All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go?

How A Podcast Can Help Position Your Brand The RIGHT Way

By: Jen Moss, CCO

As a business owner, I know firsthand the challenges of positioning your brand. At?JAR Audio, we make podcasts for brands and organizations. “Good for you,” you might be thinking. “So do lots of people.” Now, I happen to know that we do it?better?than most because of our combined marketing experience and?journalistic savvy. No matter how swelled with pride I may be about our teams’ unique abilities, there’s a big difference between me knowing this information and my ideal customers discovering it for themselves. Let’s face it, it doesn’t matter how great you are! Unless the?right?people know about you, you’re like the poor guy in this old song my dad always sings by the?late, great Marty Robbins: You’re “all dressed up for the dance” with your “white sport coat, and a pink carnation,” but with nowhere to go.??

How To Get Ahead In Podcasting

This is why we just launch our very own podcast. It’s time to try a taste of our own medicine and let audio storytelling do the heavy lifting for?our?brand. How did we accomplish this? Simply by giving you, our friends, colleagues, and potential clients a piece of fun, entertaining content that might brighten your day while teaching you a little bit about the art of “How to Get Ahead in Podcasting.”?It’s part audio advice column and part sketch comedy, inspired by the 80’s cult classic film about the advertising industry,?How to Get Ahead in Advertising, starring Richard E. Grant. My thinking is that when you hear this masterpiece of witty improv, scripting, heartfelt advice, and audio wizardry, you’ll either want to hire us on the spot or you’ll run for the hills. Either way,?How to Get Ahead in Podcasting?will be a defining moment in our relationship: A way of attracting the kinds of discerning, creatively brave, “big thinkers” we love to work with while demonstrating our commitment to the overall level of professionalism and care in the podcasting space. We will be positioned exactly where we want to be — and so will you!?

In business, as in life, positioning is everything. A well-planned and executed podcast offers a way to put your brand in the spotlight, in front of the right people, and communicates the right tone and feeling. A great podcast team (like ours) takes an audience-first approach and designs your podcast to meet your audience where they’re at — emotionally, intellectually, and technically. But don’t just automatically take?my?word for it, (because if you did, you’re probably not the discerning kind of client we’re looking for). Check out this inspiring story of Genome BC’s new podcast!??

Genome BC Case Study:??Looking For A Younger Audience

This British Columbian non-profit organization wanted to reach a younger audience of future science leaders and educators to teach them about the wonders of genomics. The problem? Positioning. They had a pre-existing podcast, but it was very corporate-sounding and aimed at a much older audience. They wanted to position themselves in the mind of this younger audience as an organisation on the bleeding edge of genomics, but also really cool and fun. So, they worked with our team to create?Nice Genes, a lively show that taps into Gen Z’s strong need to save the world from global warming.?

The new podcast also deals directly with young peoples’ concerns about important social issues such as racism, Indigenous reconciliation, body positivity, and gender inclusiveness through the lens of genomic science. They leaned hard into the idea that genomics holds great promise for the health of people, animals, and the environment. Together, we redesigned the artwork to be more fun-loving and rebellious, and rethought the audience-growth campaign to include cross-promotional efforts with other fresh, irreverent science shows.?We intentionally cast a female scientist as the host; a quirky, self-described “rat detective” (she studies the genomics of rats). With her input, we created a nerdy, fun, diverse, and informative show that restores young people’s faith in the power of science to tackle the world’s biggest problems. The strategy worked. Their younger audience grew quickly, and the show just won a?Shorty Award?against some heavy hitters in the Science and Technology category.

So, if you’re a brand that wants to reach a certain group of people, I urge you to think about that group of people holistically, considering how to best position your brand to reach them. More than just potential customers to buy your product or service, they are human beings with particular tastes, hobbies, opinions, and pre-existing needs. When those needs are met by a carefully tailored podcast, the audience feels satisfied, pleased, inspired, and moved. This, in turn, creates a “halo effect” for the brand that saw fit to make the podcast in the first place.

It’s a shockingly simple way to keep your dance card full.