Smart Productions: Phase 2

Concept Development

© ​David Ford

Date: 07.01.2019

Name: Gabriela Syarova

Student number: 633552

Affiliation: InHolland University of Applied Sciences

Course: Smart Productions

Class: DHICBFT1H

Teachers: Mark Weistra, William Thomas, Claudia Mayer

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Table of content

Introduction…............................................................................................3

Concept Development 1...........................................................................3

Concept Development 2...........................................................................11

References.................................................................................................16
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The corrections I made to the text are market with red*

Introduction

The journey of our class’ first assignment in the Smart Productions module began when we

found out who our client is.A brief summary of their situation was given to us.In order to come

up with a solution first we had to define the problem and that is why our class had to meet the

client and interview her. The aim of the interview was not only to obtain a clearer vision in terms

of what the problem/situation of the client is, but also to determine what were the desired

outcomes.As a class we prepared questions for the interview.At the meeting with Victorine Egter

van Wissekerk, a lady working at the Media Department at the Hague’s Manucipality, which is

sponsoring Den Haag FM, we learned that that the desired group which the radio has been

struggling to attract is people between the age of 16 to 25 both nationals and internationals who

live in the Hague.She wishes to know whether they listen to the news, how this particular target

group can be engaged in a dialogue with the radio on serious, educative topics and how can they

be more involved with the community.She wants to know if this is possible, why/why not.It was

left to us to find the answers to these things and then figure out how to achieve the desired goal

which is to gain the attention of the young audience (van Wissekerke, Personal Communication,

2018).
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Concept Development 1

Podcast

I used the checklist technique to find out where,when and how the target group likes to get their

news​.​As we all know, nowadays the aforementioned target group uses smartphones to get their

daily news.​While younger people still have access to radios, they don’t engage with them as

much as they do with their smartphones.Smartphones made up 41% of listening for teens

between the ages of 15 to 19 (Sanchez, 2017).​More US teens say they get their news from social

networking sites (49%) and family (47%) than from any other source, according to a study from

Common Sense Media (Marketingcharts, 2017).

In 2016 LOOP found that younger millennials (​between the ages of 15 and 19)​ preferred

streaming over traditional radio.On-demand streaming such as Spotify and Apple Music

accounted for 51% of a younger millennial’s daily listening (McIntyre 2016).​Recent studies from

LinkedIn show that 42% of those between the ages of 18-34 listen to podcasts at least once a

week. And the percentage is even greater for parts of the next generation (12-17 year

olds)(Arnold. 2015).Not only are listeners spending a lot of time with this medium, they are also

consuming this content in a variety of ways: 69% of podcast content is consumed on a portable

device, most commonly while walking, in the car, or generally on the go(A. Fabel, 2017).

There must be a reason why the target group is so drawn to podcasts.And the reason is that

podcasts are commonly described as on-demand internet radio talks.On demand and internet are

the youth’s two favourite words.

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Apparently, in order to reach to the young people with news, and involve them in the citylife first

you need to establish your place in the digital world.And according to the research what could be

an easier way to do this than creating a podcast programme?​The idea for that came to me after I

spoke with a stranger on a web chat room.He turned out to be a professional podcaster who puts

out content regularly and has established a solid viewer base.I asked him to tell me in more detail

about the creation process and also about the distribution.He told me that for each episode he

spends 80 hours researching on the topic that he is covering.Many times he chooses topics

according to the audience wishes.I thought a podcast is the perfect solution for the radio.The

platform he is active on is an app called Podcast Addict.

There is already a podcast programme being broadcasted on The Hague FM which is The

Dutchbuzz’s podcast once a week for about 30 minutes.(DutchBuzz, 2018).Because DutchBuzz

is a separate organization, the radio does not get to choose the content of the episodes, and also

that there is not a single programme in English which is produced by the Hague FM itself.When

all of the radio’s content is in Dutch there is a small chance to attract the non Dutch native

people as an audience which is a serious omission considering the fact that th​e Netherlands has

between 39,000 and 75,000 expats, according to new research by the national statistics office

CBS(DutchNews, 2015).Therefore a​ programme which is in English (or at least partly), and also

specifically made by the Hague FM’s staff might be the solution because then the radio gets to

choose what they want to talk about in the episodes of their podcast.​By choosing your content

according to your target audience the chance to attract this particular group gets bigger.If the

goal is to attract young people then you need to produce the kind of content that they like (Sailer,

2016).
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I​n a survey called “Younger Thinking” Christopher Sopher, asked young people about their

attitude towards news.There's this sense that you're not getting the whole truth, or you're getting

a varnished, polished, cold representation of what's going on, because it feels so impersonal."

says Sopher.More than previous generations, Sopher found, young people seek a personal

connection to their news providers.

But that doesn't mean that the youth wants biased reporting. Rather, they're seeking a more

conversational, explanatory tone.News providers should not only report the facts of "what just

happened," , but also the context of "why it matters".In a paper for the Shorenstein Center,

Mitchell Stephens used the term "wisdom journalism" to describe this approach, defining it as

"exclusive, investigative -- with more informed, more interpretive, more explanatory, even more

impressionistic or opinionated takes on current events.”

Putting out podcast which is based upon “​wisdom journalism”​ of course would require more

time and effort.It is crucial to take the extra mile to find guests who are experts in their field and

can share a valuable insight on particular subject.That is proven to be effective way to draw the

attention of the youth which is ultimately the radio’s goal.Another vital thing is to include the

actual people from the target group to work on projects which directly concern them."If you're

going to write an article about gender differences at colleges, hire a college student, or at least

have one co-write the piece."(Baume, 2010).

Listeners think a podcast is “good” if they are:

● Enjoying the host or guest,

● Learning something new,

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● Laughing, and/or

● Becoming engrossed in a compelling story (Carter, 2015).

Tom Burgis, the podcast narrator of FT says that ​"told right, podcasts can be fantastically

gripping" and the trick is to "include enough detail that gives a sense of the depth of the reporting

and explains the attribution, without bewildering the reader or listener with too much".

New York Times ‘s podcast – The Daily, which was first launched in February 2017, has been

downloaded 20 million times.W​ith its bold claim that “this is what the news should sound

like”, it promises a 20-minute bulletin every weekday.Mike Barbaro the narrator of the

podcast says“The Daily says that journalism is a fast evolving thing and journalists can say

what they know and what they don’t know, which creates a lot of transparency that people

crave right now,” He adds that “Audio on demand, on your phone, means that you can load it

at home, get on the subway, listen to it in your car on a long drive,” he said (Verdier, 2018).

Technical and legal aspects

“Podcast” is a actually a label for a particular kind of distribution, not a style of show. Just like

“radio show,” “TV,” “DVD,” and “magazine” describe the media and distribution. “Podcast” is,

by technical definition, downloadable episodic multimedia (audio, video, PDF) which is

distributed through RSS feed.RSS is a type of web feedwhich allows users to access updates to

online content in a standardized, computer-readable format. (Lewis, 2014)

To start putting out audio podcast episodes you will need the following equipment:

A microphone (USB or analog), Computer and an audio editing software.The prices may vary

depending on the quality and the type of equipment.For example the analog microphone requires
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an additional device (audio interface) to convert the analog signal into digital one whereas the

USB microphone directly does that.There are various misconceptions regarding USB mics, one

of them being that their sound quality is inferior to their analog counterparts. While this might be

accurate in some situations, it’s not a universally available truth.On the whole, USB microphones

are preferred due to their convenience, affordability, and the fact that they are simple to use.

Additionally, considering that you won’t need to invest in an audio interface, you keep your

costs low(YourStudioGear, 2017).

The easiest way to distribute your episodes to podcast platforms is by creating an account on

SoundCloud.As soon as you start uploading your episodes there, go to the Settings page and find

your RSS URL.Then you submit it to some of the most famous podcast apps like iTunes, Spotify

or TuneIN(SoundCloud, 2018).By submitting your RSS feed to podcast platforms, each time you

upload new episode, these platforms receive it and display it on their app, so its users also get

notified about it and this is how you reach new audiences because a large percent of the target

group already uses these apps to get their daily audio consumption.

The media in the Netherlands remained open, accessible, and diverse in 2014, operating in onone

of the freest environments in the world. Freedom of expression is safeguarded under Article 7 of

the constitution, although there are some provisions banning hate speech and discrimination.

Government interference in media content is rare, and the government does not restrict internet

access or censor online content; however, it does monitor the medium for illegal materials such

as copyright violation (Freedomhouse, 2015).

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Podcast formats

1. One-on-one interview

Inviting people such as local politicians, artists, sports people or students for an interview at the

Hague FM’s podcast is something which will draw the attention of the desired target

group.There is a possibility for a live Q&A with the audience as well.

2. Panel (guest interview or discussion)

Producing a panel podcast requires a little more work. First, everyone should have a microphone.

Second, there are some technical difficulties when it comes to recording several different sources

of sound. Third, it’s hard to find a day and time that everyone is available to record.Challenges

aside, there are some real advantages to this format. The responsibility for being interesting is

distributed throughout the panel. If the energy between the panel members is strong, listening to

a conversation between some opinionated people is always entertaining.

3. Solo-commentary

Of course there is always the option to have one person hosting the entire episode.Althought this

would require a special kind skill to carry the microphone on their own (M. Leonard, 2017).

Ways to find guests for the podcast:

Looking at other platforms

Who’s doing your subject (or a similar subject) in a blog form, or on Youtube? If someone is

a creating content on the same topic than you then there’s a decent chance they’d be more

than happy to come on your show to talk about it.

Not only can this provide valuable, relevant content, it can also help boost the audience

numbers. Your interviewee will probably share the episode with his or her own community,
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who may be interested in your other episodes. The interviewee might also see a lot of your

listeners checking out their blog or videos, so everybody wins here(McLean, 2016).

LinkedIN

By using the Advanced Search feature, it is possible to narrow down the people who you are

looking for and then send them a message. Contacting people directly through LinkedIn gives

around a 90% success rate.

Source Bottle

Source Bottle is basically a Public Relations call out site that matches journalists (or bloggers,

podcasters etc) with industry experts willing to offer commentary. It’s free to list your call

out(Sheen, 2017).

How to find topics for the podcast

Social media

There is always the possibility to ask the audience to suggest topics in the Social Media

profile’s of the Hague FM.

Web Forums

Another possibility is to look in forums which are visited by the target audience.Heading on

a research inforums such as reddit is a great way to find topics to talk about in your episode

because there you can easily see what the target group talks about. By looking at the hot

subreddits (topics) to see what are people most interested about.

Ways to promote the podcast:

Sharing soundbites, videos, images, teasers are some of the many ways to promote the podcast

on social media.For example, sharing an update when the episode goes live for the fist time.
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Here are some ideas:

● Pin your episode tweet or Facebook post, featuring the iTunes URL.

● Create quote images in Canva or Pablo. Share these as standalone social updates with a

link to iTunes.

● Publish 3 to 5 episodes when you first launch.

The very minimum number of episodes to have at launch is three.

“We had seven interviews complete before we launched our podcast, with three episodes planned

for launch day and two apiece for the following two weeks.”

- Kevan Lee

This multi-launch strategy is a key part to ​Jason Zook’s plan for hitting the New and Noteworthy

section of iTunes​, which, as we mentioned above, is the perfect way to get huge traffic.

Jason’s plan hinges on these two concepts:

● Record and release several podcasts on launch day (3-5)

● Build your audience before launching if possible

(Lee, 2017)

A podcast can take up a lot of time to put together, especially at first. Also, podcasts do best

when they’re released consistently.You have to be ready to release episodes on a regular basis.

All in all, podcasting can be fun work, but it’s also hard work.
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Concept Development 2

Quizz Games

One of the radio’s goals is to encourage the target group (16 to 25 years old), to be more

involved in the community.My idea is directed towards the international part of the Hague’s

population.I thought of ways in which they can be included in the community and I couldn’t

think of a better solution than helping them learn the Dutch language.

Special Hague FM trivia quizzes with two months of free Dutch lessons prize.Volunteers at the

radio could help with making the quizzes which would later on be distributed via the social

media profiles and website of the radio.The quizzez are going to be with variable content starting

from trivia with questions about history, music, mathematics, geography and many other.

Giving the internationals the opportunity to start learning the national language will result in a

positive relationship for a lifetime between the winners and the radio.They will be forever

thankful to the radio for helping them learn the basis of Dutch language.They will also tell their

friends, families and colleagues and this will result in even more people having positive attitude

towards the radio. which will be only beneficial as from there the radio has more influence over

the young people, stronger connection to them and therefore and higher chance of people

wanting to volunteer for causes of the radio and the municipality.

One of the reasons why I choose the quizzes is because of how shareable they are. People love

to share their scores from a quiz. The main place where people share is Facebook: 84% of Social

Media shares of quizzes are on Facebook (Walsh, 2015).These shares drive a lot of traffic to

websites/social media profiles which will definitely be beneficial for the radio.By getting people

to visit their internet platforms there is a bigger chance that their content will be seen by people
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who otherwise might hadn’t.​ ​A recent Demand Metric and Ion Interactive study revealed that

84% of respondents rate interactive content as effective in differentiating from competitors

(Bavaro, 2018).

”​Quizzes have this innate ability to engage audiences. Based on the kind of quiz you

create, you’re reaching out to thousands of people, and the moment they take your quiz is

the moment you begin to establish a connection with them as a brand through its

questions.

- W​ebDesk, 2016

The quizz game will take place every and whoever wins, get a two months free Dutch language

lessons.The radio covers the costs.Prices vary depending on which language organization the

client chooses to work with.For example ABC Language school offers a course for beginners in

Dutch which continues for 8 weeks/2hr a week for the price of 220€.

”We will teach you the basics of the Dutch language, including: the alphabet, verbs in the

present tense, the use of the articles de and het, syntax, vocabulary, days of the week,

telling the time, family, how to make appointments and suggestions, expressing your

opinion and we will practice how to communicate whilst shopping.” (AbcDutch, 2018).

The game itself can take place at many different platforms but the one I found most suitable for

the purpose is OnlineQuizzCreator.com because of its simple layout and the fact that it has been

used by some really popular and well established companies such as Heineken, Schiphol and

Toyota.Another reason why I think this is the best option is the fact that the quizzes can be

customized, embedded in sites and also shared on different social medias.Another feature this

site has is Advanced game statistics and rankings which makes for a very easy analysing and
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tracking of data.There are also Lots of question types to choose from such as text questions,

multiple choice questions, image questions and multiple right answers.The site also offers

Styling & branding options.You can add your logo, change colors and add a background image.

The pricing is different depending on which plan the radio opts for.There are 4 different plans

which are:

Smart Owl For individuals and educators 18€/month, 182€/year

Business Owl For small to medium businesses 45€/month, 460€/year

Corporate Owl For professional and large 89€/month,910€/year

organizations

Enterprise Owl For people who need an enterprise 235€/month, 2375€/year

solution

When choosing the yearly pricing option you get 2 months of free usage.

Business Owl and Corporate Owl are the two best options for the client because of the features

that they contain.Here are some of them:Custom CSS,25,000 played games per month, Manage

Social Media buttons.All of the information can be seen at OnlineQuizzCreator’s pricing

section(OnlineQuizzCreator, 2018).

The Quizz creator could be used also when the radio wants to gather information about the

wishes of the audience.People get to choose from a variety of topics or specific guest that they

want appear on the show.

Content of the quizz games

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● Topics such as culture, history, literature, cinema, science and many more.

● Some of the questions may consist of previously mentioned information which people

can know only if they have been following the podcast episodes.

● The Hague trivia e.g. What is the name of the famous building in the picture?, and the

user chooses the answer from the options below.This can be applied to famous Dutch

artists, scientists, sportists, politicians, musicians or traditions, historical events, etc...

● Guessing a song’s lyrics.

● Fun quizzes such as which character are you from a famous tv show or which disney

princess is your best friend.

Having educational quizzes as well as more lightway and fun quizzes is the perfect

combination.The win a free dutch lessons quizz is going to promote the involvement with the

community and the fun ones will help to bring more traffic to the website or social medias of the

Hague FM because they don’t require any special knowledge and everyone is doing it and then

sharing the results.Quizzes can be also used to gather more information about the target

audience, their preferance, what topics concern them etc. which will help with creating more

relevant content for them.

Promotion

Promotion can take place on so many place both online and offline, depending on what the

budget of the radio is.Something which we couldn’t find out from our interview with the

client.The first place where promotion will take place is, certainly, on the radio.The second place

is social media.Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.For these purposes special hashtags for the game

should be created, because they allow people to interact with the radio’s community.The hashtag
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of the game should be the name of it or a short phrase which is related to the content.Another

hashtags that can be used are ones who describe the topic of the particular episode.

● Keep your business hashtags relatively short, so they’re easy to remember (and spell)

for your consumers.

● Monitor your brand and campaign hashtags to respond to people using them.

A ​trending hashtag​ is a hashtag topic that has become very popular. Trending hashtags are

continuously changing in real time. A top 10 trend can come and go within minutes, for

example.When you see a trend that relates to your business, engage in it by using the tag. By

using a trending tag in your content update, you can potentially get your message seen to a

massive audience. Your content update can be seen by more than just your Fans and Followers -

and it’s free. Using a popular niche hashtag can get your post seen by a lot of like-minded

people. Target your niche trending tags to get seen by your consumers who are also using the

hashtag.(Bunskoek, 2014)

Placing ads on physical places such as billboards, trams and busses or handing flyers are some

other options as well.

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References:

1.A. Arnold, (2017),​ “5 Reasons why Millenials lead other generations in podcast consumption"​,

retrieved on October 23, 2018 from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewarnold/2017/11/15/5-reasons-why-millennials-lead-other-ge

nerations-in-podcast-consumption/#6902aae470ad

2.A. Carter, (2015), ​“What makes a podcast good?”​ Retrieved on October 23, 2018 from

https://medium.com/@AlexCartaz/what-makes-a-podcast-good-part-1-c2145de5f51f

4.A. Fabel, (2017), ​“The entrepreneur’s guide to creating a great podcast that people actually

listen to"​, retrieved on October 23, 2018 from ​https://foundr.com/guide-to-podcasting

5.B.Sailer, (2016), “How To Find Your Target Audience And Create The Best Content That

Connects” Retrieved on January 7, 2019 from

https://coschedule.com/blog/how-to-find-your-target-audience/

6.D. Sanchez, (2017) ​“Young people are abandoning radio at an alarming rate, study finds",

retrieved on October 23, 2018 from

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/02/09/rajar-uk-radio-teens​/

7.DutchBuzz (​Copyright © DutchbuzZ 2011-2018) Retrieved on November 6, 2018 from

http://www.dutchbuzz.nl/dutchbuzz-productions
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8.FreedomHause, (2015), Retrieved on November 7, 2018 from

https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-press/2015/netherlands

9.Hugh McIntyre (2016), ​“Millenials aren’t very interested in traditional radio anymore",

retrieved on November 7, 2018 from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2016/07/12/millennials-arent-very-interested-in-trad

itional-radio-any-more/#382203c237c​4

10.H. Verdier, (2018) ​“Hear all about it: how daily news podcasts became publishing's new

hope"​, retrieved on November 6, 2018 from

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/30/hear-all-about-it-how-daily-news-podca

sts-became-publishings-new-hope

11.K. Bunskoek, (2014) ​“3 Key Hashtag strategies:How to market your bussines and contetn",​

retrieved on November 6, 2018 from

https://blog.wishpond.com/post/62253333766/3-key-hashtag-strategies-how-to-market-your-busi

ness

​ e Didn’t Know How

12.K. Lee,Originally written Sep 20, 2016. Last updated Dec 13, 2017, ​“W

to Promote a Podcast. So Here’s All We Learned”, ​r​etrieved on October 23, 2018 from

https://blog.bufferapp.com/promote-a-podcast

13.Marketingcharts.com, (2017)​ “What Are Teens’ Primary News Sources?”,​ retrieved on

October 23, 2018 from

https://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/media-and-entertainment-75562
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14,M. Leonard, (2017), ​“The Seven Most Common Podcast Formats”,​ Retrieved on October 23,

2018 from

https://medium.com/@mark_leonard/the-seven-most-common-podcast-formats-87bbc3ecf40d

15.M. McLean, (2016), ​“How to find podcast guests”​, retrieved on November 6, 2018 from

https://www.thepodcasthost.com/planning/how-to-find-podcast-guests/

16.OnlineQuizzCreator, (2018) retrieved on November 7, 2018 from

https://www.onlinequizcreator.com/​ (see “Pricing”)

17.R. Bavaro, (2018), “Interactive Content: How Your Company Can Use Quizzes, Calculators,

and Interactive White Papers for Lead Generation” retrieved on January 8, 2019 from

https://www.smamarketing.net/blog/interactive-content-quizzes-calculators-interactive-white-pa

pers-lead-generation

18.YourStudioGear, (Copyright 2017), ​“What Are The Differences Between XLR Vs. USB

Microphones”​, retrieved on November 6, 2018 from

https://yourstudiogear.com/differences-xlr-vs-usb-microphones/

19.S. Walsh, (2015), “Why Quizzes Are Content Marketing’s Secret Weapon” retrieved on

January 7, 2019 from ​https://buzzsumo.com/blog/quizzes-content-marketings-secret-weapon/

20.T. Sheen, (2017),“How to find a good podcast guest, 2017, Retrieved on Ocober 23, 2018

from http://smallville.com.au/find-good-podcast-guest/

21.V. van Wissekerke, Personal Communication, 2018

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Interactive Content: How Your Company

Can Use Quizzes, Calculators, and
Interactive White Papers for Lead
Generation