Rogers has announced it’s acquiring Vancouver-based branded podcast company Pacific Content.
Launched in 2015 by co-founders Steve Pratt, Chris Boyce, and Jennifer Ouano, who are all former CBC’ers, as well as business consultant Rob Leadley, the company is a branded podcast content pioneer. Among its clients are brands like Facebook, Slack, Dell Technologies, Mozilla, Charles Schwab, McAfee, Red Hat, Zendesk, Audible and Prudential. Pacific Content was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Brilliant Companies list in 2016.
In a news release, Rogers says that with 26% of Canadians tuning into podcasts monthly and 18% listening weekly – according to the 2018 Canadian Podcast Listener survey – podcasting is a big part of the future of audio.
“We quickly identified its immense potential and are being aggressive in this space,” said Julie Adam, Senior Vice President, Rogers Radio. “The team at Pacific Content is a group of passionate and experienced thought leaders and content creators who are at the forefront of this transformational shift in the media landscape.”
“With the rapid evolution of digital audio, especially in the podcast industry, there is an untapped opportunity for our marketers to engage directly with their potential consumers through the art of storytelling – adding value to their specific market or industry, while creating brand relevance,” added Alan Dark, Senior Vice President, Rogers Media Sales.
Steve Pratt, vice-president of Pacific Content, revealed in a blog post that the company started discussions with Rogers Media last fall on ways to work together.
The post includes a Q&A with Julie Adam further exploring why a major media company would acquire a podcast company like Pacific Content. In the post, Adam says Rogers Media is committed to growing its overall audio business and podcasting is a big piece of that.
“We also want to work with Pacific Content and our current team developing new audio content for mobile platforms and smart speakers. There is a great opportunity for us to build new audio formats for our listeners and clients and we will now have a large, super creative team at Rogers Media focused in this area,” said Adam.
Adam says Pacific Content will continue to operate as it has.
“We’re calling this a “lift and shift”, meaning the company will join Rogers and report in through our radio division but will continue to operate as a stand-alone business. Having said that, we have a lot of resources at Rogers Media that will allow Pacific Content to deliver more value to your clients and a lot of career opportunities for the team,” said Adam.
She said Rogers own Frequency Podcast Network has been experimenting by promoting its shows on radio and through its digital assets. It’s also produced branded podcasts for clients like RedTag.ca.
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