Why Vodcasts Are Every African Marketer’s Flexible Friend.

This article was originally published in the Strategic Marketing for Africa Magazine, written by Cara Bouwer. It has been repurposed here verbatim with permission. I was honoured to be quoted in the article, where I shared insights on the importance of content quality and storytelling in creating successful vodcasts. Below, I have republished the full article.

WHY VODCASTS ARE EVERY AFRICAN MARKETERS FLEXIBLE FRIEND.

Repurposing marketing and social media content is a smart way to maximize digital spend. This flexibility is why vodcasts are taking off in Africa. By Cara Bouwer.

What is a vodcast other than a fancy podcast that incorporates video elements or visual techniques like image carousels, slides, or still photographs?

Danilo Acquisto, co-founder and CEO of social video specialist, Special Effects Media, admits the definition is still rather sketchy.

“It’s video and podcasts smashed together, but industry bodies need to start thinking about how we define these terms better,” he says. “For marketers, it does get confusing. Does a radio show that is being filmed and cut down become a vodcast? Or a radio snippet?”

Another question that is frequently asked is: Must a vodcast have a visible microphone with a set question-and-answer format? Or can an existing podcaster film a conversation, stick it on YouTube, and then call it a vodcast?

While the concept remains broad and still slightly ambiguous, so is the reach of this video-driven format. Which is maybe part of the appeal.

In an ‘attention economy’ world, where marketers are battling to make their brands heard, Acquisto says attracting an audience has never been more important. Social media posts live for such a short time that brands and their marketing teams are struggling to feed through enough content.

“Best practice [on social media posts] is 15 seconds or less, so it’s difficult to cram brand messages or unpack very complex brand needs and customer journeys into such a short-form piece of content,” he emphasizes.

As a result, marketers have developed a fondness for podcasting. This more informal format gives them the opportunity to “unpack at length, and in conversation with people, topics they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do in the short-form space”, Acquisto says. He believes that vodcasts fall into the same conversational category as podcasts, except they offer even greater potential for repurposing quality content across multiple platforms.

A Multi-Touchpoint Approach.

Moses Kemibaro, CEO of Kenyan digital business agency, Dotsavvy, affirms that “TikTok, YouTube and Instagram Reels have become an important aspect of the content mix when any brand is communicating” to an African audience.

Kemibaro should know. In addition to Dotsavvy, he has built a strong personal following thanks to his Pure Digital Passion podcast and his understanding of Africa’s digital media ecosystem.

Kemibaro shifted into podcasting early on, and continued to create content during Covid using the Zoom communications platform. In most cases he opted for audio without video. But after using a professional studio, he had an epiphany: “It hit me that when you do a video podcast, you end up with a number of assets.”

Today, Kemibaro repurposes video content across LinkedIn, Instagram, his website and podcast. The secret, he says, is to use multiple platforms and multiple formats, but to craft the content in such a way that all the pieces work together. That, he emphasizes, leads to significant aggregated reach and engagement.

Africa’s Youth Love A Vodcast!

This multi-touchpoint approach ensures consumers can consume content as, when and where they prefer — which sits well with younger Africans.

Carving out time to sit and watch an hour-long vodcast is a significant time commitment, but nothing beats a video highlights reel for a quick overview. This also appeals to the ‘attention light’ younger demographics, who shy away from anything more than three minutes long.

“Video is just a younger thing,” says Kemibaro. “With these guys, everything is visual, everything’s on the smartphone. If you want to engage them, if you want to get that emotional resonance, they want to see a face. They want to make some kind of emotional connection with what they’re seeing or consuming.”

These young consumers aren’t shy to disconnect from a message if it doesn’t resonate, which is driving marketers to seek out new ways to connect with consumers who are becoming increasingly jaded by invasive traditional digital media ploys like website pop-ups.

Brands Leading The Way.

Some brands have jumped on the vodcast trend quickly and effectively. A great example is the Kenya Revenue Authority, which has a dedicated YouTube channel through which it shares video content to explain concepts and distribute information.

The authority, which has worked with Moses Kemibaro on two podcasts, also works with influencers and experts to boost the uptake of its messaging.

Similarly, in South Africa, Casey Mantel, Head of Digital: Special Effects Media, highlights wealth manager Investec’s innovative approach that keeps its media fresh across channels. Investec Focus Radio SA podcasts are available on Spotify, while Investec’s snappy interview vodcasts and video shorts are uploaded to YouTube.

Also in SA, Primedia Broadcasting films its radio shows and repackages that content into a vodcast format.

Time For Agencies To Rethink Engagement.

Kemibaro thinks influencers are very much part of this new ad-spend reality. This is why the vodcasts and podcasts of popular African influencers from Kenya to Nigeria, Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire, are thriving. Many are being sponsored or underwritten by brands like banks or telcos.

Yet, many marketers and brand agencies remain behind the curve, believe Acquisto and Kemibaro.

“Agencies need to possibly rethink how they do things,” says Kemibaro. Specifically, how they work with influencers and content creators who are not just a form of media, but require a more relationship-driven collaboration. Kemibaro believes many African brands are “waking up to this” reality independent of their agencies, something Acquisto applauds.

“As a marketer you should know these things,” he says. “There’s a lot of outsourcing going on in brands today where they have this conglomerate of really big, very talented agencies that they’re buying time from, and they’ve abdicated their responsibility to understand that marketing and effective marketing is an integration … and the consumer interacts with this omni-channel world.”

For this reason, Acquisto feels any marketing manager who isn’t moving with the times and who doesn’t see the potential for video content is “ill-qualified to do their job”. Some may cite video production costs or the cost of data as barriers, but neither Acquisto nor Kemibaro believe this is a reason not to consider this route.

“Of course, there is a higher cost … but data video content is increasingly what everyone consumes,” says Kemibaro. “So you want to make sure you are playing in that space… It’s not a silver bullet. It’s just a question of how many ways you can unpack an insight or share a story, and then give it to people in a format that is the most preferable for them to consume it.”

Tips for Starting Your Own Business Vodcast.

When starting a vodcast, Dotsavvy’s Moses Kemibaro and the team from Special Effects Media both focus on the quality of content and storytelling. Yes, you need the right equipment and editing tools, but what attracts audiences is producing something of value.

“Quality is about the storytelling and how valuable this content is to the audience,” explains Daniel Acquisto, CEO of Special Effects Media.

“So, that doesn’t mean you need a Coca-Cola budget to produce a podcast that will do well. There are a lot of African creators doing that silly thing where they each have their own cellphone and they are all recording separate audio tracks on their phones, while one camera sits there in the distance and just zooms into whoever is talking. But we watch it because it’s intriguing. It’s interesting. What they say matters — people care.”

Once they care, the content must hold their attention, and one way to do that is tailor it to your audience. “If you understand that profile then you’ll make sure the content is always skewed and packaged to be most appreciated by that audience,” explains Kemibaro.

Speaking from an African brand perspective, Kemibaro has other tips for creating a successful vodcast:

1. Educate. Inform. Entertain: “Ensure your content is either educational (meaning you teach somebody how to do something), informative (you tell them or show them something they didn’t know) or entertaining (which means you kind of put a smile on their face). If you can hit those three, or any one of those three, then you usually have an audience.”
2. Remember, brands have a story to tell: Many brands today are going ahead of their agencies and looking for the type of engagement offered by content creators, vodcasters and bloggers, says Kemibaro. These marketers “want to tell their brand stories in interesting and novel ways that allow them to reach the people they are currently not reaching.”
3. Content remains king: “The reality is that value for money isn’t there anymore. Audiences are fragmented,” adds Kemibaro. “Return on ad spend is not very transparent or clear. I think in the next five to 10 years, it is going to look very different. The future will be around content for brands and how they engage their stakeholders.”

Cara Bouwer is an experienced writer, independent researcher, journalist, and editor. Her words appear in media articles around the world, in business case studies, white papers, insight reports, and corporate copywriting.