How Wine Enthusiast’s Wine Crimes Podcast Introduced the Brand to New Audiences and Younger Demos

How can a podcast make a brand more approachable?

Pod People’s show from Wine Enthusiast is not your typical series about wine. It’s a true crime documentary that recounts hidden wine crimes and scandals with stories of greed, arson, and even murder. Within 48 hours of publishing the first episode, Vinfamous was ranked #1 in the Food category and #12 in the Arts category on Apple Podcasts.?

We sat down with Dara Kapoor , Vice President of Content at Wine Enthusiast, who worked with Pod People to bring Vinfamous to life. “I wanted to try something different that would help attract new listeners to our brand. That’s why we created Vinfamous. The ultimate goal was to attract current wine lovers in addition to general listeners interested in history and crime. We’re constantly looking for new ways to introduce people to our brand and Vinfamous has done this.”

This momentum helped the show achieve the goal that Dara set out on in the first place: use the show to grow the Wine Enthusiast audience, making the wine brand more approachable to younger demos.

“Creating this original content offering that appealed to more than just a wine lover successfully did the job of getting our brand in front of a wider audience.“

The show won a Gold Signal Award for “True Crime for Individual Episode” and a Silver Signal Award for “Limited Series in Arts & Culture.”?To top off the awards season run, Vinfamous was recognized by BrandStorytelling at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival .

Wine Enthusiast came to Pod People for our expertise in prestige audio storytelling. The podcast has elevated, immersive sound design coupled with in-depth reporting. Kapoor recalls, “As a digital magazine writer and editor, you learn that grabbing a reader’s attention and keeping that attention is crucial to your craft. It’s the same with audio. Where are the moments you want to build suspense and tension? How do you shape a journey for the audience that they’ll want to stick with? It was a matter of having the right team in place who shared the vision and could execute on it.”

After the breakaway success of Season 1, there’s more to come. "We’re extremely eager to launch a season 2 of Vinfamous, and we’re looking for the right partner who shares our vision and appreciates what an opportunity it provides to get in front of a very specific audience.”

Listen to Vinfamous wherever you get your podcasts. Not sure where to start? Our favorite episode is "Murder in the Vineyard ."?

If you, like Wine Enthusiast, are looking to create a new entry point for audiences to find your brand, we’d love to help. Pod People makes and markets chart-topping podcasts for the world’s biggest brands, with over 50M listens and hundreds of award nominations.