Mia Fileman (00:03.151)
Hello friend and welcome back to Got Marketing. We have so much we need to discuss today, like the disappearance of small podcasts and why that is. I also want to unpack the best social impact campaign I've seen this year. We should also discuss what's working on LinkedIn because Instagram continues not to spark joy. And I also want to discuss what people think
It's like picking a speaker lineup versus what it's actually like. We also have Coachella and the social media ban on the menu today. So let's dive in. Have you noticed a slow fade away of small podcasts over the last 12 to 24 months? I certainly have. I was researching business podcasts last year to pitch for Ripple Festival and I would say
80 % of them had stopped publishing or were on hiatus and the data backs this up. Now, there are a few reasons why this is happening. The first one is that the bar has quietly gone up. Early podcasting, you could be scrappy, rough, get it out there, film it in your car, put it directly into your phone. Anything, you know, was acceptable.
But now audiences are expecting better audio. They're demanding full length video recordings, podcasts, hosts are clipping videos for social media and now the barriers to entry feel really high. Abbey Chatfield recently shared an Instagram video explaining why she doesn't have full length videos yet, even though she is already filming her podcasts.
She spoke about the hard costs of an editor, especially with a really fast turnaround time and the massive video files which need to be couriered to the editor. Podcasts like Diary of a CEO have raised the bar so high that smaller creators don't feel that they can keep up. And if that's not bad enough, we're not just competing with other podcasts. We're also competing with TikTok.
Mia Fileman (02:31.861)
and YouTube and even Instagram clips made to look like podcast episodes that are just reels. So having a decent chat on a podcast isn't enough anymore. The other thing, and this has existed since the dawn of podcasting, is that discovery is broken for small shows. Podcast platforms don't push new or small creators well.
Or in my experience at all, charts are dominated by big media, celebrities, existing audiences. And so again, small creators are left peering from the outside in. People hear about podcasts, not through Spotify and Apple, but through word of mouth. And podcasters need to market their shows. And sometimes podcasters are just
not good at marketing their shows. It also, to market your show, requires an audience separate from the podcasts. And this is where the irony really hits because many people turn to podcasting to get off social media only to find themselves right back there promoting their podcasts on social media. So if you don't already have distribution, your podcast can feel like you are shouting into the void.
Everyone started a podcast and then reality hit because on the outside, podcasting looks easy and there is this false narrative going around that all you need is a microphone and you can just record from your home office and you're good to go. But once you're actually in it, you realize
No, there is no joy in editing your own podcast. It takes a really long time, especially if you don't know what you're doing and you need specific software. And so there are physical cash requirements for editing your podcast. Booking guests is not as easy as you think. A lot of research goes into finding the right guests, vetting the guest and then, you know, locking them down and then they reschedule and they rebook.
Mia Fileman (04:51.754)
And that's before you even get to promoting the episodes, which you absolutely need to do if you want any hope of people listening to your podcast. And you also have to push through the first seasons where you're going to get really low initial downloads. Podcasting is a long game channel pretending to be quick win. Brand podcasts specifically have failed to take off.
And that's because they were treated like a marketing channel and not as a product. And you might've noticed that we have specifically decoupled campaign Del Mar from Got Marketing and made Got Marketing its own brand and its own product. And Stephen Bartlett is actually the perfect counterpoint to this. He launched the diary of a CEO in 2017 and it is going so strong, releasing episodes regularly.
throughout 2026. It is now one of the biggest podcasts globally with millions of listeners and over a billion streams. But he didn't build a podcast for his business. He built a podcast that became his business. And Stephen Bartlett used to run an agency called Social Chain and now he runs multiple companies. But the podcast isn't content marketing for social change.
chain. has its own identity, tone and audience. It stands alone as a media product. And that is really the distinction. So all of this is not to deter you from starting a podcast because actually podcast listenership is at record high. But this is about helping you go into this with your eyes wide open. That if you are starting a podcast,
Make sure you are prepared to run it for at least two years before you start to see a payoff and expect some actual hard costs, not just sweat equity and your time.
Mia Fileman (07:04.349)
The best social impact campaign I have seen this year is Mamou Melon and this is a direct attack at the fashion brand Lululemon and I just love how climate activism and activism in general has become so creative in order to fight fire with fire because
Some of the biggest polluters, well all of the biggest polluters have the biggest budgets and can greenwash all the way to the bank. So I saw this video pop up on Instagram and so I saw this video pop up on Instagram about a new fashion brand called Mamu Mellon.
And they admit that they have copied Lululemon's designs and they are violating copyright, but not the planet. And they didn't just create a video. They actually built a pop-up store on High Street. They built a website. They actually created an apparel range and they had a marketing and PR campaign to support Mamu Mellon.
And the video is sensational. It's High Street London, by the way, not High Street Australia. But what I want to talk to you about is the structure behind this, because we are seeing quite a few of these really creative activism campaigns popping up on social media. So behind this campaign is an organization called Action Speaks Louder.
And they identify companies which have the greatest impact and hold them accountable to their climate promises. They do this through research, policy analysis, community, and they essentially like bully them to shift away from fossil fuels, move towards renewable energy and just
Mia Fileman (09:29.064)
be better corporate citizens. And they work with a creative agency. The one that they worked on for Mamou Mellon was serious people in order to create these really entertaining campaigns that essentially are designed to bring Lululemon to the table for a discussion. And that's exactly what they did. The team behind Action Speaks Louder had a very awkward
an uncomfortable meeting with Lululemon. Now, it's clear I have completely missed my calling. Throwing shade is what I was born to do and I am pretty good at it. And I just needed a good cause to direct my sassiness at. And it seems like Action Speaks Louder could be the organization that
I should talk with. if they are listening, we should absolutely chat.
Mia Fileman (10:38.651)
Now, when it comes to programming a festival, most people assume you book a big name and that equals selling tickets. And look, maybe that is true, but do you gamble $10,000 just on one person? Because that's kind of the going rate for someone that you would consider a big get. And
Those people, unless you've got a direct introduction or you know them personally, they don't know you. And so there is a long lead time to the negotiation and building trust and securing them. And it could actually even fall over at the last minute. In which case that's a whole bunch of time that you have spent to go nowhere. The other thing to keep in mind with, you know, so-called, with the big names,
Is that the biggest names do the least promotion. That's just a fact. Even if it is contracted, you will have to follow them up several times to do one post or one video and they might not even do it. So up until now, and I have just not been comfortable to spend $10,000 on one person. And
And it really comes back to the fact that a lineup isn't about individual star power. We are building a room. We're not booking individual speakers. I mean, you can secure someone awesome for 10 grand for 40 minutes, but then what do you do for the other five hours? So really our job is to like curate chemistry. And so there's this real tension when programming a festival between people,
Names that people recognize versus people worth hearing. And this is a constant push-pull because recognizable names do give you some ticket confidence. But lesser known voices, they really speak to the ethos of Ripple Festival, which is creativity and originality and freshness and depth. We want to be known as the festival.
Mia Fileman (13:06.886)
that unearths new talent. The people are like, I've never heard that person speak anywhere but Ripple Festival and they were amazing. So it's really about finding that Goldilocks, right? Where you want a mix of some recognisable names. The people are like, yeah, I really like her. I'm gonna go along. But also some...
unknowns, which is slightly riskier and it is a little bit of a harder sell, but they are kind of the wild cards on your program and are often some of the best speakers. Everyone that we put on the ripple stage, 100 % deserves to be there. What's really interesting is that our survey results backed up this approach that Fee and I have taken with
having a mix. And when I say Fee and I, I'm giving myself way too much credit. Fee does the programming and I basically am just a sounding board. And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. 100 % agree. We should have her. Yes, she's amazing. But Fee does really all the heavy lifting here. But going back to that survey result, we asked our attendees,
who their favorite speaker was or what their favorite talk was. And actually their favorite, the favorite varied from attendee to attendee, which was so interesting, right? There wasn't consensus where, you know, an overwhelming majority of attendees were like, her or him, know, Odette was the favorite speaker for some attendees. Fee was the favorite speaker for some attendees. Rhiannon,
The project Rocket Girls, Dante, like everyone's favorite was different, which really confirms our strategy that this is not about one person, but about this ecosystem.
Mia Fileman (15:13.775)
Now, I am pro the social media ban as a mum of a 9 and 11 year old who are not already on social media. in news this week, Greece has decided they will also ban social media for under 15 year olds, joining a whole host of other European countries who have also decided to ban social media from next year.
But I want to read to you what the prime minister of Greece said about his decision or the government's decision to ban social media in Greece. So the prime minister is Kyriakos Mitotakis and he said, many young people tell me they feel exhausted from comparisons, from comments and from the pressure to always be online. He said he had spoken with parents who said their children do not sleep well.
are anxious and are always on their phones. Calling the planned restriction difficult but necessary. He said the government's goal was not to distance young people from technology, which can be a source of inspiration, knowledge and creativity, but the addictive design of certain applications and a business model based on capturing your attention on how long you stay in front of a screen.
This takes away your innocence and your freedom and that has to stop somewhere. And I just thought that that was so incredibly well put because this is not a perfect solution. A blanket ban on under 15 year olds is imperfect, but doing something is better than nothing. Acceptance isn't a solution. And I feel like there are a lot of parents and commentators out there saying,
Well, what are you going to do? It's all too hard. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. I mean, don't we owe it to our children to try? Australia kickstarted this and now other European countries are following suit. They will share the results with each other and they will refine the approach so that it becomes more perfect. But most importantly,
Mia Fileman (17:35.994)
There is now significant pressure on social media platforms to do what's right. Before when some like Australia was on their own, of course, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok couldn't give a shit. But if most of Europe and Australia and any other countries that follow suit join this, the social media platforms will be finally forced to act.
Now, do you want to hear the weakest argument I've heard about the ban? Honestly, this drives me bonkers. This is the weakest argument.
Kids already on social media under 15 will find a workaround, so it's relatively useless. Untrue, untrue. I agree that parents who have allowed kids under 15 to be on social media are still on social media, and that is the parent's prerogative. I believe every parent has the right to make their own decision about their kids. But this law,
is for the holdouts. It's for the kids who are not yet on social media and those kids are being born every day. We are not taking anything away from those kids. They never had it in the first place. All we are saying is that social media is something that comes later in life, just like alcohol and driving a car. So this is about
giving our kids time to become more emotionally intelligent, to become more resilient, to build interactions in person, to use other technology before jumping into the dumpster fire that is social media. Anyway, that's just my opinion. I would absolutely love to hear yours. Now Coachella
Mia Fileman (19:43.087)
happened recently. is an annual festival that happens in California. But one of the most interesting things about Coachella isn't what happened inside the festival. It's what happened outside the festival. Brands set up roadside activations, pop-ups nowhere near the official footprint and designed experiences that were not affiliated and they got
heaps of attention because if people are traveling, posting, documenting the experience, the event is much bigger than the ticketed space and smart brands understand this and can bypass the sponsorship fee. A key example is Bloom Nutrition, who wrapped a 7-Eleven store near the Palm Springs Airport in pink.
They brought in DJs and creators and used it to launch an energy drink and it received so much media coverage both on social media, but also business media. And it had more impact than other brands who were actually on the festival grounds. So they didn't buy access to the audience. They
packed access to the audience really. What I'd be interested to know as the partnerships director at Ripple Festival is whether Coachella is working with its partners to design partnerships that go beyond just providing them with activation space, making it more compelling to work directly with Coachella rather than have to go to the edges because
Traditional sponsorship and partnership, I mean, it doesn't really work. And this is something that we are very aware of with Ripple Festival is that we need to go beyond just slapping logos on screens and booklets. And, you know, people are going to give us thousands of dollars.
Mia Fileman (22:02.017)
Let's shift gear to LinkedIn, which is by far my favorite social media channel. And what I love about LinkedIn is just how little work you need to put into LinkedIn for a better result than what you get on Instagram, which requires 10 times more effort and work. But what's interesting about LinkedIn is that
New research has shown that audiences are increasingly preferring content on LinkedIn that teaches, informs or provides actionable insights, which is really interesting because educational content is performing terribly on Instagram this year. Specifically, native document posts, which are my favorite posts, they're the carousels.
They now lead with 7 % engagement, outperforming videos, images and text. I personally am just so happy that LinkedIn is not a video first platform. Frankly, I feel like this is a mercy. But what people really struggle with, and I've heard this within marketing circle, when it comes to LinkedIn is that
They don't get the same level of engagement on posts on LinkedIn as they do on Instagram because user behavior on LinkedIn is different. People don't like and comment as much as they do on other platforms. But there are silent signals. And so we need to dig a little bit deeper to really figure out whether our content is performing on LinkedIn.
Saves is a big one. This is a big silent signal. And this is why carousels on LinkedIn work so well because they drive saves. Dwell time is also doing more heavy lifting than people realize. LinkedIn is rewarding posts that people pause on, posts that people scroll slowly through, posts that people expand or click into. So don't just...
Mia Fileman (24:25.214)
assume that no one is reading your LinkedIn posts because you're not getting the like heart thumbs up emoji that you're getting on Instagram. The other thing that's happening across all platforms, but specifically LinkedIn, is that the middle is dying. Content has split into two camps. There's the top end, which is genuinely insightful, specific and experience backed.
And then there's the bottom end, generic AI slop recycled frameworks, which we still happen to see. But the middle, like decent content, but not distinctive is getting completely ignored. And so that middle, the pretty good content is now invisible. And it's what I've been talking about this year that 80 % is not good enough.
It's 110 percent or nothing at all. All right, that's a wrap on today's episode. I welcome your feedback and your questions and I'll catch you next time.
