Coming to New York for Advertising Week and looking for a laugh? YMH Studios, in collaboration with Redcircle, Podscribe, and Sounds Profitable have taken over New York Comedy Club on the evening of October 9th for industry leading networking, followed by some of the most popular comedians in podcasting. Event capacity is incredibly limited, so if you're interested in attending, please fill out this form to be considered for this free event.
A few weeks ago at Podcast Movement, I gave a keynote about the current state of podcasting (you can access the whole report and subsequent webinar for The Podcast Landscape here). A few hours before I went onstage, I asked Bryan to find me a can of Liquid Death sparkling water. If we have ever done a Zoom/Teams/Skype/GoToMeeting/Meet/Etc together, you’ve probably seen me drinking one on camera. It’s not beer, I promise.
With an assist from Frequency’s Pete Jimison, Bryan returned just before call time with this offensive object:
I don’t even know where to start with this. Liquid Death normally comes in a 19.2-ounce can, not this useless doorstop. It is an affront to every sensibility I have. A grotesque parody of a Liquid Death. A failed simulacrum. Twelve ounces of mortal insult.
I forgave Bryan, eventually, but there I was, on stage, without the 19.2-ounce can of thirst-murdering sparkling water that I needed to propel me to deliver at least an adequate stage performance. This 12-oz. can would murder no thirsts. It might bruise them or deliver a scathing insult, but my thirst would remain unmurdered and at large.
See, I love the branding of Liquid Death – what they have done in the crowded seltzer space is genius. Much of it is down to their irreverent language and horror-movie art, but no small part of it is the can: a 19.2-ounce tallboy of thirst-murdering refreshment. The can makes Liquid Death special as much as anything else. It’s exactly how much I want to drink when I want to drink this sort of thing. It’s made other cans feel small.
It got me thinking about a few things. First, why would Liquid Death agree to do this? Well, I actually think it’s a mistake, but I can certainly hear the marketing executives talking about things like vending machines and refrigerator drawers and deciding that if they just put it in a different package, it could be sold and made available in more places. And that’s probably true. But in the same basic can as a pathetic La Croix, Liquid Death loses its homicidal luster. It’s no longer special. It’s more saleable, but it’s less slaughterable.
I think about this in the current era of podcasting, where video has surged in importance for discovery, and YouTube has become the most commonly-used platform for podcast consumption. For podcasters who produce an audio podcast, it presents a dilemma: do I change the can so I can sell my podcast in more machines? Or do I stay with audio and close off that potential discovery opportunity?
I have a couple of answers to this. First, as I’ve noted before, even if a podcast doesn’t belong on YouTube, a *podcaster* does. It’s a significant advantage to have a presence on the world’s most effective content search engine, and there is a place for you there, as well. That place may not mean just plopping your podcast on YouTube. It might mean creating a different thing: not a teaser, or trailer, but something made bespoke for YouTube that pays off right then and there, works in that environment, and might lead people to see what else you have available for a deeper engagement (i.e., your podcast).
Of course, you can also put your podcast itself on YouTube. Just adding the audio with a still photo or audiogram/waveform animation doesn’t perform particularly well, so don’t expect much there, but if you have the ability to at least show who’s talking and a couple of microphones, some people like that sort of thing – it helps them follow along and pay attention. We covered this in our report, Sound You Can See, last year.
You could do this. But should you? I have only the advice my mother used to give me when I would ceaselessly scratch at a blackfly or mosquito bite after a walk in the Maine woods – “don’t make it worse.” If a video version of your audio podcast isn’t something you are proud of, no one is making you release it. There is something to be said for doubling down on audio, and honoring the work in the best way you know how without feeling like you have to go invest in a bunch of ring lights.
And this is where the 19.2-ounce Liquid Death can brings me: making multiple sizes of can might make it more available in various retail outlets, but it also makes it less special. There is nothing special about the can in the picture. It fits in more machines, but it robs Liquid Death of something that really set it apart from other seltzers. And you don’t have to cram your podcast into YouTube if that, too, robs it of what makes it special.
Instead, here’s a thing to consider – let’s double down on what makes audio special – what it can do that video cannot. Audio is truly a companion medium. A friend. It goes with you wherever you go, no matter what you are doing, in ways that video cannot. Because it can stay with you, in your earbuds, while you commute or walk outside or clean your house, the illusion never breaks. Audio provides a kind of relationship to the host(s) and content of a podcast that can’t be replicated by video, because it genuinely only takes place in the imagination.
I acknowledge the power of video, and its importance to podcasting as we know it today. I’d be a fool not to! But I got into this business out of my love for spoken word audio, and how it can make you feel. Don’t be afraid to double down on audio. If you do, you cannot forget to always be selling the unique benefits and features of audio that video cannot provide. You have to communicate to your audience that your choice not to be on video is just that – a choice – and that you’ve thought it through.
Ultimately, video is a key to getting your content in more vending machines, and potentially in front of a much larger audience. That’s just a fact. But don’t change your can if it ruins the contents.
Now go forth and murder some earballs.
New Partners
Sounds Profitable exists thanks to the continued support of our amazing partners. Monthly consulting, free tickets to our quarterly events, partner-only webinars, and access to our 1,800+ person slack channel are all benefits of partnering Sounds Profitable.
- Amplitude Media Partners: Monetization Solutions for Independent Creators
- Cloud10 is a podcast network with over 100 Top-Charting podcasts in all categories.
- Genuina Media is a direct response podcast agency focused on Latinos in the U.S., Brazil and Latin America.
- Yap Media is a Business and Self-Improvement Podcast Network, known for creative 360° campaigns and its award-winning in-house social media agency.
Want to learn more about partnership? Hit reply or send us an email!
