World Nomads is a travel insurance and travel lifestyle brand for independent travellers worldwide; it is the recommended travel insurance partner of Lonely Planet.
The Challenge
World Nomads targets those travellers who tend to go off the beaten track, and seek experiences and adventures out of the ordinary. They are tech savvy and are the type of people who listen to a lot of podcasts.
A podcast is an ideal medium from a travel insurance company, particularly one which reflects the founder’s own independent mindset. Founder Simon Monk insists that “sharing adventures is what drives us” and what better way than through a podcast?
The Audience
According to World Nomads’ website, the community of world nomads is made up of “adventurers — from rocky backpackers to long-term freedom-and-adrenaline junkies — holding over 150 different flavours of passport, from Azerbaijanian to Venezuelan.”
Key Insights
World Nomads’ largest market is the United States at 34% of all policies taken. The take-up of podcasting in America is phenomenal, which made sense for World Nomads (HQ based in Sydney) to get involved in this on-the-go medium.
World Nomads likes to think of itself not so much as a travel insurance company, but more of a travel lifestyle brand. They help tell the stories from travelling customers to a wider audience through a range of media, including photography, video, a travel blog and now through the podcasts.
It helps bring alive the conversation around world experiences, travel safety and travelling responsibly.
The Format
Head of PR and Media Comms, Phil Sylvester, brings decades of broadcast media experience to his role of producer and host of World Nomads Podcast. The podcast itself is a snappy, FM-breakfast radio style show, with plenty of segments for its travelling audience.
Co-hosted with radio breakfast personality, Kim Napier, the team understands the importance of high quality recording and professional editing of each episode. They record interviews well in advance from different corners of the world and use what they need when they need it.
‘I’d take the three hour long afternoon talkback radio show I used to produce and do it in 45 minutes.’ — Phil Sylvester
The Results
Podcasting is a highly engaging form of content marketing, and as such it’s a long-term game. It’s not necessarily about one episode being able to sell a particular number of insurance policies. Phil compares it to a funnel, and making the mouth of funnel as wide as possible, and then, he says ‘connecting it to all the other parts that we do and trying to convert people and shove them further down the funnel.’
Advice to other brands
‘It’s obviously a major part of a content marketing strategy that every business should have. And we also create quite a lot of video… The costs of creating video content is a huge barrier that you just don’t get out of podcasting [which is] just so much more simple to do.’ — Phil Sylvester
We interviewed World Nomads’ Phil Sylvester on BE Podcasting. Listen here
