Raising The Bar with Slack’s New ‘Work In Progress’ Podcast, Now on SiriusXM
Our Pacific Content team is lucky to work with one of the smartest and most progressive companies you could find. Slack is not only rethinking the way teams work and communicate together, but it’s also innovating in the content marketing space. Here’s a peek inside how their brand new podcast came together…
We worked with Slack’s editorial team to produce 28 episodes of Slack Variety Pack in 2015–16 and wrapped up the season in May. That’s when Slack CEO, Stewart Butterfield, challenged us to take the new season of the show to the next level. We would not be striving to make one of the world’s best branded podcasts anymore. We would be striving to make one of the world’s best podcasts, period. The goal was to make a show, from Slack, that would become many people’s favorite podcast. The bar had been raised. HIGH.
Over the summer, we worked very closely with Stewart, Slack’s head of editorial & content, Julie Kim, and many other members of the Slack team. The show concept evolved from a magazine show about the future of work into a podcast with longer form, personal storytelling that explores the meaning and identity we find in our work. The end result is a podcast we are all extremely proud of.
Introducing Work In Progress, by Slack.
However, making the best show we’ve ever produced is only half of the strategy for Slack. The other half is distribution.
A LOT of work goes into the distribution of the podcasts we produce with our clients. The shows have to be easy to find and easy to consume, in places where listeners already are.
We love working with the teams at iTunes, Stitcher, PocketCast and Google Play. And, with the launch of Work In Progress, we are very excited to have a new partnership with Spotify as well.
The new Slack show takes podcast distribution to the next level. Work In Progress will have multiple weekly airings on SiriusXM’s Insight Channel 121. SiriusXM has over 30 million subscribers and approximately 60 million listeners across North America, which is a huge opportunity for Slack’s show to reach listeners who are looking for high-quality content and are likely not podcast listeners. It’s significant exposure for the show and for Slack as a brand. And for SiriusXM, it’s a very high-quality, compelling show to add to their roster of premium audio content. From our perspective, it’s a perfect win-win situation for all involved.
The SiriusXM and Slack distribution partnership has also changed the strategy behind the show format and publishing schedule.
In Slack’s first season — Slack Variety Pack — the length of the program could vary episode to episode because it was only being distributed through podcasting channels. This year, we’ve designed the show to come in at 26 minutes so that it is easy for SiriusXM to program consistently in their broadcast schedule. The average American commute also happens to be roughly 25 minutes, which makes that length a perfect fit for listeners on either SiriusXM or as a podcast.
Last season, Slack Variety Pack published bi-weekly and found a great deal of success. With the opportunity to reach a North American broadcast audience, Work In Progress will be publishing weekly this year. We also believe that podcast audience growth is about creating listener habits and a regular weekly cadence of publishing will be a considerable boost for the show.
One of our key goals with branded podcasts is to provide compelling first (and subsequent) experiences with the brands we work with. In order to do that, you need to make great shows (the content side) and you also need to get those great shows in front of a lot of people (the distribution side).
Have a listen and let us know what you think!
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