podcasts

4dc is the world's first strategic podcast consultancy.

4dc podcasting stratedists

4dc was launched on the 7th December 2018 – the world’s first end-to-end strategic podcasting consultancy. To unlock the power of the world’s fastest-growing medium, click the image below.

We understand both consumers and business. We create the perfect marriage of both that drives value for brands through definition, creation and distribution of podcast content that delivers business outcomes for our clients.

4dc podcasting stratedists

This is the podcast generation. In 2016, about three million people in the UK listened to one podcast per week. By 2018 it was nearly five million. Now, RAJAR figures suggest that 11 percent of the UK population listens to at least one podcast every single week. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.

podcasting at markettiers and 4dc

At markettiers, we’ve been surfing the podcast wave since 2004, helping brands to reach out and enthuse audiences old and new with subjects and content that truly resonates.

We have worked with world-renowned names to create exciting, arresting, captivating new formats, enabling businesses to lead the agenda and capture the attention of industry.

Our in-house studio ensures brands don’t see technical, practical or production barriers in telling unique stories. With our help, they can simply get on with it.

We offer end-to-end support through all stages of a podcast, from scripting and formatting to B-roll and vox-pops, production and editing through to distribution and marketing. Whether it’s a one-off or a series, we help brands bring accessible, engaging and high-impact content to the top of the agenda.  

In the past we have launched podcasts on platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, Sticher, Deezer, Acast and Audioboom.

And by synching up with our award-winning PR and marketing teams, we ensure brands’ campaigns touch the audience that matters – with results that resonate beyond the headphones.

the rise of the podcast

The podcast has evolved into a viable, effective way for brands to add new depth and colour to their content. Consequently, they connect with an audience that has grown to expect a payoff.

To put podcasting’s potential in context, three in ten millennials listen to as many as four broadcasts each and every week. The medium’s natural fanbase is comprised of educated millennials and educated Gen Xs – so put simply, podcasting is a way to reach the customers and the leaders of today and tomorrow.

A major reason that people of all demographics – but particularly millennials – are gravitating towards podcasts is the sense of co-ownership. With no pictures, the audience has to create the visuals – thus half of the story – in their own heads. Podcasts are regarded as a supplementary education tool – a way one can learn on their own time and without the need for a screen or a dedicated space.

Podcasts also provide the audience with company as they make their way through life’s humdrum. Brands that are forward-thinking can join customers on the commute or as they do the dishes – adding relief, colour, pleasure and insight to people’s lives. That’s powerful.

niche and mainstream, near and far

When we say podcasting is going mainstream, that doesn’t tell the whole story. Podcasts are proven as an effective way of reaching and engaging niche subsets and underrepresented demographics with pinpoint accuracy.

When angled and positioned sensitively and correctly, podcasting can connect brands with groups that sit outside marketers’ typical thinking, but who still have a powerful voice and sizeable spend power. Brands can use podcasting to release the potential in untapped demographics – touching customers who feel left out of the conversation.

Although we have used UK stats to hype up the rise of podcasting, it’s not just a local phenomenon. The USA is arguably ground zero for the podcasting boom – the number of people there who listen to podcasts has doubled in the last four years. A quarter of the US population listens to at least a podcast per month, while active users listen to as many as eight.

In Europe, from Portugal to Poland, Sweden to San Marino, podcasting is on the rise. In Scandinavia, for example, podcast listening grew by 36 percent in the two years to 2017. Podcasts are increasingly heard in Italian and French, while Spanish has rapidly become the world’s second language of podcasting.

podcasting and effective brand marketing

Podcasts are a medium that the sexes enjoy equally. And once a person tunes in, it’s 90 percent likely they’ll stick around until the end of the broadcast.

Not many other forms of media or content can claim that rate of retention. 

Podcasts that offer jaw-dropping insights; that tell unique stories; that start new conversations; that offer up big name interviews – they now have a proven track record of making a sizeable impact on social media. On discovery of a good podcast – people want to talk about it.

Podcasts are not any longer standalone pieces of content or storytelling – they can be a valuable add-on to an existing campaign, or indeed the start of something wonderful.