel. These AMAs enabled fans to discuss plot theories directly with creators, explore narrative choices, and access insights impossible on other platforms. Each session was tailored to community interests and facilitated meaningful connections between fans and the talent behind their favorite titles in an organic way.
Our Reddit account achieved over 9,500 total karma in 2025, reaching 10.6K in January 2026. This is hugely impressive annual growth for a brand’s first-time engaging on the platform, surpassing our original 2025 goal of 8,000 by 19%.
On a platform where brands typically struggle to earn even modest engagement, this karma total represents thousands of individual upvotes from users who found our participation helpful, entertaining, or worthy of celebration. Active in over 28 subreddits, Audible received 15 Gold Awards from Reddit users: a reward system to recognize top-quality comments or posts. These recognitions included an award from author Matt Diniman.
Our active participation and familiarization within these communities was frequently acknowledged by users. Our most upvoted comment of the year (1.1k Upvotes) was part of a discussion involving beloved characters on r/HarryPotter, with multiple users showing appreciation for the brand’s rich, deep knowledge of the series. The r/DungeonCrawlerCarl community routinely replied to our playful engagements that utilized fandom-centric language.
Examples of Redditor reactions:
