Graham Brown: Welcome to the Age of Audio Of my name is Graham Brown from the award-winning podcast agency, Pikkal & Co. The Age Of Audio is a series of conversations with thought leaders and change makers in the world of audio that's podcast, radio, and social audio converging with big data to create engaging and authentic content for a new generation of listeners.
All right then, Tell me about the Spanish speaking market in podcasts, because for so long podcasts have been English speaking, the dominant narrative format. How are you doing now in the Spanish speaking world?
Jorge Gonzalez: Well, I think Spanish speaking podcasts are now like the thing, right? That's on the rise, the new it in the podcasting industry, I believe, the previous five years that's been and before that, the previous 20 years that was, led by an English speaking audience. But now you're seeing Spanish audiences, like a booming period where we're seeing a lot of new companies like podcast networks. Just New in the game and doing a lot of high quality shows. Back when I started two years ago, we didn't have that. Like we had the US shows and people who listen to podcasts in Mexico and Latin American generals would probably be people that would be listening to shows in English right. And now you're seeing that trend shift toward, people who are listening to podcasts in Spanish because they're getting that good, and that's had like a domino effect where now, we can see that more people like famous people are getting into it, right? Like actors, even directors, right? And even, like entrepreneurs are getting into it and they're getting to it in a serious way. And we haven't seen that before in these countries and in this language and the people who started before that, back when things were that hot in the Spanish market that they had a very niche audience and they were growing their content organically and growing it in towards a long-term vision. Now we're seeing that those people are really well-established in the podcasting scene. They have really good numbers and they're like the pioneers of podcasting, but obviously they're using a lot of what has worked previously in English, right there. They're using a lot of those formulas that they know worked for other podcasters and sometimes, they will have a podcaster that they follow from a US space show, and they're trying to do the same thing. But to a Spanish speaking audience right. So we're seeing a lot of that.
Graham Brown: Do you have a serial or Joe Rogan in spanish?
Jorge Gonzalez: I don't think we have a serial yet, but we do have some pretty good investigative journalism turned into, audio storytelling, and we have not the Joe Rogan's of the world, but we do have something like the team Ferris or The Rituals Of The World where, they're more like based around a audio and video presence as well, but their format, I would say what differentiates them between Joe Rogan is that, Joe Rogan is that famous right. But these guys aren't that famous yet, but I think in the future, we'll definitely see some deals happening like we did with Joe Rogan in Spanish speaking countries.
Graham Brown: Who are they? Give us some names that we have to look out for [inaudible].
Jorge Gonzalez: Yeah. Well, since we started, we heard a lot about this guy called Oso Trava and he has this podcast called Cracks. Like, before entrepreneurs and all sorts of leaders and so they are all cracks in their own worlds. And so Oso Trava interviews these people and tries to get the best things out of everybody and he's a guy that's been in the scene for a while and he's famous and are you referenced? Right? When we get asked about, I want to do a podcast, one of them must come and references as we get is this guy Oso Trava. We also have this guide from Monterey called [inaudible]and his podcast is called The Memphis, literally insane, but he also makes a work play where the mentors could mean like of minds right. So it's like mental and he also does interviews. He is now moving into interviewing more famous people and Startup MNC's and he's doing, his video production is getting better and better every episode and his audience is growing tremendously. So that's one of the guys you must keep an eye on. And then there's this guy who has this podcast called Liberals[inaudible]. I have to get you this guy's name because I don't have it at the tip of my tongue. But you definitely need to keep an eye on him because he has one of the most successful podcasts, not only in Spain where he's from, but in all, the Spanish speaking ecosystem is he's right now, I would say like the, probably the biggest podcast around, and one of the guys that's being able to, construct a formula for success. Right? So his podcasts Libras [inaudible] basically tackles books for entrepreneurs. And so it's a very simple idea, but he's been doing it consistently and he's been doing it with a good quality and so, now he's become sort of this digital marketing [inaudible] and this podcasting [inaudible]. He's also doing clubhouse events now where you can chat with him and ask him questions.
Graham Brown: So in the Spanish speaking world, all the way from Spain down through Caribbean, Central America, South America, when it comes to podcasts, [inaudible] is there one country in particular that is leading, that really is influencing the others or everybody very much localized content.
Jorge Gonzalez: Yeah, I would say that you have your hotspots right? Obviously I'm going to be very specific about Spanish speaking because you have Brazil, but they speak in a different language, right? So it doesn't really connect with the rest. But Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, I would say are like the front runners. And I will also say that Mexico was one of the late bloomers because we already had great podcasts in Colombia, Argentina and Chile before it took off in Mexico. I think people in Mexico perhaps were listening to two shows in English or perhaps, they simply were in, getting into podcasting early enough and so once, the market in Mexico started to accelerate, we saw that, some companies emerged and they emerged with some sort of aggressiveness towards the market. Like they didn't come in, knocking at the door. They came in with a cake at the door. And they were like, here we are, we're gonna conquer this part of the spectrum and so I think, you have a lot of back and forth between these countries because I listened to two shows from all of these countries that I really enjoy. And there's even one called [inaudible] which tries to fuse all of these countries into a single storytelling podcast that's actually distributed by NPR. It's called [inaudible] and so these guys, this is one of the most ambitious shows in Latin America. Like the founder of that show is from Columbia, but the show can take place anywhere across Latin America and for me, it's one of the best pieces of audio storytelling content, not only in Spanish speaking audiences, but also to English based audiences worldwide. And the good thing is that they even have an app. If I recall correctly, it's called Lupa. And so that app actually helps you speak and learn Spanish through their podcasts and in real time you can get the meaning of it. So, yeah, that's pretty cool.
Graham Brown: Okay, cool. Let's talk about Mexico now. You said it was a late bloomer obviously heavily influenced by your neighbour America. I imagine what sort of content is popular now locally in Mexico?
Jorge Gonzalez: I think in Mexico, you're seeing a lot of content from people who are doing TV and, famous actors or even influencers they're migrating from other genres into podcasting. So you're seeing a lot of interview style podcasts, you're seeing a lot of cross-promotion so you can see the same guy being interviewed by all of the podcasters and definitely there's a scene where there are some key players that are cross-promoting between each other and comedians, you see a lot of comedians guys who were doing stand ups and who had their Netflix specials. They're very likely to have a podcast as well. And apart from that there's also the other side of this thing, which is the high quality fiction or nonfiction storytelling, podcasts, aching to that serial. Perhaps in that sort of fictional wonder restyle podcast, we're seeing a lot of that. And of course we're seeing Wondery as well translate all of their shows and Gimlet translate, but not only translate, but also owning on the regional aspects of each country and making that translation also, in terms of what it's called The Tropical station. They are localizing content.
Graham Brown: Does that work? Can they take a business war and reformat it in Spanish for the Mexican market? Does that work for local listeners?
Jorge Gonzalez: Yeah, that's exactly what they've done. I think you can do it better with fiction work when it comes to business wars, for example, you would have the same stories, but when it comes to like, you would have the same story and if we're talking about Pepsi and Coca Cola, I mean, it's the same Pepsi and Coca-Cola in English or in Spanish, right? They are US-based companies either way, like you can change the facts, but [inaudible] if you're talking about a show like Dr. Death things can change right? You don't have to base the story with English sounding names or cities or even the expressions that you use that can be changed so that the audience doesn't feel like they're watching something that's foreign. They can really feel that it's something that's close to them.
Graham Brown: That's cool. All right then last question. What do you think we should [inaudible]local markets? So starting with Mexico, or maybe just focus on Mexico. What's exciting at the moment in terms of what is happening differently there. Now you said it was a late bloomer. So Mexico is maturing, every market seems to be doing something unique. They will have their own styles. We've gone from copying, wondering NPR and Gimlet to developing local styles and stuff that's interesting. Is there anything unique happening in Mexico now that we should watch out for you think is interesting to the listeners?
Jorge Gonzalez: Yeah, definitely. I think you should watch for one thing: what's happening in the market and how that's translating to the content .So right now we're seeing the emergence of networks with big budgets and so these networks can create high quality shows. They can do more, you can expect to see more of the NPR Wondery gimlets or type of content. You can start to see a lot of branded content. I think a lot of startups in Mexico, Oregon are going to start podcasting in a serious way quite soon. And if there is something I would say is unique here in Mexico, perhaps it is the way in which people from every part of the country can bring their own views into it. Like I think, in Mexico you have a lot of focus on Mexico city or maybe Monterey the big cities. And I think podcasting can bring us a perspective into different areas of Mexico and the stories that you wouldn't otherwise listen to. And I think that's the power like you can bring, for example, right now, I'm not living in Mexico city, I'm living in Tepoztlan which is one hour and a half away from Mexico city. But, the other stories you listen to there are really different to the ones you would hear in the city. Like they're, you would have a much bigger focus on environmentalism and on water, on the way in which people speak would be very different. You would have very unique forms of connection happening in all these places. I think that's where we need to explore more. The quality of podcasting that can bring these very niche regions and very unique traditions and create these narratives and these audio soundscapes where you get to explore the cultural richness of Mexico and how it's expressed sonically. If you were to come to Mexico, you would experience a unique blend of sounds and I mean, it could be the animals that are here, it could be the sounds of the city in that they are unique. You have these people announcing what they sell on the streets. Like, street vendors usually have their tunes or they have their unique way in which they announce their products and all of that blends with the music you can hear and then that's going to change from city to city. So I think that's very exciting for me. Being an audio guy, I think that there is very rich sound design storytelling. That's what really excites me the most. And I think these mediums give you a limitless canvas of exploration. Like you can do anything to you. And that's one of the things I love the most.
Graham Brown: Fantastic. You've been listening to The Age Of Audio with me, Graham Brown from the award-winning podcast agency Pikkal & Co. To get access to all the audio conversations and book content for the age of audio, go to www.theageofaudio.com. One more time. The age of Audio.com .