Speak up for your brand (quite literally!)
Running through some dry facts and figures or reading through a brilliantly woven story; which sounds more interesting?
Obviously, the story. Duh.
With the human race’s primal inclination to know and tell stories, they have certainly become one of the most prominent ways of communicating.
Ever since the first human verbally conveyed one of their random adventures to their fellows, uncountable methods of storytelling have been developed. In the modern times of digitally written communications and audio-visual media, ‘telling’ a story somehow hasn’t lost its charm.
Leveraging the magic and authority that a human voice can hold, brands have started using the modern version of verbal storytelling; podcasting!
The modern-day marketers adapted to the podcasting industry and thus came alive, Branded Podcasts.
Wait, what’s a Branded Podcast?
With the ease of a podcast, engagement of storytelling, and alignment to the brand’s marketing goals branded podcasts act as a channel of communication for businesses. Most successful brands make sure that their podcasts aren’t too promotional. Because honestly, no one really wants to sit down and dedicatedly listen to why one specific brand is the greatest.
To truly engage your audience and help them remember you, your content needs to be valuable to them.
Branded podcasts try to achieve certain goals. Here are some examples of how brands used their podcasts to successfully reach their audiences and add value to their lives while achieving their business goals simultaneously.
Educating, inspiring, or informing your audience
Some of the most successful brands use their podcasts to nourish their audience’s knowledge and intelligence. Be it talking about the trends of the specific industry or the stories of people who made it big, podcasts can easily engage listeners while helping them expand their horizons.
‘Innovation’ is a podcast by Johnson and Johnson that offers insights into the latest medical trends, discoveries, and inventions. Similarly, Shopify Masters by Shopify focuses on the stories of victorious entrepreneurs who did it all through Shopify rather than trying to promote its benefits directly with cold stats.
Another amazing example of informative branded podcasts is Maed in India hosted by Mae Thomas, which helps listeners discover emerging indie artists with a ‘40% talk, 60% music’ format.
PR and Reputation management
In 2018 relaunch of the famous Szechuan sauce backfired on McDonald’s when they ran out of the sauce, much to the rage of the American public. After facing literal riots and vandalism over a condiment, McDonald’s created a 3 episode long podcast under the name, The Sauce.
Just like McDonald’s, many brands tend to strategically use their podcast to tell their side of the story while facing a PR disaster. Through such podcasts, brands provide insights on the issue directly to their consumers, leaving no room for any miscommunications.
Building authority and increased brand recall
Having a branded podcast for your business can help you become more relevant to your audience. As you become a part of their life, the chances are they will recall your brand easily while they are making a purchase.
This is exactly what Zendium, a toothpaste brand, did with their podcast, 2 Minute Zen. In a competitive market where toothpaste is already abundant, Zendium had to do something to stand out from its competitors. They made a podcast with 2-minute episodes of guided meditation that people could listen to while brushing their teeth!
Engaging deeper with your audience
Another amazing way that businesses and brands utilize podcasts is by keeping their tone casual and conversational to tell stories that entertain their audience. Through the entertainment element, the brands end up gathering a lot of engagement as people start connecting to them on a more personal level.
Endless Thread is a podcast that features unique narratives from Reddit. Similarly, Bumble India’s podcast ‘Is Romance Dead’ talks about the current trends in movies, food, dating, and much more. These podcasts successfully engage the audience by projecting themselves as a friend who always has tea to spill!
Branded podcasts are an amazing way to expand your reach. If your brand is offering information that is helping your audience in any way, the chances are they will start referring it to their close circles. This helps your brands tap into a variety of audience segments and turn them into potential customers!
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