A New Episode of Podcasting: The Strategic Implementation of Corporate Podcasts in External Communications as an Innovative On Demand Medium

Abstract

Podcasts are enjoying a growing number of listeners and increasingly represent an additional channel through which companies can address target groups. Due to its on demand, time-shifting, and mobile characteristics, the medium is predestined for today‘s demanding media users. Despite their growing importance, corporate podcasts as well as their implementation remain an empirically understudied phenomenon. In order to close this research gap, 13 interviews with German podcast managers were conducted. Overall, the results reveal that the medium’s implementation along the lines of strategic communication management still needs to be developed further. Due to the novelty of the usage for organizational purposes, experience is still being gathered. Nevertheless, planning and implementation phases are already well thought through and established. Deficits, however, do exist in the analysis of the situation and in result control. Based on the weaknesses revealed, the study provides hypotheses for further quantitative testing as well as implications for practice, which should be considered to help unfold the potential of the innovative audio format, making podcasts become a tool to strengthen stakeholder relationships more widely.