‘This Episode is Sponsored By’: Five Great Branded Episodes
By Francesca Turauskis, Founder of Tremula Network
Readers of magazines and blogs have long been familiar with the idea of the advertorial: paid-for editorial content that is still entertaining, educational, and even artistic. As a reader, you might not even notice the ‘advertorial’ stamp on an article. This kind of advertising is often a large part of the revenue for print and online publications. And yet, when it comes to podcasting, brand collaboration is most often found as either the adverts or an entire branded series.
But there are some shows and production companies who are making brand-supported episodes that sit in the main podcast feed and are akin to advertorials — including at my own Tremula Network. We’ve enjoyed working on them so much, we’ve even started calling them 'podvertorials' and made them a core offer. We still get editorial control of the episodes we create, but we work closely with our paying partner to fund the production.
So I want to take a moment to champion this idea of the podvertorial and creative advertising. Here are some podcast episodes that manage to be adverts, without losing the artist flair.
Five Podcast Recommendations of Great Branded Episodes
Click on the images to listen
Twenty Thousand Hertz
“The Spatial Race”
This episode is about how stereo sound revolutionized the music industry in the 1960s, the hidden history behind the invention, and the development of spatial audio in more recent years. Twenty Thousand Hertz is all about the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds, so it’s no surprise that the storytelling and audio design are not forgotten when working with brands. It’s even an audio brand they’ve worked with!
Wild For Scotland
“The Big Picture - Meet the Young People Rewilding Scotland”
This episode of Wild For Scotland that we made recently with SCOTLAND: The Big Picture is all about rewilding in Scotland, with a particular focus on youth projects around rewilding. We have birds of prey, we have peat bogs, we have birdsong and woodland walks! I learned a lot from making this episode — including what red kites and skylarks sound like, as we made the soundscape from on-site recordings.
She Explores
“Getting Creative - Navigating Through, Episode 4
She Explores is all about celebrating curiosity in the outdoors, with a focus on the intersection of gender and the outdoors. “Navigating Through” was a short series during the COVID lockdowns, and this episode on creativity really resonated. It explores how having to shelter-in-place helped (and hindered) three women’s creative practices when they could not visit nature in the way they were used to. Having to stay local helped them look at familiar surroundings in a new light.
Brain On Nature
“Regenerating the Cooks River with the Mudcrabs”
This episode tells stories of the Mudcrabs, a group of dedicated volunteers who are rehabilitating the Cooks River in Australia. The Cooks River was once the most polluted river in Australia, and this episode explores some reasons for pollution. But it also encourages volunteering as a way to not only solve such problems, but deepen your connection to nature.
Bitter/Sweet
“Natasha’s Sunday Dinners”
A little bit of a stretch in the idea of a podvertorial as this is actually a branded series. Miller Libertine is a culinary agency that creates sensory food experiences. Bitter/Sweet is a perfect compliment to this brand created by the founder Natasha Miller. She asks guests to tell us about meaningful meals. Natasha also introduces these stories with her own memories. Bitter/Sweet is the perfect name for these, as she shares very intimate moments.
Camp Monsters
“The Snipe”
The entire concept for this series (made by a camping/outdoor brand) is genius as it is based on the idea of stories around a campfire. But I want to bring particular attention to the very creative copy for the actual ad-reads. It changes every episode, highlighting a different product, and this episode tells us “the only thing worse than staring into darkening woods that may hold your doom is doing so while sitting in a flimsy, uncomfortable camp chair…”
Every single one of these pod-vertorials have stuck in my mind long after I listened to the episode. The storytelling is not lost, but the brands have made themselves memorable. I don’t even drive, but a car-branded podcast really stayed with me! I can tell that Camp Monsters really has fun with its ad-reads, and Brain On Nature will inspire residents of the inner west and beyond to connect with the Cooks River.
Natasha from Bitter/Sweet told me “I view this project as a continuation of the brand but perhaps a more personal and intimate expression.” Which I think is exactly how we should approach all podvertorials.
