This blog post, authored by Joe Stone, was originally written for and published by Jam Street Media on Oct 9 2019, and is no longer publicly available.
Branded Podcast Insider #4
Podcasts: The Return on Investment
Back again, eh?
We had a recent discussion here at the office about the return on investment when it comes to branded podcasts. Can you equate it with a tangible number?
Well, ultimately, that all depends on your business goals. What do you want the podcast to do for your business? Are you hoping to drive sales? Broaden awareness of your brand?
You could gauge these things by the hard numbers and set up KPIs based on click-through rates, sales, signups and more. And while driving those numbers up is a good thing (and something that will happen if you do it right), that shouldn’t be the primary goal.
Podcasts for brands are all about using entertainment to build relationships and authority. By building those relationships and trust, you build brand advocates. Those who willingly and voluntarily promote your brand because they believe in what you do.
Brand advocates are a force multiplier for your marketing efforts. If you build it they will come.
Some News You Can Use
The Sound of Music
Music has been something that has been largely absent from the podcast industry because of licensing fees. Well, Stationhead may have found a way around it. It lets users become DJ’s by allowing them to create their own on-demand streaming show. The service works as an overlay to their Spotify or Apple Music accounts. When a DJ uses a song, it’s pulled from that user's music subscription account. As of now, their app can only be found on Apple’s App Store.
Extra! Extra!
The online news platform Slate is reporting that half of their 2019 revenue has come from podcasts - a 20% increase from the year before. Their biggest hit show attracting advertisers and brands is “Slow Burn,” but on top of that have also started producing branded podcasts for companies like Ford, Progressive, and Prudential.
BPI Podcast of the Week
The Great Yield Mystery
This is almost like a down on the farm version of Serial, but in this case, the only casualty is a soybean crop and the fictional investigation takes place over the course of an entire season.
The podcast campaign itself was an interesting and well-executed example of transmedia storytelling and marketing. There was gamification, a website, and contests. Not to mention, it was also surprisingly entertaining and educational.
The podcast is owned by The Mosaic Company, which is a Fortune 500 company that mines minerals for fertilizer. And who uses fertilizers? Farmers. Their goal was to meet their end-user right where they were - on the farm.
In this 10-episode weekly series, listeners follow Darrel has he backtracks through the dismal farming season his brother went through - where everyone else’s crops beat expectations except his and he tries to figure out what went wrong. Listeners were asked to find clues and go to cropnutrition.com (and their social channels) where they could submit their guesses and win prizes if they figured it out.
During the few easily digestible - get it? - 10-minute episodes we binge-listened to, we found it full of wonderful storytelling with funny little anecdotes and sidebars. BUT at the same time, it did a great job at presenting facts in such a way, we didn’t realize we were learning something until it was too late.
Oh no. Not again. We’re learning.
If you are seeing the Branded Podcast Insider for the first time, don’t forget to subscribe to keep seeing our content!
Comments