Three essential podcasts for marketers in a hurry (and really busy marketing students)

I am a big fan of podcasts. They are a great way of learning about a broad range of topics or, conversely, of staying informed about a particular topic. And they are perfect for those of us who want to learn more, but feel that they are already spending too much time in front of a screen or a paper.

 

Of all the podcasts that I regularly listen to, there are three that I have recommended to my digital marketing students and which, I think, would be a great source of insight for marketers, too.

 

In my view, the three essential podcasts for any marketing student (and for marketing managers in a hurry) are:

• Tech Tent – For an overview of developments in the technology business
• Chips with Everything – For a look at how people use technology
• The Marketing Companion – For a discussion of the implications of the above two on marketing management

 

Here is a quick overview of each of these three podcasts.

 

Tech Tent

About: Produced by the BBC, and presented by Rory Cellan-Jones. It is a mix of short news features and commentary by a range of guests. Covers new product launches, known problems, significant changes in management, industry directions and so on. While there are many good podcasts out there focused on the technology industry, I really like this one because there isn’t hype (or there isn’t much of it, anyway), it is fairly concise, and tends to have a great mix of guests and commentators.

Frequency: Weekly

Duration: 24 minutes

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01plr2p/episodes/downloads

 

Chips with Everything

About: Produced by The Guardian, with different presenters. Each episode is like a short investigative piece on a given topic. This podcast covers a broad range of sociological and psychological issues associated with using technology, which makes it interesting but also means that the topics can be a bit random. I couldn’t find many good podcasts looking at the social angle of technology, and that are both compact and balanced. Some are good, but the presenters go on and on and on. Others are interesting, but go for the hype, or are too narrow focused (e.g., only talk about surveillance, or too US-centric).

Frequency: Weekly (though, for some reason, there has been a very long gap between the last episode and the one before that).

Duration: Varies, but usually under 20 minutes.

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/series/chips-with-everything

 

 

The Marketing Companion

About: Hosted by Mark Schaefer and Tom Webster. These two esteemed marketers, based in the US, discuss the implications of technology developments and of how people use technology for marketing management. For instance, a recent episode looked at the implications of artificial intelligence on the digital marketing agency, while another one, some time ago, looked at the adoption and use of smart voice assistants and what that means for advertising. Again, there are many good podcasts on digital marketing, but this has the benefit of having little waffle, not being too US-centric, and drawing on the presenters’ extensive experience and research.

Frequency: Every other week

Duration: Around 35 minutes

Link: https://www.businessesgrow.com/podcast-the-marketing-companion-2/

 

There are many other very good podcasts but, if you are short of time, listen to these. By investing 4 hours of your time per month to listen to these podcasts, you can get a fairly good overview of what is happening in the world of digital, and what these developments mean for you and your work.

 

What other podcasts are a MUST listen for busy marketers and marketing students? It helps if they are concise, not US-centric and using research (as opposed to simply based on someone’s opinion).