From left: Dear Media president of global entertainment Mark Mullett, podcast host Amanda Hirsch, and ADWEEK's Zoe Ruderman. By Mark Stenberg --> For podcast host Amanda Hirsch, the best brand partnerships start before a deal is ever signed.
Hirsch, who hosts Not Skinny But Not Fat, will even accept a lower fee from a brand she already uses, she told ADWEEK chief content officer Zoe Ruderman at ADWEEK’s Advertising HQ event.
Hirsch runs every potential partner through a few filters: whether she’s an organic fan, whether she has tried the product herself, and whether her audience would find it genuinely useful. Turning down a deal is not painful, she added, because she believes another opportunity will follow.
“I’m thinking about my audience, like, ‘Wait, they would love this,’” Hirsch said. “‘This would be so helpful for them.'”
That approach fits the model at Dear Media, which has a roster of about 100 shows and a sales team of roughly 40 people. The company rarely runs programmatic advertising, relying instead on host-read ads that talent can shape directly with the brand, according to Mark Mullett, Dear Media’s president of global entertainment.
In fact, the biggest mistake brands still make is handing talent a script and expecting them to read it, according to Mullett. Another misconception is that creators will take any offer for the money, he added.
“Let creators create,” he said. “If they said yes to working with a brand, let them cook, let them do their thing. It’s going to be better for you.”
The strategy appears to be working. Last year, Dear Media was on track to generate between $50 million and $100 million in revenue, after having raised around $12 million in investment, according to The New York Times .
Video has widened what those partnerships look like, from product placement on set to IRL events and footage spliced into episodes. For instance, Dear Media recently worked with Weight Watchers, a partnership that included a show hosted by a company employee about her own GLP-1 journey. The show focuses less on the science than on the psychological and personal side of the experience.
While the phrase “brand entertainment” can be a little “snoozy,” the concept behind it is sound, per Mullett.
“It’s really just great entertainment—brought to you by Weight Watchers,” he said.
Hirsch, for her part, mostly avoids the numbers, checking performance only when quarterly reports arrive. She considers an episode a success when listeners walk away loving a guest they had never heard of before.
Her dream partner, after years of organically talking about the brand: Ugg.
Mark Stenberg is ADWEEK's senior media reporter.
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