The Perfect Hosts Make the Perfect Guests: Telling [Brand] Stories Through The Lens of Beloved Podcasters

There is no doubt that the astronomical rise of podcast advertising creates a lucrative opportunity for brands to form connections with large and diverse groups of highly engaged listeners. Despite this potential, the medium does present unique, never before seen challenges for advertisers looking to create content that both represents their brand and resonates with audiences.

In this panel, Director of Acast Creative for the Americas Shantae Howell will moderate a discussion between 2-3 hosts from Acast podcasts and an advertising partner. The crux of the conversation will center around a soon to be released branded series and the Acast podcast hosts who will be featured in the upcoming series. The upcoming series is a one of a kind branded travel podcast that brings listeners into intimate and hilarious “remember when” moments and stories from the road. Launching in the summer 2022 from Acast Creative, the podcast takes a Carpool Karaoke meets Red Table Talk approach to relatable stories of road trips and all of the wonderful, adventurous, funny, and at times embarrassing or infuriating moments that can fill them.

Leveraging insights from the campaign and other recent projects, Shantae and the panelists will educate an audience of advertisers and creators on what makes effective branded content and the importance of amplifying diverse voices in branded content. They will discuss not only what made this series the right decision for the brand, but also why many brands should not create entire branded podcasts.

This conversation will cover how brands can be most effective when they give podcasters the creative freedom to create content in their own voice. For example, the discussion will likely share anecdotes from a podcast episode that uses Spanglish throughout the conversation and outline the brand decision to connect with Latino/LatinX identified listeners in this way. As a result of this panel, audience members gain a better understanding of how to effectively leverage the podcasting medium and podcast talent to create branded content that speaks authentically to audiences while also capturing the essence of the brand.