We have previously written in these blog posts about the prominence of podcasts as a widely consumed form of entertainment and education. Interestingly, the rise of concepts such as YouTube Shorts, time-limited Instagram stories and Snapchat have coincided with the rise of long form media such as podcasts.
Podcasts are not a quickfire entertainment jolt though. Typically, podcast episodes will last for at least half an hour. Many people have used podcasts as a source of income and their popularity as a broadcast medium makes them a good PR opportunity.
Agents of well known public figures will work tirelessly to secure air time for their clients on the most popular podcasts to promote new shows, books or products. Podcast audience numbers are huge and the potential reach is incredible. According to the CyberCrew website, as of 2021, nearly 20 million Britons were podcast consumers, with the Covid pandemic seeing a 40% rise in podcast listeners.
With so many podcasts, there are many opportunities for air time. No matter how niche you perceive your market to be, that audience will be collected around a podcast that shares an interest in your specific products or services. This is further reinforced by the fact that 30% of the UK population finds out about new podcasts through word of mouth.
An increasingly popular PR strategy is developing a specific podcast. It’s one thing to piggyback on an established podcast, potentially reaching your target audience and beyond in the process, but it’s another thing entirely to launch your own podcast and create your own podcast audience that in turn creates a community for your product or service.
There are so many examples of comedians or actors who have decided to start a podcast, seemingly for fun. Once the audience becomes significant, there are good opportunities for advertising revenue and even merchandise to capitalise on audience interest and engagement. Imagine if, rather than the product being an afterthought, the podcast is planned as part of a marketing and PR strategy for your product or service. The possibilities are significant.
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