Seattle Design Center’s Branded Podcast: A Case Study
Inspired Design Podcast Opens Up New Markets for Seattle Design Center
By Carmen Elena Mitchell, marketing director at Larj Media
The Seattle Design Center is first and foremost a sensory experience: from the airy atrium with its sweeping staircase that greets you upon arrival, to the maze of fabrics and elegant furnishings on display in its luxury showrooms. Housed in a historic building in Seattle’s arts district, SDC is a marketplace for fine home furnishings, showcasing vendors from around the world, as well as an event venue where designers go to cultivate new ideas and draw inspiration.
So, when Covid hit, like many brick and mortar businesses, SDC was faced with the question of how do you continue to engage customers when suddenly the world goes online?
“We were the first design center to host a virtual market, which was hugely successful,” said marketing direct Gina Colucci, “and then everyone got zoomed out.”
We met with SDC in January of 2021 to talk about how a branded podcast might reach their market during the pandemic. However, when we dug a little deeper into SDC’s history, it became apparent that their brand needed more than just a temporary covid-lifeline. Despite the allure of its physical space, and its reputation as resource among high-end designers, many Seattleites had no idea that SDC even existed.
We were able to offer a solution that would both expand brand awareness by appealing to the “design curious” and help keep their virtual doors open while the world went inside.
WHY PODCAST?
Branded podcasting has seen a huge uptick in recent years. It’s an intimate and conversational medium which creates an elevated state of engagement for brands. Data shows that a well-produced podcast can increase a brand’s recognition by 89%.
But not all branded podcasts are created equal. As many brands are discovering, you need more than just a personable host and a good mic to rise above the noise (5 Reasons Your Branded Podcast Failed).
“I'm not doing a mom-and-pop podcast for SDC,” Gina said. “If we're going to do it, we're going to do it right. Our showrooms deserve that.”
Fortunately, SDC chose to partner with Larj Media rather than attempting to produce their podcast in-house.
THE GOALS
Together, we homed in on the goals for the podcast:
To change the perception of SDC to a more inviting and inclusive place for the community, including the “design-curious”
To position SDC as a thought-leader in the design space
To increase brand awareness in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest during the pandemic
THE PROCESS
Before we even think about hitting “record,” we guide our clients through a process to help identify their purpose, audience, and expectations for the podcast.
How do you want to tell your story?
In our conversations with SDC about their podcast, one concept that kept rising to the surface was the idea of “humanizing designers.”
“SDC, and design centers in general, work against this reputation of not being approachable or not being welcoming,” said Gina. “We want people to know that design is for everyone.”
The concept we landed on was to have each designer take us to their “place of inspiration.” Rather than interviewing them in the venue where their design was displayed, we would meet them in the place where it was conceived.
In this way, we focused on eliciting those stories of wonder and discovery and happy accidents that are often part of the creative process. This, we felt, would bring the listener into designer’s world in a more intimate way.
Who do you want to hear it?
We were fortunate in that a large share of the audience for podcasting (curious, affluent, college graduates between the age of 34-55) overlapped nicely with the demographic that SDC wanted to reach, which included “people in the Seattle and in the Pacific Northwest who are curious about art and design.”
The real question was how to make the show relate to them? The why of the podcast? Why should they care?
Together, along with the SDC team, we dug into their audience’s tastes and sensibilities. These folks frequent Seattle’s high-end restaurants, have season tickets to Seattle Opera and go to the Northwest African American museum. They’re interested in art and culture.
With this in mind, we landed on the idea of exploring the “behind-the-scenes” stories of the destinations they patronized. On the podcast, we would appeal to their natural curiosity by introducing them to the designers behind the iconic interiors and objects that they were already familiar with.
What do you want to come of it?
A branded podcast, when done right, does not feel like a commercial – it feels like a gift. Because we were beginning this venture during Covid, we wanted to make sure we had something of value to offer people at that particular point in time, as well as down the road. We asked: what do we want people to do or think or feel when they take their earbuds out of their ears?
Gina had a ready answer, “I wanted to offer something to a listener that would inspire their own creativity. Something that could engage their imagination while they were stuck at home or out for a walk.”
Of course, the by-product of this type of engagement is positive brand affinity, visits to the website and further down the funnel, visiting the design center itself.
PRODUCTION
Producing a podcast like Inspired Design is more involved than just coordinating with guests and hooking up the mics. It’s a team effort involving plotting out the narrative for each episode, talking through sound design, coordinating with editors and venues, and preparing everything for distribution.
On top of that, Inspired Design, is an audio story about something visual. Many design podcasts miss an opportunity to emotionally engage their listeners by recording in a studio. For SDC, we really wanted to create “theatre of the mind” by getting out of the studio and catching those moments of spontaneity that happen out in the field. It also gave us the opportunity to capture those wonderful moments of natural sound—the creaking of floorboards or the whistling of the tea-pot—that engage the listener’s imagination allowing them “to see” the story as it unfolds.
RESULTS
The Inspired Design podcast has been successful not only at reaching its target audience, but in attracting new and more diverse audiences.
Some notable results include:
Significant increase in traffic to the SDC website
Significant increase in visitor engagement time on SDC website
Featured on Apple’s top 20 design shows
Expanded audience into a younger and more diverse demographic
Created opportunities to expand SDC designer network
Demonstrated thought leadership and relevance within the industry
CONCLUSION
By diving deep into our clients’ goals and audience behaviors in our pre-production process, we were able to create a branded podcast that exceeded their goals.
“It’s elevated our standing in the community as thought leaders. It’s validating our place in the industry,” Gina said. “I'm getting a lot more people reaching out to me with opportunities for SDC from other adjacent industries, like fashion and architecture. We also have a lot of design students that listen – which is great because this is the next generation designers for SDC.”
What started out as “covid solution” has brought an unexpected boost to their marketing efforts. Even though SDC is now doing in-person events, they were so happy with the reception that they decided to continue partnering with Larj to produce the podcast. Inspired Design is currently in its third season.
“If we only did our in-person events, we're leaving a lot on the table. Having as many quality outlets as possible is something that is beneficial for us in the long run. Our industry is changing, everything is going digital. People listen to Inspired Design and they want to know more so they visit the SDC website. Or they’re already on the website and they discover our podcast page, so they end up spending more time there. It fills another glass without them feeling like they're being sold to.”
You can listen to Inspired Design here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Ready to jumpstart your podcast? Schedule a call with Larj Media today.