Podcasting in Dubai: 5 Reasons why Podcasting is the next big thing

Many marketing experts are claiming that 2016 will be the year of the podcast and the team at Nexa couldn’t agree more.  

Since 2015, Nexa has provided Podcast recording, editing and publishing services to a range of clients in different industries.  With these podcasts, we’ve noticed organic growth in listenership on a weekly basis and there are a number of reasons for this.

1 - Podcast Accessibility is greater than ever. 

While podcasts have been around for a while, its often been difficult to find ways of either tuning into a show or finding a convenient method of playing these.  Today, most mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have podcast software pre-installed allowing users to search for podcasts based on areas of interest, hosts and show names.  Having a pre-downloaded podcast on your mobile device makes it easy to listen to podcasts on the go much like how people consumed music on walkman’s (for those of you of remember those beauties) and more recently on iPods and other similar devices.

2 - Podcasts have become mainstream.  

Over the last 2 years or so, Podcasts have become a part of mainstream media with shows such as Serial by Sarah Koenig becoming an un-obvious choice of debate in coffee shops, bars and dinner tables.  At its peak over 8 million downloads per week were recorded across the world.

3 - People hate adverts.  

Today’s consumers are smart cookies and the majority of these hate advertising or being sold to in an intrusive way.  The days of having to listen to radio adverts or having your favourite TV shows interrupted every 15 minutes or so are close to being over.  The likes of Netflix and of course Podcasts, means that there is a viable alternative available to people who want to consume content, but do not want that experience to be interrupted by forced commercial breaks.

4 - Content on demand.  

People today live seemingly busier lives than ever before.  It’s therefore difficult to catch your favourite TV or Radio shows on a regular basis.  Podcasts offer people the convenience of being able to listen to their favourite shows whenever most convenient to them.  This may be during the morning or evening commute, while sat at an office desk or even at the gym during a workout.  

5 - You can find a Podcast about (almost) anything.  

While this may seem like a disadvantage to those considering launching their own podcast, quite frankly it isn’t.  The more content that’s out there will attract a wider audience of listeners, which means that if you create good quality, engaging content, you’ll not only attract a listener base but also create a following or community.  If you aren’t planning to launch your own podcast and simply love listening to them, I’m sure you agree that the more content that’s out there, the better.

The opportunity for Podcasting in Dubai:

Without being too nostalgic, I think back to 2005 when I first moved to Dubai. The internet was something that most of us used as a source of information and content whether it be news or entertainment.  But something was lacking locally.  There was very little localised content available to us.  From an entertainment perspective, websites such as TimeOut were very new and were limited replicas of their printed selves.  Dubizzle had just been launched and that was about it.  Almost an an experiment, my co-founders and I decided to launch a new website called Dubai Night Planner.  It contained fully localised content and had no print-legacy-issues to overcome, which meant that it was a information-driven entertainment website in its purist form.  And it was an overnight success as word quickly spread and traffic grew exponentially week after week.  The revenue was’t bad either!

The reason I bring this up, is that locally, there must be tens of thousands of podcast listeners in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the UAE as a whole, but with virtually no localised content available to them to listen to.  

Is there a bigger opportunity than this out there for the government, for brands or for B2B focused companies?  I honestly don’t think there is.

Getting started

Starting your own Podcast series is easier than you think.  At Nexa, we’ve invested in the equipment, technology and publishing platforms so that you as a business can record your podcasts and have them available to listeners within 24 hours.  

Contact us by completing the form on this page and our team will talk to you about the options available for your business.