Dec 08 06
Corporate podcasting overview with Kris Jacob of Podshow
Corporations are discovering the uses of podcasting, both as an external marketing vehicle, and as an effective means of distributing internal communication. Kris Jacob, VP of Development at Podshow, discusses the pros and cons of using podcasting for executive communications.
Click here to play this interview.
Full transcript after the jump
Scott Sigler: I’m Scott Sigler and we’re talking with Kris Jacob, VP of Sales, Marketing and Business Development at PodShow. Kris, thanks for joining us.
Kris Jacob: My pleasure.
Scott Sigler: PodShow is a new company and this is a brand new industry. Podcasting has only been around for a year or so. What can you tell us about the state of corporate podcasting and how are companies using it to communicate?
Kris Jacob: Well, I think what’s interesting about the way that companies use podcasting to communicate is that it isn’t one simple answer for one company. Typically when we talk to major corporations who are entering this, they enter it in one of two ways. First, there are companies who are using it to externalize messages that they want to get out. So they’re using it for promotional purposes or they’re working with their media buyers and planners to promote to specific audiences using podcasting.
The second way big corporations and small corporations and even small to medium-sized business is to communicate within their own organizations. So they have messages or constituencies within their organizations that they want to focus on and they use this as a way to reach out for those folks and send that message.
Scott Sigler: Are you seeing that more people are using it for external or internal? Or is it still kind of up in the air?
Kris Jacob: Well, I think the vast majority of the early stage is making use of the vast independent podcasting market to promote messages to audiences that you can’t get to through conventional means. In other words, there are a lot of audiences, particularly the 18-34 audiences, who just aren’t listening to traditional radio the way we’re used to other folks listening to it. So, this is a very valuable demographic but very difficult to reach with the traditional means in radio and television.
So the biggest chunk of it I think is in the former category, where they’re taking the messages that the company has to send and sending it to these very desirable demographics using podcasting as the means. But an emergent part of the business, the part that we’re looking at in terms of the institutions and enterprises communicating to their own internal constituencies, we’re starting to see as a growing component.
And actually, the interesting part is that those two conversations are happening simultaneously while the media buyers and planners will bring us into the conversation when we get into the room. A lot of times the client will want to talk about both. They want to talk about how they talk to their customers on the outside and how to talk to their sales force and their IT department and their analyst and so on, internally.
Scott Sigler: So, people are using it for internal communications as well but they’re getting introduced to it through the external market?
Kris Jacob: That’s correct.
Scott Sigler: We’ll take a short break and be back with more of our interview with Kris Jacob in just a minute.
[Theme Music]
Renn Vara: You’re listening to More Than Talk, produced in the San Francisco studios of SNP Communications, creating and implementing communication strategies, messaging and training for leaders of Fortune 500 companies since 1992.
Now, for this week’s communication tip. The next time you have to go to your boss and ask for funding for a new project, try what we call the dialogue opener. It has three parts: The first part is: “I am prepared”, the second part is a benefit statement about their time and then the third part is an invitation to share. It goes something like this:
“I’m prepared to talk to you about a new podcast initiative we’d like to launch within our company. But in order to make the best use of your time, do you have any thoughts about how podcasting can be used for internal communication?” What happens next is your boss begins to talk about his or her perspective on podcasting giving you a lot of insight to what their views are before you go about pitching your idea.
The point here is get them talking and learn from what they have to say. So, the next time you have to go talk to your boss about a new project, try the dialogue opener. It really works.
[Theme Music]
Renn Vara: You’re listening to More Than Talk. Be sure to join us next time for a conversation with Shel Holtz, author of the book “Corporate Conversations”. Now back to our talk with Kris Jacob from PodShow.
Scott Sigler: We’re back with Kris Jacob, talking about the state of corporate podcasting in today’s business environment. Who are some of the companies who are using podcasting for internal communications? And are there any early leaders in adopting this technology?
Kris Jacob: Well, I think to share that would be a little bit premature at this time. I know there are plenty of externalized examples that have been in the press quite often about companies like GM and Pfizer and others who’ve entered into podcasting. And these are executive messages being externalized using podcasting as a venue to do so.
But I think the more interesting piece is going to come in the next few months as those companies start to take the internal constituencies whether in the car case, their the dealers or in the pharmaceutical case, they are the folks who are doing clinical trials and clinical research and the physicians and the nurses who are actually trying to test the drugs to make sure they work for the audiences. I think those are the pieces that become more and more interesting.
If you look at companies like Genentech who has provided 7,600 iPods – one for each employee. And we know the numbers say that half of the space on those iPods is empty as a general rule. I think that’s a great opportunity to communicate those messages across the whole organization depending on who the constituency is that you’re trying to reach.
Scott Sigler: And when it comes to that internal communication, do you speak on that in external as well? What are some of the pros and cons of the technology in using it to communicate to those audiences and constituencies?
Kris Jacob: I think the big advantage is you’re trying to make a reliable network for the delivery of that message. One of the challenges inside any company, big or small is providing consistent messages to everybody. As we know, things sort of get deluded overtime. If you have a history of the company and you want to communicate it to everybody, you try and do that in orientation but then it’s largely not being communicated by the CEO. It’s being communicated by whomever the HR person happens to be that’s in the room. And there are messages like that, that are core to the community inside the company.
And there are also briefings and bits of information that are incredibly important for sales people and researchers and analysts and financial people to have in their possession when they go out and present the company, either in the field or to other people inside the company. So, the reliability of the subscription mechanism and the way that that technology works I think is very beneficial.
The other piece that I think make a lot of sense is ease of use. I mean, we’ve all experimented with videocasting and conferencing and voice mail and all the other fun things that we have deal with in the marketplace all the time. But I think it does give that combination of the reliability of the RSS technology and the amiability of something that you already know in terms of the mp3 player, where you’re delivering things to people in an environment that might be a little more comfortable for them.
And yet at the same time, it’s critical information so you want to make sure that, that stuff gets delivered and that leverages back to the technical piece.
Scott Sigler: And considering that some of the information delivered internally is critical information, what are some of the drawbacks to using podcasting as a delivery mechanism?
Kris Jacob: Well, I think it’s a bit of a challenge always to tell the future. But, I can tell you that if there ever has been a property value component to a medium, I think certainly mp3s in general are one that’s taking a fair amount of scrutiny and in the case of music. So my guess is as the corporate podcasting environment evolves overtime, that issues like tracking, reporting, digital rights management and taking those bits of information and making sure they don’t get proliferated beyond the walls that they’re supposed to, are probably going to be well-cared for.
The corporations don’t have any interest in having their private data made public. But they also want to make sure that it does get to the audience that it was intended for and that it gets there in the same form that it was intended.
So, I think those pieces from a tracking, reporting and digital rights management standpoint will evolve overtime ,just like corporate podcasting will evolve overtime. But, if ever there was an environment where that was a good probability, I think this is it given some of the scrutiny that I’ve seen in the music marketplace.
Scott Sigler: Okay, that pretty much addresses the question about pending technology changes as well. So, I’ll ask one more then if there’s anything else you want to add. As a company, where does PodShow see corporate podcasting going in the near future and then in the far future as well?
Kris Jacob: Well, I think to a certain extent we’ve touched on a lot of the very important factors. One is a willingness and the need to communicate with the customers in a meaningful way, in attractive demographics that are very difficult to reach any other way.
And from an internal perspective, we think we have a part to play in providing the infrastructure, the production and certainly the programming that might go from a central organization inside of a large corporation out to a particular group in that company that needs to hear it.
Just like we have an environment in a general consumer world where people are very frustrated with their listening experience, I think if you ask any senior manager and any major corporation: “Are all the messages that you’re trying to send to your audiences inside this company getting through with 100% clarity?” I think, 100% of them would say no.
So, our goal just like it is to help podcasters, listeners and marketers do their business better and have a more enjoyable experience. That’s also our job in the enterprise. It’s to take those messages that the corporation thinks is important and deliver them with stability and quality to the audiences that they want to hear.
Scott Sigler: Kris, thank you very much for being in More Than Talk, we appreciate your time.
Kris Jacob: My pleasure.
Scott Sigler: I’m Scott Sigler and I’ve been talking with Kris Jacob, VP of Sales, Marketing and Business Development at PodShow. Thanks for listening.
