“Audiohuis Podcast Network aims to be the one-stop shop for reaching Dutch podcast listeners”
NRC Media has aspirations to be the Netherlands’ leading authority on podcasting. To back up this aim, it introduced its new Audiohuis Podcast Network this week. With this wide-ranging network, it offers advertisers slots around its own NRC podcasts, as well as those from other brands, including De Stroom, FC Afkicken and the international Podwave.
Text: Robert Heeg
Netherlands – March 31, 2022 – NRC has embraced the podcast. As a medium, it is the perfect match for NRC’s trenchant form of journalism and its inquisitive target group’s hunger for in-depth analysis. The fact that this is the right strategy is reflected in the listening figures: since NLO began publishing statistics for podcasts and audio-on-demand last summer, NRC Media has been at the top of the ranking. It now has three podcasts in the top ten, with NRC Vandaag the undisputed leader and most listened-to podcast in the country. The 13 NRC podcasts are downloaded 770,000 times every week. NRC Media’s Commercial Director Madelon Fortuin is proud to have been awarded the Zilveren Reissmicrofoon (Silver Reiss Microphone), a prestigious radio award that NRC Media was the first non-broadcaster to win in 2021 for its NRC podcasts.
Rapidly gaining ground
In order to build on these successes commercially, the Audiohuis Podcast Network is now being launched. Fortuin: ‘To build on this success, last year we set ourselves the ambition of becoming the Netherlands’ leading authority on podcasting. That applies to quality, creativity, effectiveness, but also penetration and reach’. She attributes the company’s rapid success in gaining ground in the medium on the boldness of this approach. ‘Our roots may go back to the nineteenth century, but we’re innovative and ground-breaking. We’re a very nimble organisation – when we say something, we do it.’
In order to broaden the reach of its podcasts, NRC Media has developed joint ventures with FC Afkicken (sport) and De Stroom (young subcultures). ‘We believe in the power of communities around the shows and personalities, because they enable strong cross-media concepts to be developed. This opens the door to other target groups, and in turn other advertisers and sponsors.’
Between the ears
NRC Media is already popular with listeners and with advertisers; the advertising slots around its own NRC podcasts are fully subscribed. It is also increasingly making branded-content productions in alliance with advertisers. The experience gained by Fortuin and her team can now be put to good use elsewhere. ‘What applies to our brand, also applies to advertisers: we want to be where the consumer is. With a high level of engagement. Enabling a close relationship to develop between the brand and the consumer. Audio-on-demand also brings you into contact with the consumer at different moments than is usually the case for visual media, such as the newspaper or nrc.nl.’ Media strategist Arne Stierman adds: ‘The key thing about podcast advertising is its intimacy: you’re literally between the listeners’ ears.’
Boost in terms of quality and quantity
In order to boost reach, both in terms of quality and quantity, NRC Media is now launching the Audiohuis Podcast Network. In addition to advertising slots for NRC-branded podcasts, it also sells advertising slots before, during and around podcasts from other brands, including De Stroom, FC Afkicken and from PodWave. PodWave was launched in 2018 by leading digital audio advertising technology provider AdsWizz. NRC Media is PodWave’s exclusive partner in the Netherlands. This large podcast marketplace, with more than 9 million advertising slots, represents tens of thousands of internationally-successful podcasts.
Fortuin: ‘By bringing together our own content with that of De Stroom, FC Afkicken and PodWave in the new Audiohuis Podcast Network, we offer the most varied network for standardised advertising slots in and around podcasts. We aim to be the one-stop shop for reaching Dutch podcast listeners, offering as much variety as possible.’
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