When journalists Emma Entrena and Silvia Ortiz launched night terrors, are podcast self-managed, self-financed and based on paranormal and mystery stories, They did not expect to make it their profession. They used the modest reach of their social networks to make themselves known while publishing their chapters on platforms like iVoox, without the support of any company. Now, that they have managed to connect a classic theme with a young audience and that each of their seasons achieves millions of listens, they have released a book (mysterious Spain), they tour the country with their live shows and have a television program, 13 crimeson the thematic channel Calle 13. They are a clear example of success of how to make a living from sound content that is free for the listener.
Entrena and Ortiz began to monetize through reproductions, as the youtubersso they sought to reach the largest number of listeners possible. “When we gained listeners, the brands approached us and we also promoted social networks to achieve sponsorships on them as well,” its two creators recalled to this newspaper on Thursday after their participation in the Next in Podcast event, organized by Spotify in Madrid. They adapt their content to other formats in an expanding circular structure. In its current tour Through Spain, they will pass through Bilbao this October 12, through Madrid on the 31st and through Valladolid on November 1. In some cases, in addition to recording live in front of their audiences in theaters, the podcasts They serve as an incentive for private events, such as a DJ session.
Generate conversation and active listening
According to data from Spotify itself, in the five years that they have been betting on sound content beyond music they have managed to get 500 million people to listen to it. podcasts and now they generate 140 million listeners per month. Spain is among its five most relevant European markets. “They have become an engine for social and cultural conversation, their protagonists generate communities of fans and offers brands a more positive return than other advertising investments,” Jaime Pelegrí, sales director of Spotify, defended this Thursday. In a society that has an attention deficit problem, the podcast It generates intimacy and a highly valued capacity for active listening.
If the format has become anything in these years of takeoff, it is a powerful content generator for other industries, including social networks, with which it lives in continuous symbiosis. Therefore, another source of income, especially in the case of podcasts documentaries and sound fictions, is the sale of rights for a possible adaptation. In this regard, she has proven to be an expert. the production company True Story. During the Next in Podcast, Pilar Sayáns, Álvaro de Cózar and Eva Lamarca have presented this season’s news in the catalog of what they call “a factory of epic, aspirational and emotional stories.” In addition to creating franchises of its most notable titles—from Mystery in the Moral the anthology is now born Mystery in… with new research every season—they launch the project OV Episodes which translates some of the chapters of Real factsin which they tell stories that explain the world. Their intention is to “close production agreements with production companies, publishers and platforms” based on their research stories. One of them, The therapyis going to become a book and three other of their projects are already negotiating the jump to audiovisual (film or television), De Cózar explained. The awards they have achieved with these sound journalistic projects, such as the Ondas awards, have helped create an industry.
The sound fictions of other producers, such as the Case 63 by Julio Rojas, now last its adaptation for a Hollywood filmafter Julianne Moore provided voice for its English version. In his day, the pódcast Homecoming inspired what was Julia Roberts’ jump to television, in a Prime Video series.
Sergio Barreda is the founder of Keep the Keypart of their marketing agency that represents influencers digital and from which he understood that the creation of podcasts It had to be integrated into its comprehensive business strategy. Through the popularity of the talents it represents and the success of its sound content, the company manages everything from specific mentions of a brand to sponsorships of entire seasons of formats that are mainly conversational. Among those represented are Uy Albert and Fizpireta, those responsible for Kings of the paliqueor Xuso Jones, at the head of Little is said together with Ana Britens. Stretching the gum (Podium Podcast), by two of its representatives Victoria Martín and Carolina Iglesias, sold 12,000 tickets at the Wizink Center with a live show in December 2021. “It is not about creating a podcast of a influencer because it is the fashionable format, but to build a project according to your personality. There is no point in achieving many interactions on social networks if you cannot attract that audience to your podcast”, defends the publicist.
“We start with Keep it cutre and in its second season we had already sold the podcast to a payment platform like Podimo,” Barreda recalls in what is another way to generate profits with this format: attracting the attention of another larger company, as happens with startups technological. Kings of the palique went to Podium Podcast and the publicist understood that the natural step of the influencersaccustomed to YouTube, was the videopódcast. Incorporating image into content helps much more to monetize it, “at least in the entertainment sector, which generates a greater connection with the audience,” he defends.
There are already successful examples of branded podcast in which the brand presence does not interrupt the development of the story, as happened with Swiss Tourism and Blum or the Canary Islands with Simulacrum. The next use of this sound format even involves internal communication, using it only for workers in a specific sector instead of being open to the entire public, as is the case with corporate magazines. “Advertisers have to understand, and are already understanding, that they cannot impose advertising texts on us, but rather integrate them organically with the content that we already make,” say those responsible for Night terrors. It seemed inappropriate to them to show how they spoke on video, since it broke the mystery of the stories they tell, but their followers asked them to do so and, since they have done so, they claim to reach a new audience and the opportunity to reach a network. like Calle 13. “Ours is a completely independent project; he podcast “It demonstrates its potential to democratize talent,” celebrates one of its founders, Silvia Ortiz.
