Italian digital audio firm DIGITALMDE has launched an unusual (probably unique) venture to demonstrate the appeal and value of branded podcasts. Branded podcasts represent a kind of audio storytelling that is funded by a brand, and which represents the brand either overtly or subtly. Well known examples include The Message (GE), Inside Trader Joe’s (Trader Joe’s), and IRL with Veronica Belmont (Mozilla).
DIGITALMDE Founder and CEO Mirko Lagonegro tells RAIN News that branded podcasts are “a format which is totally unknown here,” in the Italian audio market.
To overcome that lack of awareness, Lagonegro’s company is launching a new content branch called MYVOXES, which will produce eight fiction series to demonstrate the power of audio storytelling. Italian actors have been recruited for this project, some of whom have worked in the Italian overdub industry, voicing performances by Robert De Niro, Natalie Portman, and others. To support the launch, the company recently hosted a “Content is King” event. The fictional shows likewise lean into the professional screenwriter community.
“We believe that Audio is the most effective tool to tell stories, because it stimulates the imagination, is the most intimate and impactful language for the human being and does not require exclusive visual attention,” states the DIGITALMDE website. It goes to quote Nielsen’s statistic that 79% of audio consumption occurs without viewing a screen.