It’s about time we all stepped foot into the podcasting world; after all, audio is becoming increasingly popular – even in advertising!
As an agency, we wanted to dive deeper into the ever-growing world of audio which is why Mia and I were sent on our way to the maiden voyage of The Podcast Show, London!
Here’s what we got up to:
To start off the day we discussed a ‘Tinsley Takeover’ on the train. You’re probably thinking ‘what on earth is that?’. Well, we both happen to share the same surname (Tinsley) even though there’s no relation there! And in terms of the takeover, we took over the agency’s Instagram story for the day to show everyone what we got up to! Head over to the podcast section of our Insta highlights to see what it’s all about and take a look at the sticker that Mia cleverly created: @real.agency
When we finally arrived at the event, we grabbed our lanyards and then it was time for our first talk of the day all about brands, authenticity & results. This was hosted by Audio Plus and featured a special guest who hosts the Roadman Cycling Podcast, Anthony Walsh. Anthony talked about his own experience with podcasts not only from a consumer’s perspective but also from a creator’s perspective. For Anthony (from a consumers perspective), he sees podcasts as an escape from darker thoughts whilst he cycles which really shows how versatile podcasts can be and how your audience can listen to them in almost any setting!
Next up on our agenda was ‘What’s really holding women back from starting podcasts?’. This talk was a real eye opener for us, especially being two women that host a podcast. The talk was hosted by Lynsay Gould, CEO of The Podcast Boutique and Lou Hamilton, founder of Silk Studios. We were greeted by a small card that had one statistic on, this read: ‘only 11% of top podcasts are hosted by women’. The talk started and Lynsay broke down the number even more, explaining how many women were in the top podcast category of sports, business and so many others. It was explained why fewer women start a podcast compared to men, Lynsay explained from personal experience that women are more bothered about the consequences and the ‘what ifs’ of starting a podcast. The biggest message taken away from this talk was to ‘be brave and disrupt’.
After lunch we were fuelled up and ready to go again! Now the statistics we discovered from the ‘why podcasts deserve a place on your media plan’ talk had us both shocked! It was presented by IAB UK but featured a range of guests from external organisations displaying their research in terms of audio. Here’s what we found out:
- 22% of Gen Z use ad blockers
- Gen Z have a short attention span of 8 seconds, which lowers to 1 second on social media
- 66% of audiences say there’s too much visual stimulation in the world
- Podcasts are the best medium for targeting a younger audience
Our last (but not least) talk of the day was presented by Rosie Wilby, Presenter of The Breakup Monologues podcast with Swarzy Macaly, Broadcaster/Presenter as a special guest. In this, Rosie spoke all about how she built her audience from scratch. As an independent podcaster, Rosie explained how she grew her audience organically and also the changes that she’s going to implement in the future, such as posting clips on TikTok! Rosie saw the most impact by inviting guests on to her podcast, by doing this she was expanding her reach as they would also share the episode to their social media platforms (we all know the power of social media)! Rosie went on to explain how networking events and LinkedIn helped her to find guests for her show.
We wandered outside to find a Dolby Atmos studio on wheels which lead to us having a fully immersive audio experience shown by the Dolby Atmos sound engineers. We we’re shown clips of the technology working alongside the audio in a state-of-the art studio. You can hear me attempt to explain how it all worked in our podcast episode all about The Podcast Show!
It only made sense to take a look around the different stalls and look at all of the potential podcasting equipment and software that could be of use to our very own podcast: Get REAL about marketing. We did this whilst sipping on some (rather strange to say the least) cashew milk from the Spotify juice bar. There was one microphone setup that particularly caught our eye from Sontronics – after speaking to them about our options we were told to enter a competition that they’re running. Let me tell you that it’s a good job we did, we’re now the proud owners of their Podcast Pro microphone and Elevate stand! (Be sure to listen out for the difference in our next podcast episode).
Overall, the day was super insightful and there’s so much we’ve learned about the power of audio. To anyone looking to attend The Podcast Show 2023, do it!
