Why Your Company Should Start a Branded Podcast in 2022
- 7 min read
- Jan 06, 2022

Still considering whether you should start a branded podcast or not? This question was answered as far back as 2014 by the experts at Harvard Business Review. They predicted that podcasting was about to enter its golden age, moving from niche to mainstream. Even at that point in time, it was evident that podcasting is about to enjoy a meteoric rise from which businesses can deploy to tell their stories and engage customers.
If you are still at the juncture of deciding whether your business should start a branded podcast or not, here's where we'll lay the confusion to rest. We believe in the end, you'll understand why the number of businesses launching branded podcasts is on the rise, and why they are killing it.
Think about it, there are about 118 million podcast listeners in the US, and by 2025, this number would have grown to 144 million monthly podcast listeners. That's a lot of new customers you can reach with your brand's message, allowing you to position your business positively and strategically.
At Disctopia, we want to help businesses take advantage of an untapped goldmine in building a relationship with their audience. We believe that that there's a massive opportunity in podcasting and brands are yet to come to its realization.
Today, Slack is used in about 550,000 companies globally, growing to about $630 million in revenue in 2020. Slack grew from a Tiny Speck (Slack’s name at inception) in 2015 to what it is today, and branded podcast is one of the tools deployed. It started a podcast called Slack Variety Pack, where it attends to the needs of its audience in a 20 to minute episode.
Until it wrapped up in May 2016, Slack Variety Pack was the gold standard for branded podcasts. There's no doubt that Slack was able to capitalize on the podcast renaissance.
These are two branded podcasts being run by Shopify. Before these two, there's Thank God It's Monday (TGIM), which Shopify described as a podcast for people who can't wait for the week to start.
In 30 to 40 minutes, TGIM interviews high-powered business individuals. According to Shopify's content marketing manager, it is best to create what people want to consume rather than what they want to avoid and the goal is to boost its brand image through branded podcast and not traditional ads.
In the cosmetics and make-up retail business, Sephora is a major player. At a point, the retail giant launched a Sephora Collection brand, of which a branded podcast titled #LIPSTORIES was floated.
The branded podcast intends to tell the stories of the view of influential female founders, creators, and thought leaders.
What is a Branded Podcast?
There's no better description of a branded podcast than the way Fast Company put it; "the ads that people want to listen to." The HBR thought of branded podcasts as an incredible tool for building trust, long-term engagements, and giving a human face to a business. All of these gives credence to the same message; that branded podcasts are a powerful way for businesses to reach their audience. In a study titled Audio: Activated conducted by the BBC Global News, it was reported that branded podcasts are a compelling form of advertising and a great addition to the marketing mix. What stands out the most in the study is how branded podcasts is able to reach ad avoiders effortlessly. This implies that if your business has committed a massive budget to ads without results to show forth, podcasting might be your best option.What Are The Success Stories of Branded Podcasting?
The potency of branded podcasts is not in doubt. However, let's take a look at how three brands deploy podcasting in reaching their critical audience;1. Slack: Slack Variety Pack

2. Shopify: The Shopify Podcast and Vanguard

3. Sephora: #LIPSTORIES
