The rise of podcasts as owned marketing
Plus, does social media *really* remove barriers for creatives?
Hi all,
Happy Sunday! This edition marks one month of the Due Diligence newsletter — and it comes right as I begin to wrap up the 100-Day Podcast Challenge. By far this has been one of the most rewarding creative challenges I’ve undertake and I have every intention of continuing after the 100 days is up this Friday (!).
Reflecting on podcasting as both a craft and a channel lately has also led me to observe a trend I think is in its nascency but will only continue in linear progression: as brands become “influencers” and influencers become brands and the lines between all these entities become blurred (I’ve made videos about this before and have come to call this the “hyphenation of everything”), the channels these previously distinct entities have traditionally used for self-promotion are starting to overlap and now converge.
The result is that formats like podcasting which used to be more of a self-promotion channel for individuals to ✨build their personal brands✨ have now become channels for brand marketing through the personal brand-building of a founder or CEO.
Think Madhappy’s podcast, Marianna Hewitt’s show with Dear Media, or Ready, Set, Spill! hosted by the CEO of SET Active.
All are examples of audio content that promotes the brand by way of promoting the face of the brand.
There are a number of major shifts that have led us to this convergence, and because these trends will only continue unabated, I feel pretty confident we will only see more of these podcasts spin up whose dual function is to both elevate the founder-as-emissary-of-the-brand and promote the business through an underutilized form of content marketing.
So what are the trends that have led us here?
In sum:
Barriers to entry for content creation have gone to near zero (a phenomenon that will accelerate dramatically with the explosion of generative AI) → technology has removed the traditional gatekeepers to building an audience
No gatekeepers → anyone can grow an audience and therefore everyone has attempted to grow an audience
Meanwhile, technology has dramatically lowered barriers to entry for starting a business (think: Stripe, Shopify, AWS, and the like) → more businesses are starting more quickly
More brands are therefore competing for attention and ultimately dollars by becoming essentially media companies in their own right, often through a combination of paid and organic channels, meaning competition for wallet share via mindshare is fierce
The atomization of society & massively increased avg. time spent online have created a demand for content that feels more human and “relatable”, normalizing among other things parasocial relationships that catapult creators into stardom and enable them to build their own empires
Meanwhile, the socially conscious ideological bent of Gen Z coupled with major cultural awakenings in recent years are making it so businesses are increasingly obligated to cultivate a connection with customers driven by shared values → brands are having to behave like “influencers” in their own right with personalities & opinions of their own
An increasingly popular way to shortcut this process by harnessing our collective glamorization of entrepreneurship has become placing the founder/CEO at the forefront of the brand story to enhance an emotional resonance that humanizes the company, differentiates the brand, and sells product
This has become the de facto playbook for consumer brands especially (though not without its risks) who often have to lean on marginal differences in actual product but bigger differences in brand story, which has led not only to influencers becoming founders but founders having to become influencers
Hence, the rise of the influencer-founder, a personality who often has started predominantly in either role only to inevitably cross over into the other as all influencers become media companies and as all media companies eventually realize that scalable revenue is mainly to be found in releasing product lines
Hence… brands are now media companies, founders are influencers, and podcasts are the trendy & intimate content marketing strategy du jour
It’s hardly news that podcasters monetize with consumer brands (Barstool merch, anyone?) but what’s notable is the reverse trend of brands increasingly going into the notoriously time-consuming medium of podcasting.
And because podcasting is fundamentally ideal for slowly building an intimate connection with a like-minded audience that can then become something of that endlessly trendy concept of “community”, it is not exactly the first thing marketers think of when they think “direct response sales”.
(Though when you consider just how much revenue Athletic Greens and BetterHelp must be driving to spend so aggressively on podcast advertising, one can only conclude that for some brands bypassing the paid strategy and going for an owned strategy can only be at least worth trying.)
The caveat here is that this is a strategy that can only really be effectively deployed by brands that (1) already are firing on other advertising cylinders, (2) have robust enough brand affinity among a loyal customer base that people will even bother to tune in, and (2) possess a hell of a lot of patience as they fit “content-market fit” with their podcast strategy.
I’m personally excited to see who else decides to adopt this as a playbook even experimentally. My prediction is we will see the brands that already have “cult” status among their communities try this first and also maybe the emergence of more podcasts that are explicitly limited in duration and tied to a broader campaign in a creative and informative way.
For instance, couldn’t BetterHelp partner with an influencer known as a vocal proponent of mental health awareness to launch an 8-episode season as part of a broader campaign where they interview their friends and family for a finished product that is a compelling standalone work of intimate storytelling and deft, subtle advertising in its own right?
For those who truly understand how to tap the promise of content in building community, this could just be a new secret weapon precisely because it’s a relative white space and promises precious few short-term quick wins but a lot of long-term loyalty if executed patiently and well.
If anyone has any thoughts / ideas on this (or knows of examples of this I may have missed!) then I’d love to hear your feedback.
Love,
Dulma
THE BOTTOM LINE
The three things from each episode that you need to know.
Kiva Dickinson — How CPG Founders Can Navigate Challenging Times
On Misconceptions When Pitching to Investors: Founders overestimate how much an investor knows and cares about the problem they’re trying to solve. They tend to inundate investors with information without giving them a chance to internalize all the basics, lending to a game of “broken telephone” when the investor shares a pitch with the rest of their network. “The slower you go the more simple you build that story, the better they’ll be at repeating it.”
On Separating Your Identity From Work: It’s difficult not to correlate the success of your business, or work, with your personal identity and self-worth — but that doesn’t mean you need to suppress your emotions. “This job as an entrepreneur is not free of emotion, it’s filled with emotion.” Having a support system beyond your professional circle, prioritizing mental health, and pursuing hobbies are ways to remind yourself there’s more to life and your identity than your job or startup.
On Portfolio Construction in CPG: You can afford to be a lot more concentrated in CPG venture than traditional venture or early-stage tech investing because your failure rate (and, in turn, potential upside) are lower. Concentrated portfolios allow investors to be highly involved with the startups they’re working with. “Our reason to exist is to provide later stage venture resources at an earlier stage.”
This is just the bottom line from my conversation with Kiva. For the rest of our discussion, listen to the podcast episode here.
Sari Azout — Building an Intentional Startup
On NOT Moving Fast and Breaking Things: It’s counteractive to the zeitgeist and the world of venture — but original thinking is hard, and you can’t do that if you have to build and ship a product out in two months. Everyone wants success fast, but to solve the biggest problems, you need to slow down and chip away over time. Plus, playing the long-game can be a competitive advantage. “Slow down, truly engage with the complexity of the problem set, and trust that it’s going to lead somewhere magical.”
On the Not-So-Great Aspects of our Knowledge-Sharing Tools: First, they create an obsession with the present, which has diminished our capacity for thought and created a culture of anxiety. Especially on platforms like Twitter, we rarely retrieve knowledge from the past. Instead we’re stuck in a cycle of the past 24 hours. Second, the focus on vanity metrics — likes, shares — and incentives to gain engagement have inevitably created a culture of narcissism. “We use information today more so for recreation than to educate or achieve our goals.”
On Networking for Introverts: That’s what writing is. When you put stuff out there, it becomes a magnet for people interested in your ideas. Similar to building in public, writing and publishing your thoughts allows you to think in public. For Sari, “The fundraise wasn’t the moment I was fundraising. It was the time I had invested before, in slowly building credibility around my ability to have an original thesis on this space,” through her newsletter.
This is just the bottom line from my conversation with Sari. For the rest of our discussion, listen to the podcast episode here.
Brian Sugar — Founder of PopSugar on Content, Commerce, and Venture Capital
On Celebrity Involvement in Brands: If celebrities join the leadership team of a startup, it’s important that they’re really leading it. If they just post a couple of times a week, it’s more of a celebrity endorsement. The same applies when founders become de facto talent — it comes back to authenticity and love for the brand. “You have all these different tools, and you have to find the right one. It can’t always just be a celebrity.” Ryan Reynolds-ification isn’t repeatable for everyone.
On Green and Red Flags in Founders:
Green Flags: 1. If it’s a partnership and there’s clearly a right-brain, left-brain balance. 2. If they have domain expertise.
Red Flags: 1. If the founder doesn’t fully understand the inner workings of their business. They need to be able to go deep in two areas: product and marketing, and finance and operations. 2. If they’re a wantrepreneur. “As an entrepreneur, you’re either solving a problem or you’re taking advantage of a certain time — you don’t set out to be one.”
On Customer Acquisition for Commerce Brands: When investing on the commerce side, brands need to be able to acquire customers for much less than their competitors. It’s important for commerce brands to have an omni-channel product strategy — invest in retail presence and seek out non-traditional channels. Authentic relationships with “influencers [also] give you an advantage in this area.”
This is just the bottom line from my conversation with Brian. For the rest of our discussion, listen to the podcast episode here.
Andrea Campos — How A 100 Day Challenge Led to Illustrating a NYTimes Bestselling Book
On Tapping Into Joy As an Artist: Once you turn your hobby into a job, your relationship with that form of art changes. Now it’s not just coming from a place of joy, but also a place of necessity. To tap into that joy again, use different muscles than those in your normal toolbox. “Realign with the intention and the spirit that [you] brought to your work earlier, when it came from a place of experimenting, trying new things, and going back to basics.”
On the Dissonance that Results in Burnout: Because artists need eyeballs on their work, they need to use creator tools. The disconnect is that the creator tools and platforms run on algorithms that run a lot faster than a sustainable art practice. “TikTok or Instagram want something new from you everyday. For a lot of artists, that’s not possible or healthy. Art takes time.” To produce something every day, at a caliber you’re proud of, is a struggle — sometimes you need to step away and back onto the platforms on your own terms.
On A New Barrier for Creatives: Social media has removed barriers for creatives, especially in terms of sharing their art with the world. But it also means that creatives essentially have to be both an influencer and a creative for their work to be taken seriously, or for brands to be interested in collaborating. “There’s an inequity in that. Some artists are so talented but don’t want to be in front of a camera. It’s unfortunate that this is a necessity for their work to be seen.”
This is just the bottom line from my conversation with Andrea. For the rest of our discussion, listen to the podcast episode here.
LEARNING FUND
Invest in your business knowledge.
This Week: “Syndicates”
Example (from Visible.vc): A notable angel investor decides to lead a syndicate. The syndicate investors invest $200K and pay her 15% carry.
The investment is successful, so the syndicate investors first receive their $200K, and then Sara receives her 15% of the profits. The rest of the profits are divided among the syndicate investors, and (if applicable) the platform used to build the syndicate (such as AngelList).
Syndicates give founders access to a large network of investors, without having to negotiate with them 1:1. Essentially, once you get buy-in from a lead investor, you also have backing from their syndicate investors (but still only one item in your cap table).
For investors, syndicates are a way to invest smaller amounts across multiple startups (you can start with as little as $1,000 on AngelList).
Generally, to join a syndicate, investors need to join an investing platform like AngelList, browse available opportunities, and then apply to the ones they’re interested in. Sometimes, syndicates are private, or investors need to be invited by the lead.
Overall, syndicates are a fast, accessible way to bring on investors. The biggest downside they present is a lack of privacy. If your startup is selected as a syndicate investment, information around funding and product development essentially become public knowledge (especially among the many investors who may be looking to buy in). Depending on your stage of product development, involvement of patents and IP, etc — syndicates may or may not be the right fit for your startup.
SMALL INVESTMENTS, HIGH RETURNS
A little support goes a long way.
Starface: Treat Acne With Kindness
When I was growing up, the only way to deal with bouts of typical teenage acne was to a) overload on the flesh-toned pimple patches b) be terribly self-conscious. It’s wild that the age-old narrative around acne hadn’t really ever been challenged, until former Elle.com Beauty Director Julie Schott and her business partner Brian Bordainick founded Starface.
You may have seen their signature yellow, star-shaped pimple patches all over social media (or on Florence Pugh’s Instagram), but that’s really just cracking the surface of a brand that has a bold, unique voice, their finger on the pulse of Gen Z, and an all-star cap table of heavy hitters in beauty like Bobbi Brown, Nancy Twine, and Marianna Hewitt.
Since Starface, Schott and Bordainick have been on a tear, also launching dissolvable body wash brand Plus, emergency contraceptive pill Julie, and skincare brand Futurewise. Could there be a holdco play here that would make more sense (if this isn’t already somehow baked into how they’re structuring these launches)?
Especially a fan of what they’re doing with Julie in light of recent changes in the availability of women’s reproductive rights in the U.S. Spread the word.
Got a product or brand you want us to shout out? Nominate them below!👇🏼