Have you seen the Fresh Air Christmas advert yet?
The festive season has not properly started until you’ve had your cockles warmed by a touching scene that is creatively inspiring, socially progressive, tear-jerking yet uplifting, and commercially measured to within an inch of its life. Picture the scene:
Richard, Director of Pressing Send on the Email – is rushing along a snow-covered pavement, in a dash to find a last minute present for Michaela – Director of Content and Head of Loud Nose Blows. From across the road, Oli – Head of Looking Too Young to be Served in an Off-Licence – waves a cheery greeting with his cheeks glowing red and his scarf flowing behind. Through the dazzling early evening headlights of cars, Richard can see something flying through the sky. It’s Santa, played by Martin – Head of 90s Band T-Shirts – and he’s showering the passers by with podcast-related gifts. A pair of headphones for the little girl with her mum and step-mum, a USB microphone for the cool looking couple drinking their mulled wine, and a draft contract promising an extensive no-obligation audit of their current promotional strategy to the elderly couple being helped across the road by a Police Officer with tinsel on her helmet.
Richard pauses for a moment and thinks. In all the capitalist madness, he’s forgotten about the true meaning of it all. He stops, takes a deep breath, looks around and thinks about his family at home (through a montage where his wife and eldest son are played by Basil – Head of Pressing Record – and Annie – Head of Snacks, Chat and Gambling) as they prepare the hearth for the winter’s night. ‘All that matters is spending time with them’ he thinks and, as the acoustic guitar strikes up a minor-key reworking of that 90s classic – Unbelievable by EMF – he decides not to bother with a present for Michaela after all. He’ll get her some tissues from the garage and say it’s because she does such loud nose blows, which will be an amusing thing to say at the Christmas do. He turns, puts on his headphones, and listens to the brand new episode of ‘This is Not a Beauty Podcast’, produced by Fresh Air for L’Oreal and T-Brand – the content arm of New York Times Advertising – as he walks back home through the crowds. That’s all he needs this Christmas: The love of his family and a brilliant podcast from a brand with a well thought through audience acquisition strategy.
Spotify for Creators
Spotify likes to do things big. New product launches are very Steve Jobs these days, and this week they’ve unveiled ‘Spotify for Creators, (formerly known as Spotify for Podcasters) bringing a whole new suite of tools to measure, improve and expand shows. There are enhanced features for video, which is sensible given that they’ve seen an 88% increase in the number of users consuming video in the last year. There’s also a whole new monetisation ability which is open to those who publish through the Spotify platform, and applies to audio and video.
As I say, they go big and they don’t stand still. Having taken Apple’s number one spot as the streaming platform of choice, and largely backed away from paying big celebs big speculative money to grow followers, this new approach is all about becoming the natural home for new creators, building a monetisation strategy and grabbing those sweet sweet podcast advertising dollars.
Big Pointy-Headed Article.
Do you like thinking too hard about stuff? Do you need something to read on the toilet?
This massive academic article is investigating how podcasters envisage their listeners, and outlines eight different types of relationships between a presenter and their imagined audience. They are: ‘Talking to myself’, ‘ like minded listener’, ‘a friend’, ‘a fan’, ‘member of a private club’ ‘critical customer; ‘market segment’, and ‘someone’. It’s a version of the old, very true, radio adage that audio is about addressing a single person, not a crowd.
The piece includes reflections on the listener and the presenter’s view of podcasting, and the way each relates to the experience. Here’s a nice one:
I constantly think about being inside people’s ears, really inside their ears, and how the intimacy duplicates itself: the intimacy in which I create the podcast, and then the intimacy in which they consume it, and what they’re going through while listening. There’s this beautiful poem . . . about a person on a train, travelling alone as the scenery around him changes, and he experiences the scenery in relation to his own emotional state. I believe this is a very accurate description of podcast listening: you consume it while driving your car, washing the dishes, or tidying up your kids’ toys at the end of the day. You enter a certain state of consciousness, an almost meditative emotional state, and into this state, a soundtrack emerges—another person’s life story that meets you in the situation you’re in.
The conclusion is that we all end up with an image of our listener which is based on our own experiences and prejudices. However, every listener is having their own individual listening experience. The danger is that the medium becomes a pleasant echo chamber based on the presenter’s vision of their listenership, rather than inviting a range of types of people into the conversation. Narrow-casting is fine, and niche podcasting is, as we’ve said many times right here, a real strength of the medium, but just because people like talking about, or listening to, the same things, it doesn’t mean they’re all the same.
I think that’s what it means, although I haven’t read all 7,700 words.
MAD//Pod and Fresh Ears
I think we can all agree that Michaela DoCaHoLNB is a great interviewer and podcast host. That’s why we give her a run-out on a regular basis, and sometimes I get to co-present with her.
Our latest episode of MAD//Pod – the official MAD//fest podcast – features the formidable Liin Frost from The Social Element talking about how they are set on making the social world better, safer and kinder.
Meanwhile, Fresh Ears features Michaela and myself in conversation with Raquel Bubar – Managing Director at the aforementioned T-Brand Studio. We discuss why podcasts are great for The New York Times and luxury brands, and reflect on our projects with Cartier and L’Oreal.
Love marketing? You’ll love both these shows. Love Michaela? Same.
Basil Oxtoby goes back to the Pharaohs…
The Cercle is known for curating music events in unexpected and epic locations. See their YouTube page here.
The Cercle released their first podcast about a year ago. Echo System is a deep dive into the places where their events take place. Presenter and producer Frank explores each city alongside a local guide, sharing stories you’d rarely get to hear, straight from the locals. The way Frank weaves the city’s sounds into the narrative really immerses you. I’ve never listened to a podcast that instantly made me want to visit the featured destination. It stands out from the usual YouTube travel vlogs because, well, audio is fundamentally better than video for all the reasons you’ve already read about through this newsletter. I recently listened to the Luxor episode and highly recommend it. Afterwards, I suggest watching the event in full.
Richard Blake loves a salad...
We all have those friends. Those friends. Those friends who remembering you work in podcasts, then spend the next twenty minutes telling you all the podcasts they love listening to. Occasionally punctuated by questions like ‘do you make that?’ or ‘do you make things like that?’
Well, this recommend is from my friend Tom, who put me on to this wonderful gem. It’s not new, it doesn’t have a slinky set, not even a pokey multichannel content ecosystem. But it’s warm, funny, inviting, intimate. It has that glorious alchemy of three witty men talking about not very much at all.
In this way, it’s a wonderful place to be. To escape from the world with Mike Wozniak, Henry Paker and Benjamin Partridge – the ‘three beans’ of the title – as they choose a different subject every week suggested by their fanbase (who I suspect, like Tom, are a bit like them). They noodle, laugh, have fun, tell stories. It’s a witty new set of beany friends for you.
What we’ve been listening to this week
Quincy Jones.
I’ve spent a good chunk of time with Quincy’s music over the years, especially in creating documentaries about his long term writing and production partner – Rod Temperton.
Obviously, Quincy was a music God and there’s a whole career to choose from (Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Donna Summer etc), but if you take Michael Jackson’s first two solo albums you’ve got enough material to keep you going for hours. MTV had a total ban on black artists in the early 80s because they regarded themselves as a white rock channel, so Quincy created ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Beat it’ as a deliberate tactic to break this racist monopoly.
Eddie Van Halen set the studio speakers on fire, Jackson found a whole new sound, created the biggest ever album, and Quincy opened up the world’s leading music channel to a whole new generation of people.
Do yourself a favour today. It’s Friday. Just put Quincy Jones into Spotify and sit back.
What we’ve been doing this week
Admiring Stella, the world’s coolest dog.
If you’ve ever come to Fresh Air Towers, you might have met Stella – the canine companion of Basil – Head of Pressing Record. Stella is a fully grown up member of the Fresh Air team – Head of Pressing Paws – and she’s normally in the office at least one day a week taking care of important tasks like keeping the rug warm, gnawing things and letting off noxious farts during meetings.
Well, this week Stella has starred in her own fashion photo shoot which is, as far as I know, something that no other staff member has done. If you’re looking for something super cool to wear at Christmas, Beyond Retro are opening a pop-up in Spitalfields with Save the Children, and who’s the star of the publicity? – it’s our Stella. She’s proper gorgeous, and now she’s an actual model she might be too good for the rest of us…
