Steve Jobs’ Brain
Brilliant as he was, Steve Jobs didn’t always think for himself. At the beginning of his career he was fortunate to have a brilliant marketer, Regis McKenna do some thinking for him. And therein lies a lesson for podcasters, a lesson that is lost in the media drumbeat about the podcast explosion.
A bit of background. Regis McKenna is the legendary PR and advertising guru of Silicon Valley. The list of companies he helped launch or propel to the top of their industry rivals the list of Donald Trump’s accomplishments. Only Regis’s are easier to verify, and they include Intel and Apple.
Nothing Short of Inspired
In the late 1970s, Steve Jobs approached Regis and asked him to run a few Apple II ads in a handful of hobbyist magazines. Instead, Regis invested all of Jobs’ money in a full-page ad in Playboy. (That’s not a typo and, for the record, the Apple II was fully clothed.) Within days, Regis had his hands full arranging “exclusive” interviews with every major media organization in the world. They were all mystified that there was this “hugely successful company” they’d never heard of, and each wanted to be the first to break the story.
Apparently, in the late 1970s, hugely successful meant you could afford to run a full-page ad in Playboy.
Great Content Defined
Here’s where podcasting comes in.
To Regis, great content meant content presented in a context that was a story in itself. Great content captures the attention of the established media* as well as the target audience. I was reminded of that when I read Seth Resler’s interesting take on the podcast explosion in a blog post last week.
At both the New Media Expo and the Podcast Movement Conference earlier this year, Libsyn’s VP of Podcaster Relations, Rob Walch, explained the prevalence of the “podcast resurgence” narrative:
“Serial is a podcast by journalists and journalists like writing about other journalists. So there has been a resurgence in media coverage of podcasting, but not a resurgence in actual podcasting.”
A Play From the Playbook
If it’s true that journalists are fueling the podcast explosion then it’s time to take a lesson from the Regis McKenna playbook and recognize that great content is, itself, worthy of journalists’ attention. We all hope our content becomes great content and goes viral organically. But that’s beyond our control. However, there are ways to engineer great content using tools we have lying around the house**:
- make sure you include journalists in your network;
- keep those journalists supplied with news, perspective and information that you uncover while producing your podcast;
- devote some of your brainstorming time to finding or developing great content;
- promote your great content.
For Example…
When I owned an advertising agency in Palo Alto, California, I would make a yearly donation to a local college glee club. In return, its members would dress up in Dickensian costumes and sing Christmas carols to patients in area hospitals. It was a win all around. The glee club made some money, the patients loved the cheer at what would otherwise be a lonely time, and I got the agency some local press in the local newspapers. (I can’t deny that it helped my client roster.) That’s the kind of stunt you could incorporate into a podcast that covered music, arts or pop culture.
Hire the singers, record your show as you follow them through the hospital (or retirement home or assisted living facility). Invite a music historian to join you and discuss the history of Christmas carols. Interview patients (or residents). Record their Christmas wishes for friends and families or what they’re hoping Santa will bring them this year.
Promote your event to your local media. If you get some coverage, send it along to larger organizations. Media coverage flows uphill.
The next podcast explosion could be yours.
