Fresh Ears

As the next season of Fresh Ears approaches, we’re taking a look back at some of the most enlightening lessons we learned in Season 1. In this episode, we tackle one of the most basic, but important, questions to consider in the creative process: why is a podcast right for our brand? We hear insights from Lauren Boothman (AQA),  Lucy Donnahue (Happiful), Jonathan Hill (GML), Alison Jack...

Salesforce Appexchange is a platform upon which people all over the world have built their own businesses. There are entrepreneurs who owe their success to the platform, and of course plenty of other entrepreneurs who want to hear from them for inspiration. So Salesforce created 'Trailblazing Entrepreneurs' - a podcast series that's not about the platform - it's about the people who've used it. Wh...

How many stories can you get from studying people 50 years? The Centre for Longitudinal Studies celebrated 50 years of the groundbreaking BCS70 with a 6 part podcast, interviewing the scientists, the participants and their families. With a modest budget, elderly contributors and a national lockdown, it required creativity in both format and execution. Neil Cowling speaks to: Ryan Bradshaw –...

A podcast for Kew Gardens. That will be a nice series about flowers and trees, right? Wrong. Kew know the power of storytelling, and they set out to create a wonderful podcast series of mysteries that would pull people in, make the very most of audio, and help listeners understand the extraordinary science that takes place under the Kew banner. Neil Cowling speaks to: Meryl Westlake – Senior...

'Insurance Tomorrow' is a podcast aimed squarely at insurance brokers, and is a great example of the power of the medium to super-serve a valuable but niche target audience. Across six seasons, the podcast has positioned Allianz as a future-facing, thought-leading brand in a highly competitive market. Originally presented by Nick Hewer, the latest series has seen Steph McGowen take over the reigns...

Aimed at listeners who are engaged and interested in the transition to carbon-free economy, 'The Energy Podcast' by Shell explores the technologies that might take us there and never dodges the tough questions around Shell's own involvement. From grilling their own senior executives to inviting environmentalists tp debate, Shell have consistently used the podcast as a way to facilitate intelligent...

NFU Mutual is the UK's largest farming insurer, and wanted to create fascinating content on a topic that many farmers are super-keen to explore - diversification. In recruiting farmer/podcaster/influencer Will Evans and recording on locations all over the country, we created a series that brings a wealth of information, experience and insight to the farming community. It won a Corporate Content Aw...

Brushing your teeth is a boring, empty two minutes where nothing else happens, so Zendium toothpaste decided to create super-produced, beautifully scripted, ultra-short podcasts to fill the time.  2 minutes of Zen is a series of exercises, mindfulness routines, and now children's content designed to be heard while brushing your teeth. It's perfectly aligned with the brand values, and is the p...

Global PR agency Propeller group created The Dog 'n' Bone as a way to host fascinating conversations between influential people in the marketing industry. The Dog 'n' Bone podcast demonstrates the strength of their own network, and acts as a way to secure time with some of the marketing world's most impressive thinkers. It also demonstrates propeller's own capacity to create podcasts as an offerin...

Slater & Gordon - one of the UK's largest and best known law firms - have created their very own true crime podcast, featuring their own clients and their own lawyers. Raw & emotional storytelling, built on foundations of trust, commitment and superb promotion has led to a series which has achieved it brand objectives whilst no longer feeling like branded content. Joining Neil Cowling to d...

'The Big Steal' was our biggest project to date. Fresh Air was asked to tell the story of how Vladimir Putin stole Russia's biggest oil company and continues to impose his brand of chaos and control on the West. Heavyweight investigative journalism, a super respected presenter, and some astonishing guests made for a gripping series. But how on earth did it all come together? Time, trust, and...

Happiful Magazine's 'I am, I Have' is a series of conversations between Lucy Donoughue and her guests.  It's based on the principle that 'We all have mental health, but it doesn't define us', and has included numerous intimate, searching and spellbinding conversations. In this episode, we discuss how to create a sensitive and insightful branded podcast with Lucy and producer Annie Day. See om...

AQA - Britain's biggest exam board - wanted to create a podcast that would offer teachers the chance to see behind the 'curtain' and meet the people who set the exams for their students. Podcasting offered AQA a chance to go into detail, showing the human side of the exams process and explaining the rationale behind their work. Unltimately, they wanted teachers to like the more and understand them...

Welcome to "Fresh Ears". Neil Cowling introduces the new series that dissects branded podcasts with the clients and the producers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.