Simon Jones: Don’t get caught in the middle

I’ve been getting back into podcasts of late. True crime, comedy, politics and business – the usual sort of things. Adverts in the podcasting realm tend to be based on sponsorship of the show, with presenters talking (or singing in Adam Buxton’s case) about the product or brand from a script or crib sheet. It’s pretty blunt stuff but coming from the hosts offers additional gravitas.

Disruptive brands tend to feature heavily on the rota of podcast adverts, which makes sense given that listeners tend to be in a younger and dare I say it, more open-minded demographic.

There’s a common theme within the adverts, no matter what the product is – the removal of ‘the middleman’ from the consumer buying process. Clothing, mattresses, cannabis oil and even bed sheets all have disruptors looking to bypass mark-up and middlemen so that the savings can be ‘passed on to you, the customer’. It’s all very noble.