RETHINKING (AND REVISING) THE PODCAST
Creating a digital presence for an audio experience,
and harnessing social media to find an audience.
Challenge
Panoply is a visionary in the podcasting industry; they give podcast producers more direct access to listener data, which can encourage more advertisers to invest. One of the first tests of Panoply’s model was Revisionist History, a podcast hosted by bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell. To introduce this new series to listeners and subscribers, Panoply asked LMO to take this audio-focused medium and bring it to life in a visually immersive way, engaging listeners before and after they listen to an episode.
Solution
We created the Revisionist History website with custom animations and a proprietary media player to offer a seamless multi-sensory experience. We built a fan base by tapping into Gladwell’s existing supporters on Facebook and Twitter, and developed campaigns that targeted these groups. For each episode we created ads, and optimized social media targeting to identify a lookalike audience modeled after successful converters. This optimization led to a steady increase of new visitors to the site.
Results
The podcast debuted at #1 on iTunes and continued to gain momentum throughout its season-long run. With our website boasting millions of visitors and our social channels generating millions of impressions and conversions, the success of our efforts in the pure analytics response was undeniable. LMO won an ADDY award for our work, and Revisionist History was picked up for another season.
