Online media was in its infancy in South Africa when we made the giant leap from terrestrial radio to start CliffCentral.com. Podcasting was almost unknown in South Africa and the naysayers predicted failure. Now, five years later, podcasting is the fastest growing medium in America (70% growth year-on-year for the last three years according to Edison Research) and gathering momentum in South Africa. We’ve been collaborating with Brain and Brand expert Timothy Maurice and actuary Ernest North to assess the qualitative and quantitative effect of podcast audiences...
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Have you bought a car recently or are you thinking of doing so? Then you’ll know just how tedious and strenuous of a task it is. In the midst of all you have to consider when buying a car, you also have to wonder whether you’re getting the best bang for your buck. Beat the Price is providing a solution to this by revolutionising how you can buy new cars. Founder and MD of Beat the Price, Marius du Toit, explains to Gareth Cliff how their website collects requests for new vehicles from buyers and sends these requests through to dealerships, allowing them to bid for the sale with their best price.
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CliffCentral.com turned five on May 1st, a milestone for a small start-up that is now the leading podcaster in Africa. It’s amazing how quickly we incorporate new habits into our lives...
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How do you measure podcast audiences? The existing metrics don’t make sense. Soon we'll be sharing some powerful thoughts and insights on why podcasting is different, and it won’t just be me talking - it will involve both actuarial and behavioural science. Before we go down another new road, and just ahead of CliffCentral.com's fifth birthday, I thought it might be interesting to talk about podcasting by numbers...
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These days we reserve our praise and surprise only for the madmen - people like Elon Musk who want to venture into space. They go where there are no milestones and they discover things we didn’t know we wanted along the way. In some small way, that’s what I feel audiences are discovering about podcasting and content in general...
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In this bonus episode, Timothy shares the untold story of how Naomi Osaka’s father, Leonard Francois, used a special blueprint to make his daughter the number one tennis star in the world.
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I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Everyone is now in the media business. Every business is now by default a content creator and every business also has an audience - clients, customers, suppliers, international partners and their competitors. The content you serve them can be specific, targeted and relevant (and it should be, to make an impact) and doesn’t need to be mainstream.
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Facebook just launched their first ever original podcast – Three and A Half Degrees – and if there was ever a moment podcasting became totally mainstream, this is it. The basic idea is that we used to say we were all within six degrees of separation – or six degrees of Kevin Bacon, as it became known. Facebook’s podcast series seems to suggest, in a connected digital world, that we’re now separated by only three and a half degrees...
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How do you break through the clutter in an avalanche of information? Podcasting is a great way to communicate ideas and introduce conversations - even within organisations. Tell the truth... when last did you read your company newsletter? Did you really have the time to digest the Chairman’s report? I bet you didn’t.
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Remember that guy who drove his car off a cliff all those years ago and lived to tell the story? Well Steven Tyler and his team at Net#Work BBDO went back there and he is here to tell us all about it. We talk process, clients who love great work and much more. I mean, come on!
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