Mike Sullivan - President - Utility Safety Partners
What began as a COVID project to fill the outreach void and program pause created by social distancing has evolved into an additional engagement, education, and awareness instrument in Utility Safety Partners’ Public Awareness Program. Podcasts in general have proliferated the "cyberwaves" and the new medium isn’t showing signs of slowing down. Podcasts now reach 53% of North Americans 18 years and older every month and 75% of the population over 12 have listened to online audio in the last month. Closer to our target audience, 43% of listeners ages 35-54 are monthly podcast listeners — the most popular age group for podcast consumption.
Today, podcasting has reached the highest numbers ever, with almost 100 million North Americans being weekly podcast listeners.
Data doesn’t lie so either shift your awareness program to meet it, or risk losing ground. It’s very much like when Utility Safety Partners shifted from Calls to Clicks. Ignoring data like “91% of North Americans own a smartphone” and not adjusting services accordingly is just foolish.
While The Safety Moment can’t compete with Joe Rogan or The Daily, it has devoted listeners across Alberta, Canada, and around the globe downloading episodes as they drop, and after 64 episodes, The Safety Moment has over 3,700 downloads. That’s an average of almost 58 downloads per episode. Or as our producer, Doug Downs, tells me, “It’s like you just had a cup of coffee and a conversation with 58 people.”
“Selling ‘safety’ isn’t easy,” says Doug, with Stories and Strategies, “but USP’s podcast is continually evolving and so is its audience. They’re tuning-in to hear what USP has to say and they’re anticipating the next episode. And guests are now contacting us with requests to be on the podcast rather than the other way around, which indicates our discussions are relevant and listeners are paying attention to what USP has to say.”
All episodes of The Safety Moment can be found on USP’s website, and you can also find us on any directory you’re listening to.