Advertising clients face a dizzying array of online and offline vehicles for getting their messaging across in an increasingly competitive (and noisy) business landscape. While a number of traditional channels face strong cost headwinds and are yielding fewer eyeballs for the dollar, podcasting has emerged as the brightest of bright spots for its ability to attract and hold the attention of key customer segments.
Any successful business relationships rests on common vested interests – and mutual benefits abound between advertising agencies and their clients when it comes to podcasting services. If an advertising agency can take the brand and key messages it has so meticulously crafted and find an exciting new vehicle to give it expression, everyone comes out a winner!
What value does podcasting create for my client?
Let’s start with why your client should start a podcast and weave it into the marketing mix:
- Podcasting as a long-term brand builder. Podcasting has extended beyond murder mysteries and Joe Rogan episodes into the world of business, and more specifically, into the sphere of branding. While podcasting as a general medium has been around for a number of years, branded podcasts have emerged over the past 18 months as the fastest growing sub-genre. And across all genres, the growth is stunning: In 2019, 59% more time was spent listening to podcasts across all genre than scrolling through social media.
- Podcasts offer extended exposure to the client’s messaging. Traditional marketing channels such as print, radio, and even digital marketing rely on “short-burst” communication. The customer is only engaged for short periods, and the impact, at least for the single time of exposure, is shortlived. Podcasting fully engages the listener for 20, 30, 40 minutes or more, offering a fuller and longer-lasting exposure to your brand.
- How do younger consumer gather information these days? Podcasts! There are a multitude of reasons why Millennials and Gen Z clients are burning holes in their earlobes with AirPods, and podcasting is a big one. The largest age group that listen to podcasts are between 12 and 24 years old, and 48% of teenagers between 13 and 17 are listeners.
- Want to Increase customer intimacy? Become more important to your customer. There are two main kinds of podcasts. Those that are important to the listener’s personal development and those that entertain the listener. If your client can associate either benefit with its brand over a 35 minute podcast episode, your branding work realizes greater impact.
What's in it for my agency?
So the benefits to the client are real and significant, but they’re not accrued independent of your agency’s work. Recommending and supporting your client’s podcast initiative advances your interests as well! Think of the roles that podcasting could play within your service mix:
- Serves as a force multiplier for your client’s branding and messaging. Chances are high that there are a significant number of the people who listen to podcasts whose attention you may not grab and hold via other media. They may have experienced your client’s brand via print, online, or broadcast; and had it settle in the recesses of their mind, but it may take a branded podcast episode to raise it to the forefront, where it is experienced by listeners on a long walk or commute.
- Rounds out your services offering. Podcasting potentially represents the next frontier in a firm’s evolution. Just as many ad agencies have expanded beyond traditional TV, radio, and print into the online world of digital marketing, podcasting becomes another tool within a more complete solution – one that is growing in leaps and bounds.
- Complements other marketing vehicles. Many advertising channels are visual in nature. As an auditory medium, podcasting broadens the “sense spectrum” for your client’s brand, providing a memorable combination that aids recall. While other media is optimized to continuously reinforce a limited number of themes, podcasts for marketing can be designed to cover a broader swath of content. From the client’s perspective, bringing in podcasting and thoughtfully relating it to other advertising vehicles creates brand value.
- Acts as a wedge into the offices of more influencers and decision makers. Podcasting oftentimes evolves organically, sometimes spontaneously, and within business functions or groups you may not be currently working with. If you’re engaged with business unit A but have been blocked at business unit B, podcasting may be a way in. Or you’re looking to engage with younger stakeholders at a client you’ve been working with for years.
Podcasts for advertising agencies
Having your own podcasts gives you a platform for showcasing your expertise in an in-depth way. Very few communication vehicles afford advertising firms the ability to dive deeply into their methods and capabilities, and to colorfully describe client success stories - as most do not hold the target audience’s attention for 30 minutes or more. If you can become the the resource your clients go to for marketing ideas twice a month, you become important to their professional development, and your business relationships becomes more sustainable over time.
Click here for a great list of podcasts created by advertising agencies:
Don’t DIY this! Use a professional podcasting services firm.
You want the final product to be of the highest content and audio quality. Taking this one on without major league help will yield minor league results. Employing a firm who focuses exclusively on podcast production will allow you or your client to focus on messaging and branding, and let others with professional audio and publication skills drive the final deliverables.
Whether you can envision complementing your client offering with podcasting services or are intrigued by branded podcasts as a vehicle for elevating your firm’s expertise, we’re happy to help. Please feel to reach out to us at info@godmodpod.com or visit us at www.gomodpod.com.
ModPod is a division of Marketing Messages LLC.
