Transliterated as a podcast, it is a form of digital media dominated by audio. Simply put, a podcast is a sound show, similar to a broadcast.
But unlike broadcasting, podcasts are usually published in episodes and can be downloaded to mobile devices to listen to at any time. In the fashion circle where attention grabs never stops, the intimate voice narrative form of podcasts is being warmly welcomed by brands.
A few days ago, the new podcast program "Smoking" created by Saint Laurent officially debuted. It is reported that every week, a new guest will be a guest show, in the brand's Rive Droite concept store in Paris, guests will be in a smoky private room, with the host for in-depth interviews. "The soft lighting allows guests to communicate intimately without restraint, and every topic they talk about, even the most controversial, reflects Saint Laurent's DNA," the brand's official press release said.
Saint Laurent's new podcast show "Smoking"
The first guest of "Smoking" is the brand muse, the legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve. In the show, she followed the questions of reporter Pascale Clark and shared her own fame experience, her status as a sex symbol, and her views on feminist movements like #MeToo. After Catherine Deneuve, Saint Laurent will continue to feature in-depth interviews with a number of brand friends, including actor and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, director Gaspar Noé, '90s supermodel Laetitia Casta and queer movie star Félix Maritaud.
Catherine Deneuve
Coincidentally, Tommy Hilfiger across the ocean recently announced that he will launch a podcast called "The Invisible Seam: Unsung Stories of Black Culture and Fashion" to highlight the neglected contributions of black culture and community, while recounting the historical context of American fashion. The show is divided into 5 episodes and will be updated regularly every Wednesday, starting April 20. Kimberly Jenkins, assistant professor of fashion studies at Ryerson University in Canada, is expected to host more than 20 expert guests, such as designers, academics, fashion historians, museum curators, stylists and artists.
Tommy Hilfiger said in an interview that the reason for launching the podcast is to realize that everyone should do their part to create a truly fair and friendly environment for the BIPOC crowd (blacks, Native Americans, and others of color). "This podcast brings together some of the most famous voices in the industry, which is a very meaningful thing. It is also necessary to recognize, share and celebrate the contributions of black people in defining modern fashion culture. ”
Fashion brands' involvement in podcasts is not strictly speaking a recent occurrence, and many different fashion luxury brands such as Chanel, Gucci and Maison Margiela have expanded their communication positions into the field of sound.
Back in 2017, Chanel released the podcast show "3.55" at colette, a once-popular Parisian boutique. Hosted by French journalist Daphné Hézard, the show features a wide range of interviews, from stars represented by pop singer Pharrell Williams to professionals such as artists. As an important official communication medium, "3.55" not only shares the brand's friends and product stories, but also reveals the brand's behind-the-scenes information when planning events such as the Mademoiselle Privé art exhibition.
Chanel's podcast show 3.55
A year later, Gucci also entered the podcast space with a high profile, launching several shows, including a conversation about fashion, collecting and music between current creative director Alessandro Michele and rock legend Elton John; fashion designer Dapper Dan counting anecdotes about designing custom clothing for hip-hop stars; and fashion blogger Susie Lau on the Gucci Beauty Network advertising blockbuster (Achok Majak, Mae Lapres and Ellia Sophia) spoke in interviews; Gucci President and CEO Marco Bizzarri spoke with michelin-based chef Massimo Bottura about fond childhood memories.
With the release of the first menswear collection, Artisanal, Maison Margiela's podcast show has also been unveiled. The podcast was titled The Memory of... With John Galliano, as the name suggests, the content of the show is led by creative director John Galliano, explaining the inspiration and ideas involved in the series. After the Artisanal collection, Maison Margiela continued the podcast, updating it with every fashion launch show.
《THE MEMORY OF… With John Galliano》
From graphic iteration to short video, to live broadcasting, users' means of obtaining information are becoming more and more efficient. In this context, podcasts with "long" and "slow" as the background seem to be incompatible with users' media consumption habits, so what shining points do fashion brands see in podcasts?
Brands have shifted their moving line to the podcast track, which reflects the red sea of visual merchandising. When the visual field shifts from incremental to stock competition, the input cost is getting higher and higher, which naturally forces brands to start from other perceptual experiences in order to seek new development space.
Podcasts, which are showing a positive growth trend, naturally grab the attention of fashion brands. There are many statistics that point out that since the outbreak of the epidemic, the time spent by users on podcasts has increased significantly. Spotify, a Swedish online music streaming service platform, said that in the six months after the outbreak, the consumption of podcasts on the platform directly doubled. According to statistics released by statista, consumers of almost every age group have seen a year-on-year increase in the number of times they listen to podcasts in 2021, with Gen Z and millennials increasing the most, with about 31% of Gen Z and 26% of millennials saying they listen to podcasts more frequently than before.
Li Zhiming, founder of the domestic talk show podcast "Ritan Park", once mentioned: "The graphic mode is the most accurate, the video is the richest, and the audio is the warmest." "Under the epidemic, home isolation measures have affected people's social activities, and the intimacy provided by audio has effectively channeled loneliness, which has significantly increased people's stickiness to podcasts."
In addition, according to the "2021 Podcast Listeners Survey Report", the three scenarios with the highest frequency of podcast use are commuting, bedtime and housework. It is not difficult to see that most of the listening behavior of podcasts occurs in solitude scenarios, where users usually listen to the entire content, rather than receiving information in fragments. Because users as a whole are in a high retention state and do not fast-forward and fast-out, podcast programs do not need to be painstaking in compressing the length of time like other forms of content, and the topic of discussion can be deepened. More importantly, users actively choose to listen to podcast programs, which means that this group is willing to accept influence from the outside world. In the course of the program, the user usually follows the host's thinking to receive information in one direction, which will undoubtedly deepen the user's dependence and trust on the host in the long run.
Gucci podcast
However, although podcasts can continue to preempt user time and easily achieve mental impact, the industry generally believes that it is not a good channel to sell goods and monetize. The biggest advantage of podcasts is their emotional intensity, and the immersive listening experience creates a private space for users. If the space is filled with promotional messages and shouting slogans rather than content with intellectual or emotional value, it will inevitably make the podcast's appeal much less attractive.
Therefore, the role of podcasts on the brand is more to form a longer connection with the user by creating a sense of immersion, and subtly complete the in-depth depiction of the brand image. Some insiders pointed out that if the podcast content is just blatant marketing rhetoric or public relations touting, consumers can see through it at a glance and resist it. Conversely, if it's about a brand's historical heritage or other engaging content, podcasts are more likely to resonate with users.
Visual materials focus on simple and easy to understand and instantaneous stimulation, which is difficult to carry a deep brand story, and the podcast just gives the brand a platform to tell the story. Jason Goldberg, chief commercial officer at PR firm Publicis, believes that podcasts are somehow a modern extension of the story of luxury brands. Therefore, the brands that have taken the lead in entering the podcast field are mostly brands with deep historical and cultural connotations. The purpose of each brand is not only to control the narrative, but also to strengthen the cognitive penetration of users on this basis.
In addition to digging deep into the archival heritage, brands also need to focus on modern issues, choose their positions and export their ideas to show their values. In the case of Dior, the brand focused on the current feminism and launched a series of podcasts called "Female Gaze". Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of women's wear, brigitte Niedermair, Maripol and Janette Beckman, close friends and partners of the brand, have all conducted guest interviews to discuss women's self-affirmation, image, identity and expression from a female perspective.
In 2019, Miu Miu held three lunch debates called Miu Miu Musings in London, New York and Beijing, inviting experts from all walks of life to engage in friendly discussions on contemporary issues. Topics included "It's Time to Say Goodbye to Cell Phones", "We Need to Stop Taking Pictures" and "The World Has No Originality", all of which were recorded and followed by podcasts.
Miu Miu podcast
Claude Zdanow, founder of stadiumred Group, a marketing agency, said, "Podcasts are often built around thought leadership, so fashion really needs to think about how to create content that inspires and appeals." Podcasts should offer topics that interest people, not just about the brand itself. ”
Although podcasts cannot play an immediate sales boost, it can still benefit consumption by shaping the user's "silent and silent" mind. Research by data firm Nielsen revealed that after listening to podcasts with ads, 61% of consumers became more willing to buy the products advertised in the ads. PodFest China's research data also shows that 50.7% of podcast users believe that podcast programs have influenced their consumption behavior.
Brands are optimistic about podcasts because of their cost-effective and high-precision user base. On the production side, the input cost of podcasts is relatively low compared to other materials, and because users form a high stickiness to the content, brands can attract attention without spending a lot of money to invite traffic celebrities. American fashion podcast practitioner Beckwith has found that interviews with obscure stylists and editors sometimes perform better than star designer collaborations. In addition, vice president of Xinshixiang mentioned in the podcast "Relish", from the perspective of marketing costs, the average price of WeChat reading volume is 1.5 yuan / time, the average price of B station views is 0.6 -1 yuan / time, and the average price of podcast listening is only 0.05 - 0.1 yuan / time.
On the consumer side, the high-frequency users of podcasts often have a relatively high level of academic background and economic foundation, which happens to be the potential high-quality customer group that fashion brands are committed to attracting. According to the 2020 Chinese Podfest China Podcast Listeners and Consumers Survey, more than half of Chinese podcast listeners live in first-tier and new first-tier cities and have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Unlike in Europe and the United States, podcasts did not show signs of heat in China until 2020. In that year, the first batch of independent podcast platforms in China represented by the small universe were born, and traditional audio platforms also began to relay their involvement in podcasts: QQ Music launched the "Podcast" independent module, NetEase Cloud Music held aloft the long audio strategy, Himalayas created a "podcast channel", and Litchi also rushed to launch the "Lychee Podcast" App at the beginning of the 2021 New Year.
According to the "2021 China Online Audiovisual Development Research Report", as of December 2020, the number of online audiovisual users in China totaled 944 million, of which only 282 million were online audio users, accounting for less than 30%. Compared with the 873 million short video users, there is obviously still a lot of room for growth in network audio users.
However, it is worth pointing out that the completeness of the infrastructure and the vastness of the user increment do not mean that the brand layout podcast is smooth. Europe and the United States have a strong radio culture, because the birth of podcasts is actually only to migrate users, and there is no drastic change in users' media consumption habits. In China, branding podcasts is actually about cultivating user habits from 0 to 1, and the difficulty is self-evident.
Fashion podcasts
Judging from the situation that short video traffic wins the picture and text, and blogger traffic wins the media, the lower riba people seem to be more in line with the tastes of most users in China. In addition, under the strong bombardment of "fast food" content, the user's mind has been greatly subverted, and everyone is more inclined to short-term and fast materials, and they are also addicted to the stimulation of opening the door, but they are more and more impatient with slow details.
From this point of view, for a long time, podcasts in China may still struggle in the dilemma of water and soil for a while. How to let podcasts get rid of the limitations of small and beautiful, and gradually develop into a sharp weapon to pry huge traffic, this will be a problem in front of every fashion brand. WWD
Written by Drag
Edit Neon
Image source network