Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 16, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Why does it make sense to distribute information through a podcast? Two experts in audio PR, Jan-Malte Andresen and Thomas Wagensinner, answered this question for the more than 75 participants at the fully booked PR Club Hamburg event.
Unlike radio, podcasts allow a company to address a very specific, and above all interested, target group. Listeners decide for themselves when and where they want to listen to a podcast.
According to a study of podcast use in Germany, the average podcast listener predominantly listens on the way to work (76 per cent), on public transport (61 per cent), in the car (42 per cent) or at their desk (78 per cent). On-demand use means that interest in and attention to the messages are greater than with radio, says Jan-Malte Andresehen, formerly the voice of the north at NDR.
Podcasts are primarily used for information, entertainment and further education. A successful podcast requires these needs to be met authentically. “Pocast PR has the advantage that it can address end consumers directly and does not first have to convince an editor of the contribution,” explains Thomas Wagensonner.
In practice, anyone with the necessary technical knowledge can use podcasts to put together their own individual radio programme. However, Thomas Wagensonner recommends taking a journalistic approach to audio PR if one wants to hold one’s own in the market. “For companies, podcasting is purely a matter of image, and the Internet is one big elephant’s head,” says Wagensonner. “Once something has been put online, it remains there.”
Podcasts are in vogue and becoming increasingly established in the business world. Over the past few years, a number of well-known companies have recognised how podcasts can be used effectively in corporate communications. The most prominent podcast in Germany is that of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, the first head of government to address the public regularly by video, audio and in the form of a Beta cassette.
About PR Club Hamburg e.V. PR Club Hamburg e.V. is the cross-industry communications forum for PR and related professions in northern Germany. Founded in April 2000 by Dagmar Winklhofer-Bülow, who still heads it today, it offers practical continuing education and networking for PR professionals, entrepreneurs and anyone interested through eight event series. Under its slogan “Hamburg does PR”, it also works to strengthen Hamburg’s long-established position as a PR centre and to support postgraduate PR training programmes with recognised certification. Today, PR Club Hamburg has around 35 corporate members, around 25 sponsors and cooperation partners and around 130 individual members, and is recognised as a non-profit organisation.
