Podcasts: everything worth knowing🎧

During walks, public transport commutes, or at home while cleaning or cooking. These are the three most commonly suggested circumstances for listening to podcasts. With each passing day, new audio shows emerge, delivering knowledge on various topics in an engaging and straightforward manner. In this article, you will read about what podcasts are, the benefits they bring to companies, and how to use them to promote your brand.

What is a podcast?

A podcast is a type of free publication presented in audio form. It can cover any topic and is regularly published in the form of shorter or longer episodes. From the moment of publication, it is available at all times, allowing playback at any time.

Podcasts provide knowledge on various subjects in an easy and accessible manner. For this reason, more and more companies are deciding to host their own podcasts. The topics discussed in them relate to both the behind-the-scenes of a brand’s activities and provide highly substantive content, sharing know-how and helping to create an expert image in a given field.

What sets podcasts apart from interviews or radio broadcasts is their greater naturalness. Podcasts are often spontaneous, created by individuals who do not have journalistic or acting experience. Therefore, it is said that they are created straight from the heart. They exude authenticity and sincerity, which help reduce the distance between the speaker and the listener.

Why do people like podcasts?

The popularity of podcasts stems from several factors. Here are those that have the greatest impact on their popularity:

• Easy accessibility – podcasts are very easy to access. You can even watch them on YouTube. Most popular streaming services offer them for free.
• Wide range of topics – the thematic range is enormous! You can listen only to those that interest you. Defining the topic helps in better selecting similar podcasts from other creators. Currently, you can listen to discussions on any topic: about books, movies, movie stars, sports, psychology, cities, as well as advertising.
• Available offline as well – some services allow you to save podcasts to your profile and then listen to them even when you are offline.
• Can be listened to anywhere – mobile phones are currently small control centers, where the calling function is just an addition 😉 Smartphone apps allow for comfortable listening to podcasts even when traveling on crowded buses during rush hours.
• They are entertainment when there is no time for other leisure activities – some say that podcasts are thematic radio stations. Since most of them do not have recorded images, it is easy to play them in the background and make time more enjoyable during activities that do not require focusing on them. They are also a time-filler during heavier household or professional duties.

How to use podcasts to promote your brand?

Just creating a podcast by a brand/company is a form of promotion. It is another way to reach potential customers. Inviting well-known guests associated with a particular field is particularly welcomed. A strictly defined podcast theme attracts only interested people, which guarantees high reach to the target audience.

Podcasts can sell because they can also promote novelties created by your company. They can also promote events organized by you, which your listeners will attend.

Benefits for the company resulting from creating a podcast:

• creating an expert image,
• promoting the brand in a non-intrusive way,
• reaching a wider audience.

If you don’t want to create a podcast yourself, you can always promote yourself on podcasts created by others.

Increasingly, podcast creators decide to cooperate with smaller and larger companies. A given brand then appears as a partner of the episode, allowing for its promotion. Podcasts are often also advertised in a traditional form – not only online. For several months now, the capital city of Warsaw has been running its own podcast, discussing various topics related to the capital. They discuss current cultural events, history, as well as important political events and local matters relevant to the residents. Well-known guests are invited to talk about their connection with Warsaw, or travelers share urban curiosities you probably didn’t know about. Passengers traveling by public transport could learn about the existence of the podcast. Advertisements promoting the Warsaw podcast appeared on LCD screens in buses, trams, and the metro. The advertisement also appeared in the form of full back, meaning it was displayed on the backs of Warsaw buses.

The example of the capital is proof of how easy it is to combine podcasts with OOH advertising. If you are a podcast creator (or run a company supporting authors of this form of entertainment), you can advertise yourself in public transport vehicles. Thanks to this, many people will learn about it, as advertising in public transport guarantees a wide reach and direct access to target groups. If you want to learn more about how we create our campaigns in public transport, contact us and get to know our personalized offer.

Until next time!