Have You Heard's in_Broadcasting launches conference series

Jon Savage

In_Podcast will offer an inside view into podcasting trends and production, the rise of branded digital radio and how to use both to unlock new audiences in South Africa and Africa.

Speakers who’ll be covering different aspects of the subject include Gareth Cliff from Cliff Central, MacG from Podcast and Chill with MacG, Chris Borain from United Stations and Jon Savage, founder and head of content and Platform from in_Broadcasting.

in_Broadcasting conference now launching - catch the digital audio revolution in Africa

HaveYouHeard  5 Nov 2021

Here, Savage, a director at InBroadcasting, a division of HaveYouHeard, tells us more about the event and what to expect…

Tell us, why did in_ decide to launch this event series?

The podcasting environment has so much to offer to businesses but there is confusion around exactly how they work and what they are, the model of monetisation, the value of the audiences and how to protect brands from such an unregulated environment. We felt that it was time to unite the commercial community around podcasting to help everyone understand how they work and to help fill in the gaps.

What is the objective?

To create a safe space for marketers to understand the infrastructure around podcasting and how to use it to market, how to buy "air time" as well as to show success stories and case studies.

In your keynote, you plan to speak about Old Mutual’s success. Can you let us in on some of your main talking points?

Old Mutual is a great brand that historically struggled to talk to the youth market in a meaningful way. We created AMPD Studios with them and part of our strategy was to utilize podcasts to help infiltrate the youth market and to introduce the market to Old Mutual products that were specifically relevant to them. The AMPD podcast was the number one podcast across Africa for three months solid earlier this year and continues to grow long after the series ended. This is a very interesting case study that shows how we did this.

Other speakers at the conference will be covering different aspects of podcasting. How did you go about selecting these speakers?

Our aim for In_Podcast was to create a range of people that could talk about podcasting purely from a commercial perspective. We chose leading media buyers who have specialised in buying radio airtime for decades and who are now moving in to the digital audio space, we chose representatives of the major streaming platforms, entertainment lawyers and also two podcasters who, despite controversies, are arguably the most successful SA podcasters of all time. This is what makes In_Podcast so unique, that you will be getting an inside perspective from the monetisation standpoint - as well as threats and successes.

Podcasts haven't significantly impacted sales - until now

HaveYouHeard  22 Nov 2021

And what are some of the topics about podcasting that we can look forward to learning more about?

Brand safety in an unregulated environment is a particularly hot topic at the moment so we plan on tackling this as well as the commercial metrics associated with ROI in podcasts, and also basic stuff - what are podcasts and what makes them unique from a marketing perspective. We're going deep :)

Comment on the current state of podcasting in SA and how this compares globally.

Podcasting in Africa is growing exponentially. This has been shown by the massive shift of the major DSP's focus on podcasting including Apple, Deezer, Spotify and more. Boomplay has finally launched podcasts on their platforms and YouTube has appointed a brand-new role - head of Podcasting!

Any trends you see coming to the fore?

A relatively new trend is the introduction of the visual aspect of podcasting. Video was never really associated with the term podcast directly until the past eight months and the latest trends show the importance of the video component. This has created a very interesting development in the ability to double or even triple the reach of an audience in the podcasting space!

What is your outlook or hope for the sector?

Podcasting currently has two major issues: credibility and valuation. We will be working hard over the next year with a whole massive community of podcasters to help build credibility and help show marketers and brands how the valuation metric in podcasts has upsides that no other media is able to compete with.

How often are these conferences scheduled to take place?

We just want to get through the first one but we are definitely looking at doing a bunch more in 2022.

Why solely online seeing things have started opening up? Comment on the format of the event.

People are a bit overloaded with these big giant conferences. Conferences can be tedious and not always helpful. You arrive in a huge space, line up to register, then you have to find each venue, and then what do you do if there are two talks you want to attend at the same time? Personally, I find them socially fun but inefficient.

We wanted to create a short sharp power conference, that didn’t take up too much time out of your day, that got you the info you need fast and furiously, no mess no fuss.

If you want to try a no-frills conference, all substance, no nonsense, try In_Podcast.

The in_Podcast conference will take place online on 25 November.

For the full agenda and to book tickets visit www.inconference.live or Quicket.

Learn more about in_Broadcasting at www.inbroadcasting.co.za.