Cathinka Rondan, Pete Donaldson, Tom Webster and Charlotte Pudlowski talk through some of the ways podcasters can create successful programmes.
Podcasting has grown steadily over the last few years but it has not exploded. Tom Webster, of Edison Research, has been looking at podcasts for 12 years but said that in the last two years interest has significantly grown.
He said that podcasting has become a third of some people’s audio listening time. And that only looks to grow. He asserts that podcasting now needs it’s ‘House of Cards moment’ – the piece of content that pushes people to have to listen.
Cathinka Rondan, from Slate.fr, encouraged podcasters to research where her users are listening. In Sweden, 89% listen to increase their knowledge. These kinds of figures can help to set intentions for a podcast. She advises that listeners are generally paying real attention and setting aside time for podcasts – 'it’s an honest, personal medium'. Cathinka also says that talking in a normal way and turning off your radio voice is helpful.
Pete Donaldson creates ‘The Football Ramble’ podcast – the most popular sports podcast in the UK. He said that they’ve learnt over the years to plan for their podcast, to be efficient and, to have a running order. And although podcasts have the element of ‘chattiness’ that you don’t get with lots of radio, organisation is key.
Charlotte Pudlowski works on the podcast ‘Transfer’, which tells the stories of real people who get in touch, over musical compositions. They get 25-35,000 listeners per podcast. And Charlotte says that they are loyal, because of the personal content and authenticity of the content. She asserts that consistency is important – in terms of day and time that you bring out your podcast. She spoke about Audible and the alignment of podcasts and audiobooks as well as other brands. She said that they are always trying to find new influencers to endorse their brand. Tom agreed that cross-promotion is the way forward for podcasts.
Get. It. Together. @petedonaldson says efficiency is the key to a successful podcast - ‘know what you’re doing, and get it out’ #RDE17 pic.twitter.com/eUhljsKvwE
— Radiodays Europe (@RadiodaysEurope) March 21, 2017
‘In the US, 19% drivers have listened to a podcast in their car. Strange, there’s no native ability to do that’ - @webby2001 #RDE17 pic.twitter.com/lHfKnQOurQ
— Radiodays Europe (@RadiodaysEurope) March 21, 2017