What Are Branded Podcasts And Why Your Business Needs One

Podcasts were seemingly everywhere in 2021 as the industry continued to explode. While their popularity has been building for some time amongst independent creators, businesses are getting in on the hot new thing with their own branded podcasts. But why do companies like Slack and Mcdonald’s have their own branded podcasts and is it really necessary for your business to join the fray?

In a way, yes. More and more companies are hopping on the branded podcast train—and for good reason. Businesses are finding podcasts are a great way to build their brand awareness, marketing messaging, and more importantly, engaging a loyal customer base in a completely new way. So, if you’re looking for a creative way to grow your company in 2022, a branded podcast might be the way to go.

But let’s first get back to the basics and explain what a branded podcast even is at this point.

What are Branded Podcasts?

Before we get into what branded podcasts can do for your business, let’s chat about what they actually are. Branded podcasts, simply put, are podcasts produced by a brand or company as part of their marketing strategy.

However, they don’t necessarily sound like a thirty-minute ad. Instead, branded podcasts offer tips and tricks, interviews, and stories to listeners, while also driving business to the company and remaining relevant to customers and future prospects.

But how does this actually work? What can branded podcasts accomplish for you?

Why Branded Podcasts?

As we said, podcast popularity has only exploded in the past few years. The reality is that many people are tuning in — 120 million Americans 12-plus years old have listened to a podcast in the past month, with over 80 million listening in the past week during 2021.

People are also staying tuned in. 80% of people who download a podcast listen all the way through. That means they’re listening to a majority of the content—and more importantly, the ads therein. Additionally, 82.4% of podcast listeners consume more than 7 hours of podcasts a week. That’s a lot of time to get your message and brand across and we can see it in the ad numbers. In 2021, listeners generated $1.33 billion in podcast advertising sales, up from $842M in 2020.

A study conducted by the BBC StoryWorks found that branded podcasts came with an 89% lift in awareness, 57% increase in brand consideration, 24% bump in brand favorability, and all-important purchase intent rose by 14%. With podcasting’s global reach and the rising impact podcasts have on SEO, it’s fair to say that a branded podcast can do some pretty remarkable things for your organization if utilized properly.

Branded podcasts—and the companies behind them—are sharing in the wealth, and so can you. There are several different ways you can present your branded podcast and drive more customers to your business.

Types of Branded Podcasts

We at Q’d Up place our branded podcasts into three categories, according to how visible the company is in the show. In other words, you can either be heavy-handed or more subtle about the fact your company is producing the content. Neither one of these methods is necessarily better than the other, it all just comes down to the look and sound your company wants to present.

Hosted by the Business

The first and most obvious form of branded podcasts are the ones hosted by the business. In this instance, the business’s name will usually appear in the podcast’s name. When you choose to have the business host the podcast, listeners are fully aware that your company is the one putting out incredible content. It associates your name with something entertaining and informative, and more importantly, puts your brand at the top of the listener’s mind.

We even have one of our own. The Q’d Up Podcast on Podcasting offers weekly podcast news, tips, and tricks on production, promotion, and more.

Sponsored by a Brand

A podcast can also be sponsored by a brand. For sponsored content, the company’s name usually follows the title of the show. This approach is less direct. For example, Survive and Thrive by Concinnity is a narrative podcast that helps leaders navigate change – sponsored by a change management organization.

While the show doesn’t necessarily have the brand’s name in the title, the podcast may center on content closely tied to the organization. For example, if you’re searching for a podcast on cybersecurity, you may stumble upon The New CISO Podcast by Exabeam, a cybersecurity company.

Sponsoring a podcast is a great way to attract the type of listeners who are looking for your services, making your marketing more targeted and effective. You can also get creative with sponsored content. The Sauce podcast by McDonald’s investigated the distribution problems of a popular sauce back in 2018. By presenting it like a true-crime podcast, McDonald’s addressed the PR disaster in an entertaining and informative manner.

Podcast Ads

If you’re looking for something more traditional, we love podcast ads. If you don’t want to produce your own content, you can still get into podcasting by buying ads on other podcasts that align with your goals and target demographics. It can be as simple as using a podcast ad network to handle all the hard work for you or you can contact a podcaster directly and negotiate a rate.

Podcast ads come in two main flavors — baked-in ads and dynamic ads. Baked-in ads are in the audio of the podcast itself and cannot be easily deleted, often running forever. However, they’re becoming far less common as podcasters turn to dynamic ads, so they could be more expensive and far more difficult to find moving forward. Dynamic ads are inserted into the podcast afterward and typically run for a period of time before the podcaster books a new sponsor. Beyond those two methods of delivery, you’ll have to ask yourself if you want a host-read ad or if you’ll be producing something yourself to be inserted in, with both options having different pros and cons.

Podcast ads are a great way for a brand to dip its toe into the water. But as podcasting continues to grow, ad buys are becoming far more expensive propositions without the evergreen ability an original production would have.

Your Business Needs a Branded Podcast

It’s important to remember that branded podcasts aren’t 30-minute ads—they’re shows with their own rabid fanbases! Branded podcasts are a great way to grow your name, authority, and customer base, if done properly.

Consumers have grown weary of traditional advertisement and even some older forms of media, leaving them less likely to trust and purchase products that advertise traditionally. Therefore, a less direct path is the way forward at times. Having your content less related to your specific services allows you some freedom and it brings a little subtlety to your messaging, getting beyond the typical attention-span issues other forms of advertising can suffer from. That flexibility means you can pick fun and dynamic content to produce, drawing a larger audience that will think of your brand first when they go to purchase.

So, get creative and have fun! The more you lean into that, the more your customers will too.