Q&A with Janine Pares
How does podcasting, as a form of content marketing, help brands build deeper engagement and awareness in a saturated market? We ask one of Australia’s leaders in content marketing, Janine Pares, what makes podcasting special and how to tie it in with your overall marketing strategy.
Janine is Founder and Managing Director of Thinksmart Marketing and lead instructor for Content Marketing at Association for Data-driven Marketing & Advertising (ADMA), Australia’s largest marketing body.
Janine took time out to speak with BE’s Head of Podcast Partnerships, Chris Ashmore.
Chris Ashmore: Janine, there’s so much information these days online how does a brand stand out and add value to its audience?
Janine Peres: I came across a stat recently that there are about 27 million pieces of content that are shared daily. So, it just gives you a sense for the magnitude of competition that’s out there for people’s attention. Ultimately, I think the way that brands—much like the way any average person—stands out with their audience is to really engage at a deeper level.
What matters to them, what motivates them, what their fears are, what their drivers are, really actually helps us then create content that’s going to be relevant and relatable.
Regardless of whether we’re in a B2B space or a B2C space, ultimately, we’re all still people and people do want and crave that human connection and that authenticity.
“The podcast really needs to fit comfortably within the brand. I think then the details of how it is executed and how you maximise its value across all the activities really comes down to the strategy.” – Janine Pares
Chris Ashmore: And do you think then that companies need to have a change in mindset, in the sense that they need to create good content? So, they need to think like a media producer?
Janine Peres: I think so. If you’re familiar with the Content Marketing Institute, and Joe Polizzi from there, he would often say that marketers need to think more like media producers.
And if you think about publishers and broadcasters and other media producers, they have hard-wired into them the focus on the audience because their livelihood depends on it. Their livelihood depends on how interested and engaged and tuned-in that audience is.
And, so, I think that’s one learning that marketers and businesses quite frankly can definitely take from media producers is, what is it that moves and engages audiences and how can we become part of that? How do we compete for their attention? We know that strongly engaged audiences really build trust with the brand. And so that’s a key kind of driver for a lot of businesses and organisations. From that trust, we can develop and build commercial opportunities
Chris Ashmore: Do you think businesses in Australia understand what podcasting is and what it can do to help build their brand awareness?
Janine Peres: I think it’s still in its infancy. Australia does lag behind some other parts of the world. I think there are definitely some brands that have embraced it and are doing some great things and it’s no surprise that some of the media companies are doing that.
But I think brands are mostly still focused on more traditional formats—written content, video content, visual content—and so audio content and podcasting is still fairly green space, clean space, and really there for the taking for those that get in early.
Chris Ashmore: How would you recommend a business tie the podcast among its other branding activities?
Janine Peres: First and foremost, the podcast really needs to fit comfortably within the brand. I think then the details of how it is executed and how you maximise its value across all the activities really comes down to the strategy.
And, so, having a strategy in place before really any content execution happens is critical because it’s at that point that you can start to think about or how do we make this thing work in and of its own right, but also how do we provide broader value across the rest of the business? How do you atomize the content? How do you repurpose the content? How does it spin off into other things? How does it help bring people into the fold if that’s the intention?
That work is done at the strategy stage. Go very heavy and hard on strategy because I think that’s really important.
