There is big business in making brand extension audio, the successful Pineapple St Studios gave insight into how they win, make and promote brand extension content.
Sarah Toporoff, Head of growth europe for Headliner introduced the Audacy SVP Bari Finkel who has been involved in making companion podcasts for shows at Pineapple Street Studios (now Audacy) for several years.
Bari said that Pineapple Street started out as a podcast production house and was approached in 2019 to create a companion podcast for the TV series Chernobyl. Creating companion podcasts for TV now makes up about a third of their business.
The usual process is that they are asked to create a companion podcast about 2 months before release and they always have at least 3 episodes ready for release as the first episode is broadcast, so it is a really tight turnaround and there is no time for testing with audiences.
How they approach creating a series is that different people within the production team watch a screening of the TV show with different background knowledge; those that know the subject really well and those that are fresh. This means that those who don’t have intricate knowledge can focus on things like narrative plus different points of view are catered for, whether the audience is a big fan or new to the show or podcast.
They have found that one of the successful formats for the companion podcast is to have an expert who is deeply involved in the show and an ‘outside’ host, someone who maybe has an interest in the show or an association – for example when they made the Succession companion podcast they used journalist Kara Swisher who reports on the rich and famous in real life – as the host to add an air of authenticity.
As they are often consumed by people who are super fans of shows they have found Reddit to be a great source of commentary – sometimes even listening to notes made for improvement – as well as a way to market the show. In a recent podcast series for Severence the audience was encouraged to phone a number and leave a voicemail message. They received over 2000 messages and many were played on the podcast.
As for promotion, it works really well when the podcast is shared by the actors or director, both on their personal socials or when they are being interviewed on TV. They also use press clippings, taking a story that was shared on the podcast and sharing it with journalists and these often get picked up and used.
Bari Finkel said, “Good content can be adapted into different formats.” and these podcasts are an incredible way to reach the audience directly.
image © Afroditi Zaggana
