NPR's Erica Osher on How Digital Audio Is Helping Advance Women and Brands

Osher and I discussed how digital audio can provide a quotstep forwardquot for women why brands are so bullish on podcasts and the organization39s approach to integrating sponsors into the NPR environmentAlli Romanoamp160 As a female in the media industry how have you been mentoredErica Osheramp160 At NPR there39s a wonderful group of women in Digital Media that meet up to give each other advice and support We also have women in leadership positions including Gina Garrubbo the President and Chief Executive Officer of National Public Media who is fearless willing to push boundaries move things forward and ask the hard questions Loren Mayor the Chief Operating Officer of NPR has been a leader in developing the culture here I39ve also really been fortunate to define my own path and role I39ve created my own positions with support from management They let me fill the holes that I saw in our organization which has led in many ways to the launch of NPM Creative I don39t know that a lot of other companies would take that kind of chance on someone and be as supportive of a woman advancing herself in her careerRomanoamp160amp160How is digital audio furthering the advancement of womenamp160 Osheramp160 Traditionally tech has been dominated by men Now we39re seeing a shift where women are being promoted to more leadership roles but that type of systematic change takes a long time With digital audio because it39s a burgeoning industry you don39t have that legacy infrastructure to get over and there are even more opportunities for women to take on a leadership roleRomanoamp160amp160What was one of the earliest campaigns you worked on and why was it memorable Osheramp160 The first year of NPR39s Music39s quotTiny Desk Contestquot NPM partnered with Lagunitas Brewing Company to do a customized sponsor integration but at the time there weren39t a lot of resources available We collaborated with NPR Digital Media NPR Music and Lagunitas to build a new website and digital properties It was a great opportunity to allow sponsorship to support something that was really important to NPRamp8230and to also provide a lot of value to Lagunitas The work we did with Lagunitas that first year was recognized as one of the year39s top brand integrations in the Digiday Publishing Awards This is now Lagunitas39 fourth year and the Contest and sponsorship have become much biggerRomanoamp160 How do you collaborate with NPR NPM and brandsamp160Osheramp160 We work with the NPR teams to get a sense of what they39re trying to do like developing a new product what they want and where they need support Then we talk about how we can bring value to a sponsor and audiences within that environment We work with them from the conception of a project to ensure the sponsorship is truly integrated into the experience If you bring sponsorship into the conversation at the end it ends up feeling tacked on and creates a bad user experience that is bad for NPR its audience and for sponsorsWith the new NPR App for example the Digital Media team wanted to create a better user experience for the more than one million users of the App This created an opportunity for us to enhance our mobile sponsorship offerings and bring more revenue to this platform So my team embedded with them for months trying to figure out what the sponsorship model would be We39re also constantly talking to the NPM sales team about the new products we have throughout the development and design processRomanoamp160 What products are sponsors most interested in right now Osheramp160 Podcasting is the hottest thing It39s the golden age of audio and we39re seeing such great performance from podcasting We39re getting more highlevel toptier brands participating amp8230 they want customization and something really creative and integrated That created an interesting challenge for us NPR39s hosts don39t read endorsements and we have to meet NPR39s sponsorship guidelines We wanted something that is dynamic engaging and native That39s the sweet spot National Public Media developed Brand Soundscapes to answer that desire to customize and make it feel different and unique If you39re our client the way it works is we interview someone at your organization or an agency39s client and get your story Then we craft those into a midroll format that can really stand out in a podcast amp160Romanoamp160 How do they sound different from other audio productsamp160 Osheramp160 So far NPM Creative has produced a total of 17 Brand Soundscapes for eight brands with campaigns for two more in production right now Our first campaign was for Kia Motors America that included distribution across NPR39s digital platforms and we made four 60second midrolls for our podcasts Instead of the people in commercials or in videos on company websites we got to talk to the people who dealt with that car every single day one of the designers a head of products a project manager responsible for the environmental aspects and someone in charge of marketing and branding the car They weren39t just reading off a script They were really passionate and excited and it translated well into audio We39re trying to bring that authenticity to everything we do at NPM Creative There needs to be a story there It can39t just feel like you39re just listing featuresRomanoamp160amp160Voice devices are burgeoning How are you working with brands thereamp160 Osheramp160 We run postrolls on our smart speaker newscasts that have been really successful We did a voiceonly test with Peppercorn Media promoting their word of the day quiz which saw a 55 conversion rate We39re also experimenting with bringing Brand Soundscapes to a smart speaker platform we feel really confident we can offer brands an experience on smart speakers where users can engage with them more deeply and in a way that feels very seamless That39s the key component to anything we39re doing How can you make the user experience feel easy and specific to that platformPhoto credit Steven Voss for NPRClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers amp160

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NPR's Erica Osher on How Digital Audio Is Helping Advance Women and Brands

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Alli Romano

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NPR's Erica Osher on How Digital Audio Is Helping Advance Women and Brands

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