Morning Brew - ☕️ Everyone has a podcast

The rise of branded podcasts.
Morning Brew May 02, 2022

Marketing Brew

Attest

Welcome to Monday. Happy International Harry Potter Day to every marketer crossing their fingers about the latest Fantastic Beasts release.

In today’s edition:

—Alyssa Meyers, Katie Hicks

MARKETING

The art of the branded podcast

cover art for branded podcasts from Lattice, Southwest, and Ben & Jerry's Illustration: Dianna “Mick” McDougall, Photos: Lattice, Southwest Airlines, Ben & Jerry’s

Everyone has a podcast these days, and brands are increasingly becoming no exception.

Break it down: Trader Joe’s has Inside Trader Joe’s, a pod that started in 2018 and is still active today. That same year, McDonald’s worked with Gizmodo on a three-episode series entirely about its Szechuan-sauce shortage. General Electric found success back in 2015 with The Message, a sci-fi podcast designed to raise brand awareness among young, tech-savvy consumers.

“The trick is hiding the spinach in the smoothie and making sure that the content itself is something that people really want and are interested in,” Rachael King, founder and CEO of audio production agency Pod People, told Marketing Brew.

So you think you can podcast

Last year, Southwest Airlines debuted Is This Seat Open?, a 20-episode podcast created with LA Times Studios and podcast production studio At Will Media. The podcast, hosted by two of the airline’s employees, focused on real stories from the company’s history.

  • It was part of Southwest’s marketing strategy for its 50th anniversary, according to At Will founder and CEO Will Malnati.
  • “They were involved in creating the content with us and coming up with the stories and figuring out who should speak on them, and so they were very much collaborative on that,” Malnati said. “That’s the way that these brands get their DNA into these things so that it feels organic and authentic.”
  • Malnati said the podcast was a piece of that larger campaign. That can often be the case with branded podcasts, he explained.

In the past two years, Ben & Jerry’s has released two podcasts—Into the Mix and Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America—made with help from Vox Creative, a creative collective within Vox Media.

Both podcasts fall in line with its history of activism and social responsibility, looking to “engage with and attempt to mobilize” an audience the company refers to as “the aspiring activist,” said Jay Tandan, US integrated marketing manager at Ben & Jerry’s, or “people who may not always be proactively finding ways to take action on issues they care about” but are still interested.

“By proactively reaching out to this audience, we’re able to, as a fun ice cream company, engage them in a different way than, say, a Greenpeace does,” Tandan explained.

Problem solving

People management platform Lattice worked with Pod People on a show called All Hands, a content marketing play combined with a sales effort, according to Lattice’s Head of Content Annette Cardwell.

  • The Lattice sales team, as well as HR leaders at different companies, were finding it difficult to convince decision makers of “how strategic HR could be” in order to convert them to customers, Cardwell said. So she and her team thought a podcast based around interviews with HR leaders and other execs could help change their minds.
  • It seems to be working so far: Lattice’s salespeople have reported finding fans of the pod on their calls, and it’s also generated positive conversations on social media, according to Cardwell.

Results: “Season one was a growing year,” said Christine Swor, executive producer at Lattice, but downloads have increased by about 150% as of the first few episodes of season two compared to season one, she told us.

Click here to read more about how companies are gauging success of their branded podcasts.—AM

        

AGENCIES

Working through a war

 I am IDEA employees on Zoom I am IDEA

On February 24, employees at I am IDEA, a Kyiv-based ad agency, were on their way to shoot a commercial for Domino’s when they learned that Russia had invaded Ukraine.

“Everything was ready,” Ihor Havrush, a creative director at the agency, told Marketing Brew. “At five o’clock in the morning, we should start shooting. And actually producers of the [shoot], they called me at five o’clock in the morning. And they said, ‘Ihor, we’re fucked.’”

Before the bombing began, the plan had been to shoot at a large studio and a Domino’s location that has since been destroyed. Havrush confirmed everyone on the shoot, including the 82 people who were already on set, made it home safely.

Since that day, he has remained in Ukraine, along with agency CEO and co-founder Igor Finashkin.

  • Other coworkers, like creative group head Irene Ilchanka, have relocated to places like Canada.
  • Families have also been separated, with Finashkin’s wife and two sons now living in France.
  • Finashkin told us he often thinks how grateful he is that his family is somewhere safe. “This is the thing that’s keeping your mind free,” he said.

In the midst of turmoil and across many miles of separation, the agency has kept its doors open as employees lend their skills to help Ukraine and try to retain a sense of normalcy.

Concentrated effort

“Anything I can do to help this country, [it’s] better to stay here,” Finashkin said. “I’m safe. I have some power to do something good.”

In addition to helping the army and doing volunteer work, Finashkin said his involvement in the defense effort has crossed into his day-to-day work. He said I am IDEA has helped raise money for the army to buy necessities like cars and equipment. They’re also creating content for pro-Ukraine advocacy campaigns like ArmUkraineNOW and War Against War, calling on companies like Nestlé to pull their business from Russia, and for NATO to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Continue reading about how the agency’s employees have been impacted, and what they’re doing to help, here.—KH

        

TOGETHER WITH ATTEST

And your target audience is … who, exactly?

Attest

If that question made you chuckle nervously, odds are you aren’t alone. One in three marketers aren’t fully confident in who their target customer is. And with a whopping 80% of marketers claiming that the market has gotten way more competitive, the time to pinpoint that audience was, well, yesterday.

But don’t fret. Attest knows consumer understanding is a competitive advantage. 

That’s why with their easy-to-use platform, you can use intuitive, cutting-edge tech to personalize your consumer surveys and research—and access 110 million people across 49 countries.

Collect trustable data in days, and get equipped with the fresh insight and clear research you need to sharpen your product for today’s bustling market.

Ah, growth without guesswork. It’s a thing of beauty.

Get started here.

RECAP

Aidy Bryant saying SNL/NBC via Giphy

We spent April taking a closer look at the state of influencer marketing, a $4 billion industry in the US. Check out our stories below:

+1: Looking for more where that came from? Give Marketing Brew’s Phoebe Bain a follow if you haven’t already.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

  • Universal will send three movies straight to Peacock in 2023 (rather than theaters), partly to attract subscribers.
  • L.L. Bean is pausing its social media activity for Mental Health Awareness Month.
  • Amber Heard has switched PR firms following “bad headlines” during her defamation trial, the New York Post reports.
  • NYC’s pay transparency law that was supposed to go into effect this month has been pushed to November.
  • Eddie Bauer, iconic American heritage brand, has named its first-ever creative director. Plot twist: He’s a streetwear veteran.

TOGETHER WITH SALESFORCE

Salesforce

BRB, gotta read these B2B success stories: In this e-book from Salesforce, discover six inspiring B2B success stories spanning a diverse range of industries, and get an in-depth look into what made each campaign succeed. You’ll even find actionable takeaways for strengthening your own strategy to help your biz thrive. Read it here

FRENCH PRESS

French press Francis Scialabba

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Teamwork: Need some affiliate marketing guidance for 2022? Look no further.

Instagram: Speaking of guidance, here’s some for Instagram video content, from Stories to Reels.

Size matters: Bookmark this article outlining the correct sizes for images on social media.

Helllooo untapped potential: US Hispanic audiences carry hugely influential brand-growth potential—and with TelevisaUnivision’s advanced advertising and marketing solutions, your brand can utilize cross-platform, in-culture messaging at scale to seize this significant marketing opportunity. Grow with TelevisaUnivision here.*

*This is sponsored advertising content.

JOB BOARD

Having a case of the Mondays? Be sure to explore 200+ job openings on the Marketing Brew Job Board!

Today’s featured openings:

See more jobs or post your job opportunities here.

AD ANTIQUES

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Written by Alyssa Meyers, Katie Hicks, and Phoebe Bain

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