Why do Facebook, Dell Technologies, Mozilla, Slack, Red Hat, NYT T Brand Studio, BMW, CBS, Charles Schwab, and more top brands come to Pacific Content when they want to create a branded podcast?

Steve Pratt is the Vice President and co-founder of Pacific Content, a company of 30 passionate podcast nerds that focuses exclusively on creating original podcasts with brands.

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Pacific Content joined Rogers Media in May 2019 and is one of Entrepreneur's 100 Brilliant Companies. Their shows have won Webby Awards, Digiday Branded Content Awards, MarCom Awards, and Shorty Awards.

What makes a good podcast? How about a great podcast? In this episode, Emily and Steve discuss the best ways to create a valuable message to grow your podcast audience as well as how companies should be approaching podcasting as a new form of content marketing. They also discuss emerging opportunities with audio content and voice assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri.

2:20: How Steve started working on branded content and more details on his background.

3:00: Sirius XM and the first podcast ever.

4:19: Getting bitten by the "podcast bug." Opportunities to generate exposure for new bands in Canada emerged through licensing agreements for podcasts.

4:35: The new wave of podcasting hits and with it the need for podcasters to think and act like media companies

5:37: Companies begin realizing a new medium to generate content to increase exposure, without overtly tying it to their brand. It doesn't sound like an ad.

Choiceology with Katy Milkman is an original podcast from Charles Schwab. It explores irrational decision making. The show was created by Pacific Content. — Choiceology with Katy Milkman is an original podcast from Charles Schwab. It explores **irrational decision making**. The show was created by Pacific Content.

"They all understand that you have to put the audience first, and you have to have a lot of empathy for the people that you're creating this for. Anytime anybody makes a piece of content that is about themselves, it's an infomercial." - Steve Pratt
"If we make something that's about us, maybe people will listen once, and then they'll never come back." - Steve Pratt

7:22: Traditional advertising is becoming less and less effective due to the economic and global impacts of coronavirus. Advertising isn't always about showing off your brand and product; sometimes it's about just about creating something that adds value to the user's experience.

"This is a time for brands to serve instead of sell" - Steve Pratt

Loyalty and ROI

9:00: How do you play to the unique strengths of audio, and how do you measure your success in harnessing it?

11:10: Podcasting can reach people when screens aren't available

Podcasting hit a watershed moment in 2019 when, for the first time ever, over 50% of the U.S. adult population had listened to a podcast.

13:39: Everyone has a podcast, and the market is increasingly growing. Discovery and promotion can be a podcaster's biggest hurdle.

14:48: The same tips for growing your podcast can be applied as you're building a voice experience on Alexa or Google Assistant.

"This is all part of the concert of the marketing instruments; they play together." - Emily Binder

17:58: Word of mouth can grow ambassadors for your podcast or voice experience.

"You can't buy listens in podcasts, you have to earn them." - Steve Pratt

18:30: Goodpods is a platform for users to discover new podcasts and can help podcasters capitalize on the "word of mouth" marketing in a digital form. Goodpods is founded by JJ Ramberg, see our conversation with her here.

19:56: Establish patterns and comfort with users, and it will make them more drawn to new mediums. This will reduce friction to new technology and drive adoption.

"When we first had smartphones, you had to teach someone how to download an app and close an app...now, it has become second nature, and we can't live without it." - Emily Binder

23:05: This is the time to experiment with technology

24:53: Smart speakers are the training wheels of voice, but voice assistant is on so many more devices than just a smart speaker

"We had a 70% YOY increase in global shipments of smart speakers in 2019 over 2018. And voice in the car is actually the fastest growing and number 1 use case of voice." - Emily Binder

27:17: What has Google been doing in the podcast space?