Lessons in content strategy from CBC Radio 3
Defining yourself by content, and not by platform, is a bigger picture strategy for branded content and creators.
Early global podcast success
This is a story about a huge podcasting success that is not actually about podcasting. And it is relevant to any content creator, whether you a branded content team, a TikTok or YouTube creator, or… a podcasting company.
I have worked in podcasting for a long time. My journey started in 2004 at Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC.
CBC Radio 3 is a team buried deep in the bowels of CBC’s concrete bunker. Its mission:
Reach younger audiences that don’t listen to the radio (clear audience target)
Champion new Canadian music and musicians. (clear mission/job to be done)
Radio 3 was created to be a digital innovation lab. And as long as we achieved our mission, it didn’t really matter how we did it.
When I joined the team, the CBC had just become a partner in bringing satellite radio to Canada. We had about a year before Sirius and XM (then separate companies) would launch in Canada, but CBC Radio 3 was going to have a 24/7 North America-wide radio station on Sirius, and it would be filled with new Canadian music of all genres. (In very odd timing, CBC Radio 3 was just removed from SiriusXM after 17 years…)
However, we had over a year to wait. And we were an innovation lab. We started hearing about Adam Curry and the Daily Source Code and this thing called podcasting. We realized that we worked with a lot of indie artists who owned the rights to their music. So we put together a waiver enabling artists to grant CBC permission to use their music non-commercially in this thing called a podcast, with the goal of helping people discover their music. And some pretty amazing artists signed up, from Tegan & Sara to the New Pornographers, from Broken Social Scene to Joel Plaskett, from Arcade Fire to Sloan, from Cadence Weapon to Caribou. The podcast was a huge success and was listened to all over the world. As far as we know, it was the world’s first fully legal music podcast. In 2006, it was averaging over 125,000 downloads a week! One of my favorite memories was a giant map that host Grant Lawrence put up on the walls of the office, with pins from all the areas around the globe where people had listened to new Canadian music, courtesy of the CBC Radio 3 podcast.
Screenshot of CBC Radio 3 as the number one podcast in iTunes
After the success of the initial podcast, CBC Radio 3 built out a network of podcasts, including a chart show, live music recordings, a track-of-the-day, and a heavy metal pod.
However, this is where things take a surprising turn. This is not a clarion call to double down on podcasts or start a podcast network. The lesson I learned from CBC Radio 3 is to do the exact opposite.
Focusing exclusively on podcasting is a mistake.
Don’t get me wrong… podcasting is a phenomenal platform that allows for world-class storytelling, theater of the mind for listeners, long-form engagement, and screenless opportunities to learn, connect, and build community. I LOVE podcasts and all the unique superpowers they offer. Not to mention that I’ve also had a very fortunate journey at Pacific Content and worked with the best people and clients imaginable.
So why, then, is focusing exclusively on podcasting a mistake? It’s because any single platform does not make for the most effective, audience-first content strategy.
Content creators need to think about building multi-platform, audience-first ecosystems around their business goals.
I’m going to dissect why single platform strategies have challenges, and then share the amazing example of CBC Radio 3 as a team that defines themselves by content and mission instead of a particular platform.
The problem with platform-first thinking
I’m going to use the example of podcasting, but this applies equally to TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Substack, or any other type of distribution platform.
The podcasting industry is in the business of growing the podcast industry. This is entirely normal and logical. I spent a huge amount of time doing this exact same thing at Pacific Content. When a new medium emerges, you need to constantly educate those outside the industry about what makes it special, why they should give it a try, what the benefits are compared to other media types, etc, etc.
So with good reason, everyone talks about podcasting, podcasting, podcasting. Or TikTok, TikTok, TikTok. Or Substack, Substack, Substack. And when they talk about their single platform of choice, they talk about the same topics:
How to make better content
How to grow audiences
How to monetize
How tools and technology are evolving to better serve creators and advertisers
Why the audience for this platform is uniquely valuable and growing
Why budgets need to shift from platform X to platform Y
And all this is 100% true and necessary. However…
Is a listener too limiting?
Let’s think about the elusive podcast listener as an example. A listener is not just a listener. A listener is not just a pair of ears. A listener is also a reader and a viewer and a community member and a potential contributor or creator themselves. What opportunities are we missing as content creators if we only treat them as a pair of ears?
Is a single platform too limiting?
Podcasts, TikToks, and Substacks are not just audio shows, short-form videos, or email newsletters. They are filled with stories, information, conversations, entertainment, personalities, and so much more. They are focused on specific topics and themes. And more often than not, the most successful ones are designed for very specific people.
So if I am a person or company creating content, should I be focusing on a single platform? Or should I be thinking about creating content specializing in a particular topic or subject matter, designed to have an impact on a particular group of people?
The implications of your choice are huge.
The bigger-picture approach: an audience-first omnichannel content strategy
There is a much larger opportunity to build audience, revenue, and relevance by zooming out and thinking about a broader content strategy.
We need to define ourselves by content specialization, audiences, and business goals. We cannot define ourselves solely by a platform.
More importantly, when we focus only on a single platform, we give audiences less-than-stellar, self-serving experiences on every other platform.
Multi-platform strategy does not mean shameless self-promotion
This is how many content creators use social media platforms, whether it is Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or LinkedIn:
“I have a new podcast/TikTok/YouTube episode. I am begging you to leave the place where you have chosen to be and the context you are in right now. Leave here now and open the app where it is more valuable for me and my content!”
This is a somewhat selfish ask of your audience and a misuse of the platform where you are talking to them. It is not a generous or empathetic act. And I’m willing to bet that every content creator, myself included, has done this far too many times.
Empathy and generosity demand a better strategy
Every content creator needs enormous amounts of empathy and generosity. Empathy to think about the needs of our intended audience. Generosity to create value, first and foremost, for the audience instead of ourselves. Without these two values, no content creator will succeed for long.
So when we think about creating an impact across multiple platforms, and recognizing the strengths and limitations of each individual platform, we can choose to create strategy and content that is valued by audiences wherever they choose to connect with us.
If you’re part of a branded content team and you make a great podcast, instead of adding additional podcasts… maybe instead think about making amazing content on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Substack about the same content area your podcast focuses on, for the same audience your podcast focuses on.
CBC Radio 3 - defined by content, not by platform
I learned this lesson a long time ago at Radio 3. And then I forgot all about it at Pacific Content because I was consumed with growing podcasting :-)
Bucky, the CBC Radio 3 mascot, metaphorically representing a uniquely Canadian hybrid of multiple music genres and distribution platform.
I’m not sure there could be a better example of defining yourself by content instead of platform than CBC Radio 3.
After all this amazing global podcasting success, the team asked ourselves, what else can we do to champion new Canadian music? We looked at all sorts of platforms. We evaluated each platform by its relative strengths and weaknesses. We determined whether each platform could help us achieve a bigger impact for new Canadian music. And we designed custom content strategies designed for the strengths of each platform.
This content/mission-first, multi-platform strategy was hugely successful. It included everything from a video series to a Flickr concert photography community and from a live blog to user-generated, on-demand playlists.
It was amazing. It was fun. And it worked.
The magic of the strategy was that it let all sorts of people connect with us in the manner of their choosing. When they were in front of a screen, we had experiences optimized for screens. When they were in a car, we had experiences optimized for a car. When they were walking their dog with an iPod, we had experiences optimized for that, too. We put the audience first. We designed for multiple contexts. We wanted audiences to have an amazing experience with us wherever and whenever they connected with CBC Radio 3.
Even though we had a big, hit podcast that turned into a network of hit podcasts, CBC Radio 3 was never about podcasts. It was about championing new Canadian music.
My challenge to content creators
Here is my challenge to podcasters. To TikTokers. To YouTubers. To Substackers. To brand storytellers, content marketers, and brand journalists.
Why are you making your content?
What is YOUR mission?
What is your specific content focus?
Who is the audience you are trying to reach and connect with?
Is your current platform of choice the only way to do this?
Are there other platforms and strategies for achieving your mission, your business results, and for reaching your audience?
What would be a phenomenal experience for audiences on other platforms?
How could you achieve your content and business goals by designing experiences for the strengths of other platforms instead of just using them for promotion?
Think bigger than platforms.
Think about building an integrated, omnichannel ecosystem (jargon alert!) where every platform has a job to do, and where every piece of content ladders up into a bigger win for you and your audience.
Steve
In future newsletters, we’re going to dig deeper into omnichannel content strategy. It has huge implications for how to cross-promote effectively, efficiently build production operations that serve multiple platforms without copying and pasting, grow a larger community, and increase revenue.