There are more and more brands that want to be part of that real-life podcast moment, says Leone. Podcaster Heather McMahan of Absolutely Not even staged a live event on a cruise. “Her fans are willing not just to go on the road with her, but are willing to go on a boat and do a whole cruise with her,” he adds. “So it’s really the community that they build.”
Of course, the brands showing up on video or at live events need to align with the podcasters’ actual tastes. “One of the things that we really focus on at WME is trying to super serve [the audience] and ensure that we’re protective of the podcaster,” talent agent Hurwitz says. Whether it’s on the pod or off, “we never want to do anything with the brand that would jeopardize the incredible relationship and community that they’ve built with the audience.”
Hurwitz points to a recent episode of Ride as an example of how to work with brands that fit. “One ad was for Squarespace, which Mary Beth used to build her website,” she explains. “Another of the ads was for Nocd, so Benny spoke about the fact he was diagnosed with OCD. It’s about aligning partnerships with who they are as people.”
Alignment is “the biggest thing”, Steinberg concurs. “Brands need to let podcasters talk about a product in their own voice, and trust that they know their audience best and what will be entertaining, informative and actually resonate. If a brand is overly prescriptive about the creative, it can be difficult because there’s going to be misalignment. Creators have a direct relationship with their audience, and they know what works.”
Live events allow brands to be part of a podcast community without interrupting the pod during an ad break. “Meaningful alignment means going where the fans already gather outside the show itself, and adding something rather than inserting something,” Parmar says. “That might mean a live event built around the podcast’s community rather than its content, a physical product collaboration that only makes sense because of who the host is, or simply showing up to genuinely help solve a problem that community already has.”
Based on their growing cultural power, podcast talents are expanding their careers across different fields, presenting more opportunities as they grow. Yang (who was previously a regular on Saturday Night Live) is currently starring in Oh, Mary! on Broadway, Thiele acts in TV series Adults, while Skinner wrote and starred in series Overcompensating on Prime, which also features Barone and is currently filming season two. The podcast is a crucial platform for talents to build a closer community, boosting their external projects, Hurwitz says. “Now, we can take a podcast business and build it into many other areas. Whether that is TV, is it a book? Is it a tour? Is it a venture deal? Is it more brand deals? That’s really helped differentiate some of the podcasters we represent.”
