Branded podcasts are definitely a thing

According to Jack Preston, Acast Creative UK Lead, branded podcasts are a thing https://medium.com/acast/branded-podcasts-theyre-a-thing-6bed4fb2e554. He predicts ‘this is the year of the branded podcast’ in which we’re going to be making twice as many as last year as the global podcast listener base skyrockets - over 7 million listeners in the UK every week! Good news for all of us in the audio production industry! Especially as brands are waking up to the idea that a compelling podcast series is a good investment for building brand value and loyalty. Push the metrics of how many, how often, how long, further down the queue. A podcast is not about increasing your social media following or subscription base. It might result in those things but comms teams and creative leaders in businesses need to see podcasting as a powerful way of creating a deep level of engagement with a story or a subject that keeps listeners coming back for more. Your brand is in there, perhaps it tops and tails, uses mid-roll ads or maybe it’s more inventive, more associative. The draw has to be a great story… that can be about anything. And best of all if the story doesn't date. If we stumble across an episode by word of mouth, review, active or accidental promotion, we can binge-listen and catch up with all previous episodes. (We like to do that these days). Famously GE’s hugely successful The Message was a piece of fiction, a sci-fi fiction series that reached no. 1 in the iTunes chart. The company described it as ‘a podcast show that just happens to be produced by a brand instead of a network’. And that was 5 years ago. TOAST is ‘a clothing and lifestyle brand that aspires to a slower, more thoughtful way of life’ according to their website. And they have three series of a lovely, arts-y podcast that flows from that: https://www.toa.st/magazine/toast-podcast.htm Check out the National Trust’s podcast series http://nationaltrust.org.uk/podcasts: lovely listening during lockdown and beyond. There are many companies making award winning audio programmes for the BBC and other platforms who are making amazing branded podcast series too. Look at the offer from Fresh Air Productions , from Chalk & Blade and Reduced Listening, for example. And Message Heard are looking for a sales lead to build their share of branded podcasts.

Inside a large organisation podcasting is a powerful tool to share stories about endeavour and achievement within the business. Especially during a protracted working-from-home period. Or to help roll out a new initiative. Outside an organisation it’s a way of extending reach way beyond the known customer base. You can win awards too https://www.britishpodcastawards.com/winners-2019-1. 

So the call to action for businesses and brands who want to get into the game is think of yourselves as content creators not advertisers. Forget pushing a product or a service in messages most of us want to ignore. Give us something amazing to listen to and we’ll think of you differently. Perhaps with respect, with curiosity and with interest. Maybe your podcast will encourage us think of you as a business that cares about people; the people you employ, the people you serve and about your impact on the environment. Maybe concepts like values and ethics and service and sustainability seep through the stories you investigate in your podcast series. Maybe we’ll listen because your podcast is beautifully crafted, entertaining, compelling and we’re learning something along the way. Maybe we’ll love it because it’s got great people hosting and contributing. Maybe you can make us laugh and build connections to take us out of this period of isolation. And you get to schmooze close up and personal with one listener at a time, for hours and hours, if you make something we want to hear. It's a creative way of building brand loyalty.