frequently asked questions

• What is a pod-cast?

  A podcast is an audio or video file delivered automatically to a computer via the internet. It can then be transferred to a portable player or mobile phone. From a website each episode can be automatically sent to the waiting audience. It is delivered as a self-contained TV or radio show, small feature or mini showcase, exactly like the sort of item you might hear on radio 4 in the morning. Anything you can hear on the radio or can see on TV, we can do for your business.

• What are the benefits?

  The major benefit is the ability to communicate with your target market using a method that they have chosen to subscribe to free of charge. When you create a new episode it is automatically delivered to that waiting audience.

  Internally it is a human face for your company’s senior managers, an instant deliverer of information and a chance to make your company’s ethos shine through to staff and stakeholders. All this and utilising your existing infrastructure. One click and compelling content is there, to hear or see, whenever you want.

• What is compelling content?

  We’ve all been bombarded with people offering us the secret of incredible sex lives, promised huge financial returns by Nigerian Tribal Chiefs and been given the chance to buy implausibly cheap Rolexes. But that’s not what we call compelling content.

  But if you could click on a link that had Jeremy Clarkson revealing how a new 25p per litre bio- fuel would be available within 6 months, that could use your fleet’s existing engines and would save your company a fortune – wouldn’t you be interested? Now THAT is Compelling Content!

• How is a my message (a pod-cast) portable?

  Most radio station’s websites have a ‘listen again’ option. That means that by subscribing for FREE, your favourite radio show can be delivered directly to your ‘i’ tunes automatically. This can be done with your messages, on your website. So they can be listened to on your portable player when it suits you – on the bus, at the gym or even on holiday. The holiday bit? Well sometimes you can take portability a bit too far.

• Why do I need my website to be a radio or TV station?

  You may have noticed the BBC often say “if you missed any of today’s show, you can catch it again on our website”. That’s because they know that people lead busy lives, and that their content has to be accessible whenever and wherever the audience wants. We’ll get your staff and clients in the habit of picking up information in exactly the same way, just as they catch up with Big Brother or Heroes with Sky Plus.

• What is streaming audio?

  Just like BBC1 is always there when you turn on the television, streaming audio flows like a stream via the Internet to any PC once the end user has selected it. But it’s a stream that you control, working to your editorial and brand values.

• What’s wrong with an e-mail?

  Regular updates to your clients are great and we do it all the time. But how much better to offer ’embedded’ links in the text, to audio or video, that really make the words come alive!

• Why does your CEO need a public face?

  Staff, clients and suppliers need a relatable message, delivered by a human being who they trust. You don’t need us to tell you it’s about relationships. Yes, you have to be good at what you do, but it helps if people want to hear what you say and like how you’re saying it.

• What is branded content?

  Branded content is a way of genuinely bridging the gap between product or brand and consumer. As in the original ‘Soap opera’ – TV programmes endorsed by soap products; the idea has moved on but in essence is simply about brands funding or creating entertaining content and linking important passions to important brands with a strategic reason why.

  With these new entertainment experiences, brands gain significant fame and goodwill. By creating more value for the consumer, more value for businesses is created.

• Why haven’t I heard of branded content?

  Already the next big thing in the States, the term ‘Branded content’ is the new buzzword in media and marketing circles. As with ‘podcast’ and ‘social media’ it will be bursting out of every marketing professional’s proposals and pitches within the next few months.

• How much does it cost?

  The cost entirely depends on what you want to do. Your Message Made Easy can produce you a highly professional and unique weekly podcast for your customers for the same kind of money you would pay for a radio commercial or we can go much further in depth and produce whole radio and TV shows with well known voices for a larger investment.