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22 mins
The Impact of Corporate Storytelling

It is vital to cultivate a culture that enables teams to understand and engage with each other to encourage productivity and information flow. That task just became a great deal more challenging with the exponential growth in remote work.When teams don’t connect, the danger is that there is a tendency to silo; that is where information is held within teams. Businesses are very aware of the cost of silos. Silos reduce efficiency in the enterprise; they can impact morale and erode the company culture. Silos arise from many underlying causes, but a common factor is that there simply are not sufficient opportunities for teams to interact and become familiar with each other.Podbean connected with Vimal Parker, Marketing Manager with Slalom’s Global Marketing team and the orchestrator of Slalom’s internal podcast – Slalom On Air. We wanted to know about how Slalom tackles the tricky issue of connecting global teams. We learned how Slalom implemented podcasting into their organization and cultivated a vibrant culture around their company’s podcast.Why Podcasting?Vimal had many internal communication tools available to tap to increase intra- and inter-team engagement, so why was it that Slalom chose podcasting?Vimal presented a familiar picture to John Kieran Podbean’s Head of Marketing. She described Slalom as a highly-successful enterprise in its growth phase. Not only were existing teams getting larger, but they were also becoming more scattered as Slalom began its expansion across the globe. Podcasting represented an intimate way to connect individuals who may otherwise have very little contact time.How Do You Use Podcasting?OnboardingOne of the key wins that Slalom gained from using the medium was for onboarding new employees. By presenting new hires with a curated selection of episodes, they were able to quickly engage with the company culture and familiarize themselves with key players and best-practice methodologies in the organization.An Audience-targeted ApproachSlalom’s approach to podcasting is to create categories or channels of stories to suit the various audiences. For example, the account leads present "Wins to Know" to highlight success stories of partnerships with their clients and how those were cultivated. The Leadership Series hosts podcasts from management to communicate the company strategy. Slalom is dedicated to inclusion and diversity, and so that philosophy is supported by the channel "Raising our Voice".How Is the Podcast Created?Slalom has a storytelling team that identifies individuals with great stories to tell. They support employees through the process. This includes a pre-interview to establish the framework for the story and drafting of the questions that the interviewee should expect. And finally, the team works to make the interviewee feel comfortable and ready to discuss their ideas in the novel setting of the recording room.Vimal’s team sees promoting the podcast as an integral component of creating it. There is no use to a podcast that sits unlistened to after all! Especially in the early days, Slalom’s approach was to treat their podcast as a strand of their brand and commit time and energy to promote the app and create a listening habit across the global team.When the storytelling team identifies the next potential story, they align this with the audience segment to whom the story must be promoted. Promotion takes multiple forms, such as email alerts and mentions within meetings. One of the lessons that Slalom’s storytelling team have learned is that one person forwarding the link to another is one of the most effective marketing mechanisms; another reminder that people listen to people!So, What Are the Benefits of Corporate Podcasting?Slalom uses podcasting as the primary mechanism to share stories across the business. One of the massive advantages is that this can happen while people are not in front of their computers. Moving is good for people! By providing a medium that can be consumed on the go and at the listener’s convenience, Slalom has seen excellent consumption rates of their podcasts.In her interview, Vimal quoted the truism that is often attributed to Francis Bacon "Knowledge is Power". By leveraging podcasting, Slalom has developed an effective knowledge-sharing tool, accelerated connections between disparate teams, assisted new employees to feel grounded, and created a valuable form of institutional memory to ensure that best practices are shared. Slalom has taken significant steps to ensure that they don’t grow beyond their own interconnections.Is There Any Take-Home Advice?We asked Vimal if she had any advice for our listeners and readers, whether there was anything folk needed to get started (apart from a smartphone and a set of headphones, that is). Vimal says: "Have a clear mission". Now that is great advice for any business proposition! Create your KPIs, know what success looks like because that way, you know where you are headed and whether you succeeded in your aims.Slalom has been highly successful thanks to their commitment to keeping their teams connected, however far apart they are geographically. How have you used podcasting within your business? Does Slalom’s story resonate with yours?

Success Story
44 mins
How to Create a Thought Leadership Branded Podcast With Gene Marks of Paychex’s Business Series

It can be a daunting task to start a thought leadership branded podcast. We met with Gene Marks, host of the Paychex Business Series podcast to find out how businesses can leverage podcasting as an effective marketing channel.Paychex is a global HR and payroll services business, supporting more than half a million small to mid-sized businesses. While Gene Marks is the creative inspiration for Paychex Business Series as well as its host.How do branded podcasts serve Paychex’s marketing strategy?Paychex started considering ways to modernize their marketing strategy about four years ago. Podcasting was proposed as a way to provide meaningful information to support their existing customer base and also other small businesses around the country. The inspiration came from researching and learning how successful podcasting was becoming, and Paychex not wanting to miss a chance in this unique space.The Paychex Business Series is, in fact, just that start of the plan. Already Paychex had added a branded podcast targeted at HR leaders in mid-sized companies. Long-term, Paychex aims to introduce more podcast channels.We all want to learn, which is why Paychex’s strategy is to provide an interview-style learning channel. "Nobody wants to have commercials or products jammed down their throats. But we all want an education", says Gene Marks. It is this strategy that led Gene as the host of the podcast to engage with speakers who influence the small business space. Gene brings in experts ranging from CEOs, tech company leaders, economists, entrepreneurs, government officials, and Paychex’s own compliance representatives. His interviews allow small businesses to understand how changes in the economic and regulatory landscapes will impact them.In what way has podcasting built the Paychex brand?The first factor is that the podcast helps to reinforce the Paychex brand with their existing customers. By providing high-value content to their existing customer base, Paychex helped cement the relationship with their customers, adding value and improving the chances of retaining those customers for life. This “captive” audience has come to expect a 360-degree support from Paychex, helping them to address those concerns they have that are common to any small business.The next factor is brand growth. To grow the brand, the Paychex philosophy is simple: all it takes is one recommendation. If just one existing customer recommends a branded podcast as a worthwhile listen to another small business, Paychex has, ideally, a potential new customer, and if not a customer, then one more potential new promoter.It is this organic growth that underpins Paychex’s branded podcast marketing strategy.How is the branded podcast produced?A high-value, well produced branded podcast usually has a team behind it. We asked Gene what is “under the hood” of the Paychex podcast. Being a small business owner himself, Gene’s own pain points and need-to-knows drive the content creation process. Gene has an excellent network of connections to tap into and he marries the need to the expert and places the proposal before his producer.The producer is a Paychex employee who handles the pitching and administration surrounding getting everyone together. The producer also manages the person responsible for post production.In terms of recording the show, Gene’s trick is to record a video call with the interviewee followed by adding the introduction and closure for the show to the same call – after the interview is done. This allows him to be responsive to the interview that actually happened, rather than the one he predicted would happen. Sounds like a great tip, Gene!And, finally the podcast is promoted on social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.Do you have any take home advice?Gene’s advice splits into two items, firstly a great piece of advice for the interview format itself and secondly great advice for anyone starting out.Interviews are conversations, not Q&A sessions.If you undertake an interview-format show then make sure your interviewer is actively listening. Gene warns that a set of pre-determined questions must be handled with caution! While they are essential to guiding a show, Q&A can quickly descend into a transactional experience which will lose your listener's interest.Gene reckons that part of his show’s success is built on the fact that he is genuinely interested in the subject matter and wants to know the answer to what he asked. It is this genuine intent that brings the interview alive and ensures that the listener’s experience is rich.Starting out?Finally, Gene explains that growth is gradual. “Build your base”, he says; “and recognize that it takes time to grow”. If you have only 100 dedicated listeners, then you have 100 potential customers and that base will grow.Remember, Gene advises, that your podcasts are like a library for your customer base. Maybe they discover you years after you started out. By focusing on content that matters, you have created a resource that can inform and engage your target audience long after you produced the branded podcast content itself.

Success Story
37 mins
How to Build Branded Podcasts with Kaspersky

One of the greatest challenges businesses face in the marketing arena is that it is crowded out there. Audiences are sophisticated, and businesses must compete in a highly selective attention economy.Now, podcasting already offers the heavy-weight advantage of portable consumption. Unlike video media, it is easy to consume podcasts while driving, washing the dishes, and exercising. So, how do you leverage podcasting and ensure that you make a splash rather than end up as just a drop in the ocean?We joined Susi O'Neill, Head of B2B Brand Content at Kaspersky, to find out. Kaspersky is one of the largest privately-owned cybersecurity companies. With over 46 offices worldwide, Kaspersky is well known for its security products, such as antivirus software.How Does Podcasting Work within Kaspersky’s Communications Strategy?Kaspersky’s Brand Activation Studio began producing podcasts several years ago. Susi explains that they started out with a traditional interview format in a show called Transatlantic. The show featured hosts from the UK and the US and presented current issues and ideas, and it built up an excellent following – setting Kaspersky up as thought leaders.With this experience behind them, the Brand Activation Studio started to innovate. Susi explains that Kaspersky was aiming for an extremely high bar. Their video production is, quite literally, at the award-winning level. So, when Kaspersky set out to innovate in the podcasting space, they were aiming for the same.Susi’s team created a novel method to deliver the Kaspersky brand message with their show Fast Forward. They evolved their podcasting strategy into an audio-documentary, story-telling approach. Kaspersky commissioned a popular British radio broadcaster to create a series examining the history, present, and future of networking technologies. This audio documentary covers, in-depth, topics such as our interactions with technology from supermarkets to the effect of business in space.For the listeners, the outcome of this effort is a collection of high-quality, book-markable audio documentaries hosted by PodBean. For the internal team, it was a gamble that paid off. Until they had the data, there was some tension with regards to whether the podcast would divert their audience away from their successful video channel "Tomorrow Unlocked" with its 10,000-strong following. But, Susi’s instincts proved justified, as adding the pre-recorded podcast channel grew their overall audience.So, What Are the Benefits of Corporate Podcasting?As with tools like YouTube, PodBean provides user analytics data to allow corporate teams to analyze the success of their shows. When Kaspersky compared the dwell time on their video content with their podcasting content, they saw a significant improvement, with the minimum average dwell time on the audio channel coming in at 5 minutes or more. This is significantly more than the video consumption rates, and remember, this is for a corporate team that wins awards for their video material!Not only has Kaspersky succeeded in creating a longer connection time with their audience – also they succeeded in reaching an older target demographic. With this target group already tuned into radio, it seems that the transition to their adopting the podcasting format has been particularly smooth.Importantly for the Kaspersky team, not only is podcasting a flexible medium for consumers on the go. It is also flexible for those involved in its production. Susi explains that even pre-pandemic, pinning down high-value experts for two days of video shooting was tricky. The video medium requires a significant time investment to do well. While podcasting, even at the high-quality production end that Kaspersky produces, means asking for just an hour or two of that expert’s time – in a studio near them.Is There Any Take-Home Advice?One of the incredible assets of a tool like PodBean is that anyone can start podcasting on a cost-effective budget. Not everyone has a commissioning pot the size of a commercial enterprise such as Kaspersky’s. So, what is the take-home advice that fits any budget?Susi recommends focus. Be entertaining, educational, or informative; choose and aim for one. That recommendation to focus goes further. Don't feel that you need to commit to high-volume or even a fixed pattern of releases. Rather, consider a fixed-length series of high-quality items. And, Susi even has a tip for getting the budget released; call it a pilot internally if you need to get it past the boss!Susi’s wealth of advice is available on our “Sticky Listening” article for those with a budget to spend. If that is not you, don’t fret, she also has cost-saving tips: consider reaching out to those not-so-busy-right-now musicians out there. They combine the skills required to provide you with brand-relevant novel music for your podcast and to provide your podcast with high-quality post-production.

Success Story
24 mins
The Benefits of Podcasting in Business with Lauren Smith of St. James's Place

Zoom fatigue is a real and troubling phenomenon. Also, it is difficult for team members that work on a by-appointment basis with clients to commit to joining virtual meetings, to say nothing of the challenge added by time-zone differences!Podbean connected with St. James’s Place’s content strategist, Lauren Smith, to find out more about how St. James’s Place, the UK’s largest wealth manager, leverages podcasting to support their highly mobile partner base and position the company as thought leaders.Why Podcasting?Lauren explains that St. James’s Place, like many large corporations, operates in a highly volatile ecosystem. This often means that the communications team must pivot fast. Added to this, the internal teams that Lauren supports are scattered and mobile. St. James’s Place has discovered that a consume-as-suits content delivery stream significantly strengthens its overall content delivery strategy.How Do You Use Podcasting?St. James’s Place launched with two podcasts which grew to five podcasts within a year. The majority of these podcasts are internal for their investment division, which includes over 4000 partners. Lauren’s team has adopted podcasting as a multi-functional tool – offering an effective internal communication tool as well as supporting their wider marketing strategy.The internal podcasts are proving an excellent vehicle to engage partners in the nuances of developing highly functional partner-client relationships. Via their company-branded podcast “ Tomorrow Comes Today”, St. James’s Place explores trends and ideas in the wealth management space. This public podcast has established St. James’s Place as a thought leader, increasing its visibility and links.How Does Podcasting Work within the Communications Strategy?Lauren explains that St. James’s Place uses podcasts to complement its existing communications strategy. Pre-podcasting, the communications department already focused on offering different-sized chunks of vital information. This is referred to within the team as “a bite, snack, and a meal” approach. This approach responds to the reality that people’s availability, and appetite, for consuming content varies with their workload, travel requirements, and private life.Podcasting has slotted in perfectly with this existing strategy, from 15-minute “snacks” or updates to 45-minute “meals” or deep dives. By applying the push notification for new episodes in the Podbean Pro app, St. James’s Place is able to inform listeners about new content quickly. They also use traditional media, such as email and newsletters, to promote new, upcoming, and popular podcasts.So, What Are the Benefits of Corporate Podcasting?In a word, portability. For St. James’s Place, the portability offered by podcasting allows them to meet the needs of partners. Having engaged with podcasting as a communications tool, Lauren highly recommends the strategy as an excellent way to meet the needs of high-value partners. By reaching out to discover what areas of capacity building the partners wanted, St. James’s Place has been able to create curated content targeted to meet these needs. Partners are on the road meeting clients, meaning that time to consume written or video content is short. So, the ability to consume the content from a mobile app while on the road particularly suits their dispersed and mobile partner base.Lauren’s team is always looking for strategies that make communications more accessible and engaging. The Podbean Pro App gave leaders at St. James’s Place a deeper way to connect with their distributed teams. There is an authenticity and relatability that is added by leaders communicating in their own voice. The feedback that Lauren has received has convinced her that podcasting is an effective, intimate, and personal way to hear from leaders.Also, Lauren recommends Podbean’s advanced analytics tools. The data provided support easy analysis of content consumption. This gives communications teams real-time feedback on the success of each content channel and episode. St. James’s Place is excited about the potential for improving the impact of each channel by tweaking the strategy and following the outcomes.Is There Any Take-Home Advice?Yes, indeed! Lauren recommends podcasting to lighten the virtual meeting load. St. James’s Place experience demonstrates that podcasting offers an agile and effective strategy to support staff and clients – providing a simple, accessible way to consume high-value content.Finally, Lauren advises that a workplace podcast must have a defined purpose to really make an impact and create the demand within teams. So, Lauren places a challenge with her take-home advice: build a sense of community and offer something that solves, or offers advice on, that community’s problems. Do that, and you have the foundation for an impactful and successful internal podcast.

Success Story