WebMaster Solutions
Web Site
Marketing
Podcasts for
Online Marketing
A Case Study
by Kenneth Catto
Podcasts are short
radio-style audio programs that users of online
audio, mobile audio and iPods (or other portable
digital audio players) can download and listen
to whenever and wherever they like. The Podcast
medium is still in its infancy as a marketing
medium.
The most effective
use in these early days of marketing with
Podcasts involves subjects that appeal to
tech-savvy listeners. Obviously, that includes
topics in computing, multimedia, and high
technology.
Another smart
approach is to match Podcast marketing with the
lifestyle of the target audience. For example:
skiers. The target market for a typical ski
resort includes young professionals in the 20s
and 30s, with an adventure-loving attitude to
recreation, and plenty of disposable income so
that they can afford the sport. That's right on
target for the core market that buys iPods and
other high-tech gadgets.
Marketing Sherpa
reports that New England ski area Killington Ski
Resorts recently tapped into this useful
convergence of market niches to create a Podcast-driven
marketing campaign.
The challenge was
to reach the ideal demographic of young urban
professionals, who are typically hard to get at
through traditional ski industry marketing media
such as radio, TV and magazines. Their lives are
cluttered with a blizzard of conflicting media,
their attention fragmented and hard to hold.
Killington Resorts
communications manager Tom Horrocks recognized
that one unifying factor of this demographic is
their almost cultish love of iPods and portable
digital audio. He decided that Podcasts would be
an ideal way to connect with them on their own
terms.
Here's how he put
the campaign together:
1) Bought software
and digital microphones that his team could use
right in the office to create Podcasts.
2) Hired a "snow
reporter / media writer" to act as a personable
and enthusiastic character, to become identified
as the Podcast voice of the resort.
3) Developed and
produced 3 separate Podcasts: a 3-minute "Snowcast"
of daily weather and snow condition reports; a
12-minute weekly "Driftcast" that delivered
interviews, tips and stories from the mountain;
and a 3-hour weekly music production, more like
and FM radio segment, with music appealing to
the target demographic.
4) Delivered the
Podcasts regularly, on schedule, through popular
distribution services including Apple's iTunes
online music service, Podcast Alley, and Yahoo!,
as well as through the Resorts' own Web site.
The results were
impressive. Over a period of 2 months at the
beginning of 2006, the Podcasts were downloaded
nearly 30,000 times. The downside of Podcast
marketing is that it is hard to track results.
Once the audio is downloaded, there's no
built-in way to measure how the listener
responds or takes action.
However, Tom
Horrocks is sure the Podcasts delivered a good
return on investment. He credits the campaign's
success to the flair of the resort's Podcast
personality, known as Anna of the Mountain. "She
epitomizes Killington: young, passionate, crazy
about skiing."
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