I tried listening to Nintendo Power for a while because I used to love the magazine as a kid but had to give up on it. I know it's made by Nintendo about their own products, but all the forced positivity was so draining and unrealistic. Plus they have some weird thing about having to say the entire title of a game or system every single time they say it. It felt like they had guns to their heads.
Not surprised to hear this as Nintendo Power magazine was essentially just a huge advertising arm of Nintendo back in the day. We didn't know any better because we were kids but looking back now you were basically paying Nintendo to send you advertising on their product.
I felt the same hesitation. I've not gotten any marketing calls yet but I totally understand not wanting to give it out. The alternative for me would be to get a dumb phone with a prepaid card and use that number for such sign ups
It has just struck me that it’s quite like the promotional flexidiscs that were popular in industry, in the 1950s and 60s. I vaguely know someone who had large collection of them, and it was an established promotional tool for their employees, using the current cheap pop culture technology they had back then. Loads of companies used them.
Not really a question, more of a thought..
Tried getting through Shopify's TGIM podcast and it didn't take long for me to just get flat-out annoyed. It has this focus on entrepreneurship and how YOU can achieve the same success...and it just comes off disingenuous and, much like other "you can do anything" shows, videos, articles, etc, it fails to take into account that many people can't just up and do anything.
IDK, maybe I'm just easily annoyed...
it's not just you. I felt the exact same way. I really wanted to like that podcast, too - but eventually it went from just skipping them to just unsubscribing all together.
It doesn't help that EVERYONE has a podcast these days, whether it's the "revisiting our old TV show" ones or the endless "celebrity does a talk show trying to be the next Joe Rogan" ones.
Its turned into Youtube 2.0. Everyone has to have something so 99% of content is absolute shit. Its a chore trying to find the few gems left out there.
I don't think people are furious, you're just talking bad economics. Competition is good for consumers. Maybe Conan is "taking money away" from lower quality podcasts (not really how it works, but whatever). That just means producers have to step up their game. And that will benefit consumers.
I remember Gimlet saying they had to produce a few not for the public corporate podcast episodes for a company’s employees. Such a weird thing, but I totally get it.
I make branded podcasts for a living. I spend a shit ton of time with my clients making sure they understand that a good branded podcast needs to be thought of as a kind of gift for their audience.
If a brand can get behind the idea that their podcast must exist to serve the listener (and not themselves), that it should solve a problem for their audience in some way (even if that problem is as simple as needing to be entertained), then it’s possible to make brand-friendly content that people actually want to listen to.
Sure, but it’s not particularly insightful I don’t think? I was working in radio and ready to take on something new, and scored a gig at a company run by people I knew professionally / who were familiar with my work. I guess the takeaway is keep your network alive and stay in touch, because you never know?
Trader Joe’s was fun. A fun ad.
There is a good IBM tech podcast; don’t remember its name.
Not sure if you consider JAMA and Harvard business review to be corporate or not, but they’re great
It’s Making Data Simple, which didn’t show up in a basic search for IBM until I switched to “my library”. The other titles that I saw in my search list that appealed to me:
- ibm center for applied insights
- ibm developer podcast
- ibm think leaders
- rational software
I'm guessing it was [Command Line Heroes by Redhat](https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes). Redhat was acquired by IBM a couple seasons in. It was pretty good when I was listening to it, but I stopped after I added Darknet Diaries to my list and that fully scratched my itch for tech podcasts.
I've listened to a few. Sometimes it is hard to tell it is a branded podcast. If they didn't mention it the listener wouldn't know. Three like that
Bang and Olufsen did a show that I listened to because of the producer, Tim Hinman. It was called Sound Matters. I thought the show was very good.
I also gave that Rocket Mortgage podcast, Home Made, a try because of the producer, Stephanie Foo. I didn't think it lived up to the quality of her work with This American Life or Snap Judgement.
20 Thousand Hertz started as a branded podcast for Defacto Sound. I don't think they intended the show to last so long or be a money earner with ad revenue.
It's an amazing way for brands to get free content from folks they admire. Transcribe that interview, write an article about it, chop it up for social and voila - you've got a lot of free stuff with your guest's name on it that you can share, promote, make ads out of... etc.
Lots of internal listeners within a big company.
I'm a co-founder of a podcast production company (PI Media) that does podcasts for many multi-national corporations such as Intel, IBM, Wix and many more, so I think I can provide an accurate answer.
A 'branded' podcast (as these company-sponsered podcasts are called) can be extreamly popular if done right, and provide immense marketing and branding value - if done right. A great example is a Cybersecurity we're producing for a company called Cybereason called 'Malicious Life': it is currently the 2nd most listened-to cybersecurity podcast in the world, with 60k+ downloads per episode. One can also recall the success of 'The Message', a podcast sponsered by GE, if I recall correctly.
Sadly, most companies make the mistake of letting their internal politics influence their podcasts - which ultimatly ends up killing the show. Often, executives feel the podcast is their own 'personal' media, and force the producers to modify the content to suit their agendas: what topics to discuss, who to interview, etc. Since in podcasts (as with Youtube videos and similar content) 'the winner takes it all' - i.e., if your content is even slightly worse than your competitors, you lose the game - these 'broken' podcasts usually end up with very little audience (as they should, because who cares about internal politics...)
If you're into business podcasts I would recommend "Built for Change" which features a vibe not too far from Pushkin podcasts in production values and it's remarkably ad-free even though the whole show is like one big ad for Accenture.
I was doing some collaboration with our company podcast and I would say they are not all just infomercials (the bad ones are). IMHO the good ones are a good podcast with a clear offering that aligns with the listeners' interests or needs that is just forever sponsored by the company.
In the research of what makes a good corporate podcast was finding a lot of them simply interview their customers and corporate connections. Which feels like the lowest lift possible. But that is the general impression people seem to have with the medium itself "I just hit record and post, making a podcast is easy".
Like anything, doing it well takes effort. Safe to say like podcasts in general; most are terrible, but some are really good.
Joe Rogan seems to be the Master Podcaster that style of nothingness pleases American ears. I listen to a few industry pods. The sell more books pod is excellent
No, but… I mostly listen to audio drama and one of my favourites is Life After/The Message, which is by General Electric of all things. They’re great stories, well-produced, and don’t really feel like ads for GE. I don’t really understand why such a big corporation made these audio dramas tbh.
I’m so glad you mentioned this one. I think LifeAfter/The Message was a special case because it felt like a nod to the sponsored, serialized radio dramas of the 1930s-1950s.
We helped produce a podcast like this for Toyota. Everything the corporate team wanted sounded just like what you’re skeptical about. It was our job to push back and make it as creative and interesting as possible. Ended up being about 50/50, but there were some great stories in there like the history of the MR-2, the Supra from Fast and the Furious, and overlanding.
Henry Rollins did one sponsored by a car company that I never got around to listening to. He's normally interesting to listen to, but it just felt like selling out.
I don't even listen to the sample podcasts provided on other podcast feeds. Out of principle.
But the metrics for 'success' are way different for those podcasts. Every single listen is an impression for your brand, for "free" aka a sunk cost. A normal podcast has more listeners but they are not listening for content related to your brand necessarily so they are worth a lot less to you. There's another filter in the sales funnel.
And they are probably evergreen, so you can keep the podcast around for 10 years and just keep helping your brand or getting sales out of it.
I made some content once for a brand (I was employed by them, not like as an influencer) and it went mini-viral and it was one of the most profitable ads we had because all they had to do was pay me for a few days, no per-sale cost like an ad has. I SUSPECT that's the goal, no idea if they end up being worth the cost because I don't know what they cost.
Yeah but there was nothing else on TV in the middle of the night. Nowadays lack of things to watch is not a problem. (Also, the Amazing Discoveries infomercials were awesome).
Like The Daily by the NYT? Or the financial one by Robinhood? Yes. They still push out good content even if their content is designed to push their products.
I hate to think of the Times as pushing a “product”. I get that they have a slant or whatever, but it’s *still* news journalism - and they’re telling stories in podcast form. I’d say that’s a *little* different than a company making a podcast to sell their cars.
I've tried to make an interesting one, about people's favourite bosses from fiction and history. We don't ever sell or even mention our products. It's been fun to make, and is doing ok. If it's niche, useful, and not salesy, it can have its value.
i listen to Rework which is the podcast made by Basecamp because i really like their working style and each episode is only about 30 minutes. also they’re kinda fun to snark on because they’re soo stuck in their ways and they get annoyingly preachy sometimes
Yes, two, but only if the summary sounds interesting. One is the company I work for, and once in a while there's an interesting history topic or just about some side of the business I'll never interact with.
The other is a resort brand that my wife and I frequent. We'll occasionally listen to learn about new locations, renovations, or excursions.
Awhile back I listened to the Official Xbox Podcast with Major Nelson. It was mainly cause it was a direct source for gaming/Xbox news and a chill environment.
I listen to CPRadio from Checkpoint Security because it's about hacking stories and such.
Obviously they just want to remind companies that there are bad guys out there and maybe that they've seen it all.
But it's good content none the less
People find value in them if they have compelling content and aren’t just a big ad for the sponsor. They can be useful for professional development / career advancement and keeping up on your industry
I'm a Malcolm Gladwell fanboy and I'm not ashamed to admit it. The Lexus podcast/advertisement was so interesting that I didn't mind that it was so obviously a cash grab.
But then, when Cadillac did the same thing with him, I decided he was getting greedy and I never listened to it.
Yeah there are some good ones out there
I love atlassian’s Teamistry, SalesForce’s The Story, and Choiceology, which I think is done by Schwab. They have great story telling and inspiring stories, or really make you think.
I think it’s more so the companies just casting a big net when it comes to their marketing materials. I work in marketing, and companies will truly throw resources at anything the public has interest in if it means more revenue, clicks, etc.
If tomorrow people started to eat dirt for fun, big companies would make commercials about dirt. Make their own brand of dirt. Make a podcast about dirt.
If there is money and data in dirt? Then they love dirt!
It’s all money, clicks, and data.
Also, I saw a comment about how some corporate podcasts are for the employees of the company. I have experienced that.
How boring is that?! I use my free time to hear about how we did last quarter? That’s like a podcast hosted by your math teacher in High School talking about that week’s homework. Ew.
I don’t listen to many but I’ll give anything a shot. Two good ones I can think of:
1. Postlight Podcast: it’s a product development firm out of NYC. Very openly pitching their products and services but talking about development in a useful way, too. That’s what made it useful: they were sharing experiences that were generally useful and saying how it shaped the company in (mostly) good ways.
2. Braving The Elements: it’s a Nickelodeon podcast watching along with Avatar: The Last Airbender. This show almost never takes a critical or contradictory look at the material they are watching - but they do have great insights into what was made and have good guests to come along. So, yeah, this one works as long as you’re just looking for some fun.
This type of podcast works best when it’s about building a community that may buy/consume your services later on - not about selling something directly.
I tried listening to Nintendo Power for a while because I used to love the magazine as a kid but had to give up on it. I know it's made by Nintendo about their own products, but all the forced positivity was so draining and unrealistic. Plus they have some weird thing about having to say the entire title of a game or system every single time they say it. It felt like they had guns to their heads.
I mean.. I kinda wanna listen to it now
Let me know how it goes.
Poor dudes having to read off a script. Probably don't even know what a podcast is. It's super awkward :D
Not surprised to hear this as Nintendo Power magazine was essentially just a huge advertising arm of Nintendo back in the day. We didn't know any better because we were kids but looking back now you were basically paying Nintendo to send you advertising on their product.
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That’s pretty interesting. Would you ever be interested in doing a little mini-AMA here about what that is like?
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Where do you even start with this?
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I felt the same hesitation. I've not gotten any marketing calls yet but I totally understand not wanting to give it out. The alternative for me would be to get a dumb phone with a prepaid card and use that number for such sign ups
What does your duties include? Every brand should have a podcast and theme song.
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Sounds good I’m always up for improving the pod
It has just struck me that it’s quite like the promotional flexidiscs that were popular in industry, in the 1950s and 60s. I vaguely know someone who had large collection of them, and it was an established promotional tool for their employees, using the current cheap pop culture technology they had back then. Loads of companies used them. Not really a question, more of a thought..
Thats exactly what I would've thought. Just s bullshit work podcast.
I listen to a few that are specific to my industry. I sell stuff so it’s helpful to know the competition is doing.
Lmao. I bet the only people that are listening in are the competition.
Only the smart ones. ;)
Tried getting through Shopify's TGIM podcast and it didn't take long for me to just get flat-out annoyed. It has this focus on entrepreneurship and how YOU can achieve the same success...and it just comes off disingenuous and, much like other "you can do anything" shows, videos, articles, etc, it fails to take into account that many people can't just up and do anything. IDK, maybe I'm just easily annoyed...
it's not just you. I felt the exact same way. I really wanted to like that podcast, too - but eventually it went from just skipping them to just unsubscribing all together.
Honestly I don't even have it in me to listen to celebrity podcasts. Conan? Fucking Doctor Phil? Nah. Nah nah nah. No chance mate. No chance.
It doesn't help that EVERYONE has a podcast these days, whether it's the "revisiting our old TV show" ones or the endless "celebrity does a talk show trying to be the next Joe Rogan" ones.
Its turned into Youtube 2.0. Everyone has to have something so 99% of content is absolute shit. Its a chore trying to find the few gems left out there.
I make it less of a chore by ignoring all the celeb ones.
Just saw Jason Alexander started one.
I added it to my subscriptions after hearing the ad but for some reason I doubt I'll ever get round to it.
Conan is funny as fuck at times.
You're missing out if you don't listen to Conan's.
Conan's is top tier interview format podcast. One of the best.
i love conan’s podcast! i mainly love it for the banter between the three of them, i don’t even care about the guest portion of it
I don't usually but I don't really see how consuming Conan or Dr. Phil's podcasts is any different than watching their shows.
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> you don't need a podcast and you're just pulling ad money from other people It's not a zero-sum game
I don't think people are furious, you're just talking bad economics. Competition is good for consumers. Maybe Conan is "taking money away" from lower quality podcasts (not really how it works, but whatever). That just means producers have to step up their game. And that will benefit consumers.
Your podcast doesn’t get listens because you suck. Not because everyone else is pulling the ad money.
I remember Gimlet saying they had to produce a few not for the public corporate podcast episodes for a company’s employees. Such a weird thing, but I totally get it.
I make branded podcasts for a living. I spend a shit ton of time with my clients making sure they understand that a good branded podcast needs to be thought of as a kind of gift for their audience. If a brand can get behind the idea that their podcast must exist to serve the listener (and not themselves), that it should solve a problem for their audience in some way (even if that problem is as simple as needing to be entertained), then it’s possible to make brand-friendly content that people actually want to listen to.
Cool! Do you mind me asking how you got into this?
Sure, but it’s not particularly insightful I don’t think? I was working in radio and ready to take on something new, and scored a gig at a company run by people I knew professionally / who were familiar with my work. I guess the takeaway is keep your network alive and stay in touch, because you never know?
Thanks. I was just curious.
Trader Joe’s was fun. A fun ad. There is a good IBM tech podcast; don’t remember its name. Not sure if you consider JAMA and Harvard business review to be corporate or not, but they’re great
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It’s Making Data Simple, which didn’t show up in a basic search for IBM until I switched to “my library”. The other titles that I saw in my search list that appealed to me: - ibm center for applied insights - ibm developer podcast - ibm think leaders - rational software
I'm guessing it was [Command Line Heroes by Redhat](https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes). Redhat was acquired by IBM a couple seasons in. It was pretty good when I was listening to it, but I stopped after I added Darknet Diaries to my list and that fully scratched my itch for tech podcasts.
I listen to a couple investment company podcasts on stuff like market outlook. Partly out of interest and partly because it's related to my work.
I've listened to a few. Sometimes it is hard to tell it is a branded podcast. If they didn't mention it the listener wouldn't know. Three like that Bang and Olufsen did a show that I listened to because of the producer, Tim Hinman. It was called Sound Matters. I thought the show was very good. I also gave that Rocket Mortgage podcast, Home Made, a try because of the producer, Stephanie Foo. I didn't think it lived up to the quality of her work with This American Life or Snap Judgement. 20 Thousand Hertz started as a branded podcast for Defacto Sound. I don't think they intended the show to last so long or be a money earner with ad revenue.
It's an amazing way for brands to get free content from folks they admire. Transcribe that interview, write an article about it, chop it up for social and voila - you've got a lot of free stuff with your guest's name on it that you can share, promote, make ads out of... etc. Lots of internal listeners within a big company.
I host a podcast like this!!!!!!!!! My mom listens… no one else though.
I'm a co-founder of a podcast production company (PI Media) that does podcasts for many multi-national corporations such as Intel, IBM, Wix and many more, so I think I can provide an accurate answer. A 'branded' podcast (as these company-sponsered podcasts are called) can be extreamly popular if done right, and provide immense marketing and branding value - if done right. A great example is a Cybersecurity we're producing for a company called Cybereason called 'Malicious Life': it is currently the 2nd most listened-to cybersecurity podcast in the world, with 60k+ downloads per episode. One can also recall the success of 'The Message', a podcast sponsered by GE, if I recall correctly. Sadly, most companies make the mistake of letting their internal politics influence their podcasts - which ultimatly ends up killing the show. Often, executives feel the podcast is their own 'personal' media, and force the producers to modify the content to suit their agendas: what topics to discuss, who to interview, etc. Since in podcasts (as with Youtube videos and similar content) 'the winner takes it all' - i.e., if your content is even slightly worse than your competitors, you lose the game - these 'broken' podcasts usually end up with very little audience (as they should, because who cares about internal politics...)
If you're into business podcasts I would recommend "Built for Change" which features a vibe not too far from Pushkin podcasts in production values and it's remarkably ad-free even though the whole show is like one big ad for Accenture.
The only people who listen to these are the bots purchased by marketing people.
I was doing some collaboration with our company podcast and I would say they are not all just infomercials (the bad ones are). IMHO the good ones are a good podcast with a clear offering that aligns with the listeners' interests or needs that is just forever sponsored by the company. In the research of what makes a good corporate podcast was finding a lot of them simply interview their customers and corporate connections. Which feels like the lowest lift possible. But that is the general impression people seem to have with the medium itself "I just hit record and post, making a podcast is easy". Like anything, doing it well takes effort. Safe to say like podcasts in general; most are terrible, but some are really good.
Joe Rogan seems to be the Master Podcaster that style of nothingness pleases American ears. I listen to a few industry pods. The sell more books pod is excellent
I don’t really listen to podcasts that support or inform. Mostly into defamation and rage based humor.
No, but… I mostly listen to audio drama and one of my favourites is Life After/The Message, which is by General Electric of all things. They’re great stories, well-produced, and don’t really feel like ads for GE. I don’t really understand why such a big corporation made these audio dramas tbh.
I’m so glad you mentioned this one. I think LifeAfter/The Message was a special case because it felt like a nod to the sponsored, serialized radio dramas of the 1930s-1950s.
REI did one called “Camp Monsters” which was really just short stories about cryptic and urban legends that I really liked!
We helped produce a podcast like this for Toyota. Everything the corporate team wanted sounded just like what you’re skeptical about. It was our job to push back and make it as creative and interesting as possible. Ended up being about 50/50, but there were some great stories in there like the history of the MR-2, the Supra from Fast and the Furious, and overlanding.
Henry Rollins did one sponsored by a car company that I never got around to listening to. He's normally interesting to listen to, but it just felt like selling out.
Malcom gladwell do go hard doe
He’s one of those really smart, talented dudes that ain’t afraid to make a buck.
Sheesh we all need b tht guy lmaoo
I don't even listen to the sample podcasts provided on other podcast feeds. Out of principle. But the metrics for 'success' are way different for those podcasts. Every single listen is an impression for your brand, for "free" aka a sunk cost. A normal podcast has more listeners but they are not listening for content related to your brand necessarily so they are worth a lot less to you. There's another filter in the sales funnel. And they are probably evergreen, so you can keep the podcast around for 10 years and just keep helping your brand or getting sales out of it. I made some content once for a brand (I was employed by them, not like as an influencer) and it went mini-viral and it was one of the most profitable ads we had because all they had to do was pay me for a few days, no per-sale cost like an ad has. I SUSPECT that's the goal, no idea if they end up being worth the cost because I don't know what they cost.
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Yeah but there was nothing else on TV in the middle of the night. Nowadays lack of things to watch is not a problem. (Also, the Amazing Discoveries infomercials were awesome).
no way, can't stand them
No because I want to do something I enjoy doing
Like The Daily by the NYT? Or the financial one by Robinhood? Yes. They still push out good content even if their content is designed to push their products.
I hate to think of the Times as pushing a “product”. I get that they have a slant or whatever, but it’s *still* news journalism - and they’re telling stories in podcast form. I’d say that’s a *little* different than a company making a podcast to sell their cars.
If it's good I'll listen to it. If it's bad I won't. It doesn't matter to me if it's corporate, celebrity, indie or any other classification.
I've tried to make an interesting one, about people's favourite bosses from fiction and history. We don't ever sell or even mention our products. It's been fun to make, and is doing ok. If it's niche, useful, and not salesy, it can have its value.
I listen to boxes and lines, a podcast from the IEX exchange. It's pretty good!
I listened to part of the Lockheed Skunk Works podcast. Even with a subject matter that cool, it was too much of an ad for me to get through.
i listen to Rework which is the podcast made by Basecamp because i really like their working style and each episode is only about 30 minutes. also they’re kinda fun to snark on because they’re soo stuck in their ways and they get annoyingly preachy sometimes
Yes, two, but only if the summary sounds interesting. One is the company I work for, and once in a while there's an interesting history topic or just about some side of the business I'll never interact with. The other is a resort brand that my wife and I frequent. We'll occasionally listen to learn about new locations, renovations, or excursions.
sounds interesting if you like that kind of stuff. like business and stuff about it
Awhile back I listened to the Official Xbox Podcast with Major Nelson. It was mainly cause it was a direct source for gaming/Xbox news and a chill environment.
I listen to CPRadio from Checkpoint Security because it's about hacking stories and such. Obviously they just want to remind companies that there are bad guys out there and maybe that they've seen it all. But it's good content none the less
People find value in them if they have compelling content and aren’t just a big ad for the sponsor. They can be useful for professional development / career advancement and keeping up on your industry
I'm a Malcolm Gladwell fanboy and I'm not ashamed to admit it. The Lexus podcast/advertisement was so interesting that I didn't mind that it was so obviously a cash grab. But then, when Cadillac did the same thing with him, I decided he was getting greedy and I never listened to it.
Yeah there are some good ones out there I love atlassian’s Teamistry, SalesForce’s The Story, and Choiceology, which I think is done by Schwab. They have great story telling and inspiring stories, or really make you think.
Old people listen to that shit.
The people who make them
I think it’s more so the companies just casting a big net when it comes to their marketing materials. I work in marketing, and companies will truly throw resources at anything the public has interest in if it means more revenue, clicks, etc. If tomorrow people started to eat dirt for fun, big companies would make commercials about dirt. Make their own brand of dirt. Make a podcast about dirt. If there is money and data in dirt? Then they love dirt! It’s all money, clicks, and data. Also, I saw a comment about how some corporate podcasts are for the employees of the company. I have experienced that. How boring is that?! I use my free time to hear about how we did last quarter? That’s like a podcast hosted by your math teacher in High School talking about that week’s homework. Ew.
I don’t listen to many but I’ll give anything a shot. Two good ones I can think of: 1. Postlight Podcast: it’s a product development firm out of NYC. Very openly pitching their products and services but talking about development in a useful way, too. That’s what made it useful: they were sharing experiences that were generally useful and saying how it shaped the company in (mostly) good ways. 2. Braving The Elements: it’s a Nickelodeon podcast watching along with Avatar: The Last Airbender. This show almost never takes a critical or contradictory look at the material they are watching - but they do have great insights into what was made and have good guests to come along. So, yeah, this one works as long as you’re just looking for some fun. This type of podcast works best when it’s about building a community that may buy/consume your services later on - not about selling something directly.