Earlier this month, I was lucky enough to visit Podcast Movement Evolutions 2023 in Las Vegas. The event is one of, if not the largest podcast industry and creator gatherings in the world.
Since I learned so much about the world of podcasts during my week in the desert, I’ve decided to break with tradition – what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas but has in fact been neatly collated into 7 lessons below:
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7 Podcast Lessons from Podcast Movement Evolutions 2023
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- Podcasting is the future of diversity and representation.
“What’s the collective noun for a group of white people? A podcast!” – We’ve all heard the same old gags but the truth is that in 2023, podcasting is the area of the media landscape where truly diverse representation and storytelling is thriving.
Wednesday’s Keynote All Star iHeart Panel allowed Lance Bass (host of several podcasts including ‘Frosted Tips’ and former NSYNC pop star), Bridget Todd (host of ‘There Are No Girls On The Internet’), Carmen Llorrens (writer and part of iHeart’s NextUp initiative) and Dr Jonathan Higgens (award-winning writer and host of ‘Black, Fat, Femme’ Podcast) to speak about their collective involvement in Outspoken, the new iHeart podcast network which spotlights the LGBTQ+ voices. Lance Bass spoke about how his podcast drew in an audience of middle-aged NSYNC fans, who have now become huge advocates for LGBTQ+ issues after subscribing to his podcast through a sense of 90’s nostalgia. Activism can be a lot of fun.
The term “authentic stories” might be overused in podcasting, but hearing about everything from the trans experience in Kansas to the unfortunate intersectionality between experiences of racism and homophobia really reinforced the idea that podcasts are the greatest avenue to give all areas of society a loud and booming voice. - Podcasting might be the Las Vegas of mediums.
As I strolled down the Las Vegas strip between sessions, I couldn’t help but stare at the scale replica of the Eiffel Tower and think, “nowhere else in the world would that have got past square one” – and that’s how podcasting feels to me: it’s the big ideas medium. Whether it’s a branded podcast pushing their business tone of voice in exciting new directions or an individual podcaster sharing their weirdest, wildest thoughts – we’re all out here in the middle of the desert building Eiffel Towers.
The beauty of Las Vegas is that underneath the chaos, it’s a finely tuned and well-designed machine. That’s how we look at podcasts. Taking the biggest and boldest ideas and applying production values and a pinch of professional magic, provides us with such a brilliant opportunity to plonk Eiffel Towers all over the place. - Apple Podcasts really does rule the roost.
“Listen to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts!”
Well, it turns out that wherever you get your podcasts is incredibly likely to be Apple Podcasts. James Cridland from PodNews shared stats from January 2023 showing that an astounding 70.8% of (US) podcast downloads are through Apple podcasts, with Spotify trailing behind on a fairly dehydrated 8.9%.
This tells me two things: 1) Wow there are a lot of iPhones and 2) Having a dedicated app for podcasts, with the legacy notoriety of Apple Podcasts, is invaluable when it comes to user behaviour.
- Podcasting has come a long way, but most of the road is ahead of us.
Balancing jet lag with information-rich seminars and networking required a key ingredient: coffee (luckily the United States seems to have enshrined enormous cups of coffee in their constitution). Between sessions, I popped over to one of the venue coffee shops and desperately placed my order. Upon seeing the technicolour lanyard around my neck, the barista asked me what kind of conference I was there for. After awkwardly butchering both vowels of the word ‘podcasts’ in a Mid-Atlantic panic, I was met with a powerful and surpising response:
“What’s a podcast?”
We have a long way to go before podcasts are universal, I was happy to be reminded. Oh and if you were wondering, it was an oat latte, no sugar. - Branded podcasts work. Like, really work.
We’re no stranger to high-quality branded podcasts at The Podcast Guys. My week in the desert taught me that, not only are more and more household-name brands getting involved with podcasts, but the data is there to prove their effectiveness. Jeff Vidler of innovative Canadian organisation, Signal Hill Insights, shared data showing that brand favourability (positive thinking towards a brand) can increase anywhere from 15-50% when an audience is provided with engaging branded podcast content.
There’s a real opportunity for brands to get creative and speak to their audiences about the things that matter to them. Speaking for myself, there’s nothing more professionally rewarding than unlocking the creativity within an ambitious brand story. These aren’t ads. These are stories from experts. - Video vs Podcast remains a philosophical question.
Whilst in the culinary industry, the difference between a hollandaise and a bearnaise sauce may be approaching life and death, we don’t have the same prescriptive boundaries within the multimedia content production world.
Having said that, it was interesting to observe an undercurrent of confusion at the event whenever the question of ‘video or podcast’ was raised. Is video a promotional aspect of podcasting? Does a video stop being a podcast once it’s on-screen? These questions remain largely unanswered on an individual basis. At The Podcast Guys we feel a lot more confident in our approach – wherever your audience is, we’ll find them and give them the content that works for them. Sometimes that will be video, sometimes that will be audio and sometimes it will often be a delightful and strategic combination of the two. We’re chefs too, you know. - European stories need more opportunities to shine globally.
I’m extremely grateful to my American hosts for their hospitality, enormous cups of coffee, commitment to cargo shorts and dedicated sports channels. However, one thing really stood out to me during the event: American podcasting simply doesn’t have the time or space to share European and non-American stories.
The US is undoubtedly the home of podcasting, which is why we have offices in both New York and London. Podcasting may be the new kid on the block but if cinema, music, fine art, writing, television and radio have taught us anything, it’s that Europe will never be out of place in any creative space. I’m so excited to work with more European clients and individual creators in order to bring personal, business, societal and social stories to the very biggest stage. Opportunity knocks.
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If you have a business, and would like to cut through all the noise of this modern world with meaningful content that will resonate with your target audience.
The Podcast Guys can help.
