The branded podcast market is changing, and Crowd Network’s CEO Mike Carr explains to us why it may be time to redefine the term.
Crowd has produced a number of branded podcasts, with its most recent being a co-production between the company’s branded division, Crowd Branded, and Greenpeace with Oceans: Life Under Water.
Mike says that with branded podcasting it can take an eternity to agree on everything, but with Greenpeace it was a quick process because of its clarity and vision of what they wanted and who they wanted to reach, which isn’t always the case.
“It’s a big target, they want to save the oceans, they want action on the United Nations Global Ocean’s Treaty which took two decades of negotiation,” says Mike. “Sometimes when we talk to brands, companies or charities, they have an existing audience, but in this case, Greenpeace said there was no point making a podcast for people that are already on your journey – they’re already believers.
“It was clear what they needed to do was reach an audience beyond that – ambivalent people, people who are maybe interested in nature but not understanding the threats to the ocean, so how are you going to get these people to listen?”
Greenpeace didn’t want to be front and centre of the content because it didn’t want a campaigning podcast on its behalf.
“It was about creating something that would stand on its own as a podcast – that’s how we approach all branded podcasts,” Mike explains. “When we launched, and it still is, our main thing is making Crowd original content.”
The result was creating something similar to Blue Planet, but in the audio space. It’s a storytelling podcast for listeners to get a deeper understanding of people whose lives revolve around the oceans.
“It’s positive and inspiring content we’re making,” Mike continues. “It’s incredible – the sound design we’ve used, the presenter we’ve used and the guests we’ve chosen. It’s inspiring, but there’s also this key theme that things are changing, and it needs to be reversed. It’s an amazing standalone podcast but with this very, very important message.”
Although Oceans: Life Under Water is the latest of a number of branded podcasts Crowd has produced, Mike doesn’t like the term “branded podcast” because, he says, it implies that it’s a podcast for a product or service.
“Branded podcasts should stand on their own, they should be just podcasts – podcasts with a purpose maybe,” he explains. “If I define a branded podcast, that’s the wrong thing to do because you shouldn’t be able to define it because it could be anything.
“We evolved into branded podcasting because we produced an original show, The Geraint Thomas Cycling Club, which is very successful and from the first episode has been sponsored by Zwift – that’s not classed as a branded podcast, because Zwift don’t own it, but it may as well because they are feeding all the way through it in terms of editorial, social media content and that, in a way, is branded content.
“I think the future for branded podcasts is more in creating a format, working with celebrities and then taking that to a brand and asking if it wants to be associated with that, own the content. We can work out how we can work together, how your brand is worked into that with your key messaging.
“Some of the bigger brands are receptive to that because they may already be a part of the UK culture but want to expand that to a certain extent in terms of the content they create.
“If you go back to the real definition of branded content – a podcast made to promote a product or service, I don’t think necessarily the brands get the bang for their buck on that unless it’s a really targeted audience, an internal podcast or a thought leadership podcast that exists in an industry area.”
Mike acknowledges that a lot of companies make really good podcasts based on that, but it isn’t something Crowd is necessarily doing, because its background is making hit shows and working with personalities and people who want to create commercially successful shows.
The company is now taking that skill level, knowledge, experience and insight to create podcasts with brands, that are podcasts that can stand alone.
An example of this is Red Bull, one of Crowd’s biggest clients, who don’t use the term branded podcast. It’s a content network owned by Red Bull, associated with various sports people that want to create standalone content with minimal branding.
The way in which branded podcasts is evolving at the moment is not that easy Mike says.
“We’ve created a number of lifestyle shows that get very big downloads and you own the content with a celebrity or sports person,” he says. “But you’re very reliant on ads sales to fund that show – sometimes it’s ok and sometimes it’s not because nothing’s guaranteed when you’re relying on third party people to create revenue for your business.
“A better way of doing it is having a brand affiliation from the very start. They can own the content, the celebrity can get paid properly, we still have that creative stimulation, which we like and everyone’s happy.
“The content doesn’t change that much – it will change a little bit but it’s reading so naturally, it’s not clunky, it’s just a part of the content. Then you have the social media, so the brand affinity gets to a wider reach.”
Mike believes that this is the next step, which is happening, although slowly. Referring back to Greenpeace, he says it’s a charity that wants to build a podcast for a purpose. He believes if there’s a clarity and purpose, it’s something that can be effective by working with a company like Crowd Network.
“Our producers want to work on really interesting projects. As CEO, I have to make sure we get the revenue in as well, but what really gets our juices going is working with the likes of Red Bull, Greenpeace, Novotel, Manchester Airport – companies like that who have a clear vision and understand what they are trying to do.
“Creatively, we can get really excited about it and create something that may even be beyond our expectations. Podcasts with purposes is how I see branded podcasts,” he says.
“I think the way that podcasting works with brands is the future, moving away from reliance on programmatic and host read – the peaks and troughs of that, which is why branded podcasts is the wrong wording, they’re just podcasts,” he adds.