Description:

The Spinoff is home to some of Aotearoa’s most popular podcasts. But there’s one demographic that’s always underrepresented in their listenership—the oldies. The 60+ demographic doesn’t seem to listen to podcasts. Their favourite medium? The good old newspaper. No surprises there.

So we thought, what if we could introduce this older demographic to podcasts through their love of print? Let’s give their eyes a taste of what their ears are missing.

Our idea was to create Paper Podcasts, - a campaign to help traditional readers find a love of listening too.

In the country’s leading papers, we published full transcriptions of our latest episodes in high-impact double-page spreads. These podcasts were for your reading pleasure, seamlessly merging the worlds of audio and print. We timed the publishing of these printed episodes with the release of their audio equivalent on streaming platforms, making sure the content was topical and relevant.

Whilst the newspaper was our core media channel, we supported the campaign with clips of the live recordings on The Spinoff’s social feeds. In addition to this, we ran display media on thespinoff.co.nz so anyone looking for these great podcasts (who came via the newspaper placements) would find them instantly through our homepage.

To execute this idea, we created a design system that merged the worlds of contemporary digital audio and newspaper print. The buttons, icons, timelines, and musical stings you experience within streaming platforms were all given the printed treatment, cleverly woven amongst the spreads.

The hosts are at the heart of these podcasts, so we featured them prominently within the layouts - illustrating them in styles that emulated the theme of their shows. For example, Gone By Lunchtime, a podcast about politics, took on a political cartoon aesthetic for the host’s portraiture. This same approach was taken with the main headlines, giving each a flavour of the content to come. We can see this in our execution for The Fold (a podcast about the world of media) featuring a calligraphy-based headline to reference the mastheads of vintage journalism.

Lastly, and most importantly, the content itself. Working with huge transcriptions, we meticulously crafted the copy within the double-page spreads. We worked it around the hosts' imagery, the natural breaks in dialogue, the music, and, in some cases, the ads within the podcasts. All of this made for a reading experience just as easy as our listening one.

Work such as Paper Podcasts ensures everyone, no matter their media preferences or age, gets to be a part of the conversations defining Aotearoa. It provided a seamless way for older readers to engage in meaningful discussions about news and current affairs.

Building a meaningful listenership takes time, but early signs have been good with increases in our 60+ demographics since the campaign launch. Gone By Lunchtime saw an increase of 4.7% and When the Facts Change was up 4.6%. However, the standout was The Fold, enjoying an incredible 19.9% boost in their 60+ demographic. Needless to say, The Spinoff was chuffed.