The new media landgrab, and what's working at this exact moment
Plus: why your podcast doesn't get any listens, exposed.=
This week Oren has a mild breakdown about the death of great American branding, while Clayton brought the jellies out in Greece. In this week’s HYPER we hit on how to make podcasts that actually get views and achieve your goals in 2025, what content is working on social right now, and some ideas on communicating branding.
Let’s begin.
Oren here. We are in a media landgrab the likes of which has never been seen prior. Every hour of television consumption, traditional website reading, or physical periodical engagement is up for grabs as users everywhere realize they can find something just for them, uninhibited by the biases, poor advertising models and hidden motives of traditional media. I have said it before, I will say it again, it is a generational shift that is making people rich, enabling companies to succeed, and is as impactful as the introduction of the idea of e-commerce.
Increasingly, companies understand this, VCs understand this, and creators understand this. A16z is building an entire media arm, marketing teams are becoming content teams that have performance marketers layered on top. I somehow thought that in 2023 podcasting was at its peak, there couldn’t possibly be more right? That was wrong. Every creator, every business, realizing that even 1000 listeners helps serve their mission and is worth the production time.
This is a democratization of media. People complain that views are down, and they SHOULD BE. Everyone can get something perfect for them, they have infinite choice.
So as everyone preps their media arms, their strategies for the content era, what is breaking through?
Today I’m going to talk about sets, concepts, and podcasts.
I got invited on a podcast recently. I’d been doing less and less of these because I really feel the value for me is only there when it really opens a new audience and has a video component that will move on the internet. Open Residency caught my specifically because of that last part. The content is moving on the internet, and a big part of it was the production value. The podcast just LOOKS amazing. And when I showed up to record, the address in LA wasn’t an apartment, or a small podcast studio, it was the literal CBS soundstage. Bill Maher prepping in one area, us over in the next. A single dramatic light, a team that knew what they were doing, all the stills shot on Leica…. It felt like TV, but without the massive crew.
And I wasn’t let down. The teaser for our episode on short form that is basically a sizzle reel with no value got 50k views. The team hit me with 10 short form pieces of which 5 were collab-worthy. This has NEVER happened, most short form clips from pods are wack unless they’re engineered or you get lucky, they had a plan from the question style to the filming to the edit, captions and colors.
And this is the era I feel we’re in. That medium is alive and well, ESPECIALLY with the YouTube component. But it needs production, or a concept. The bar is swinging the other way. TikTok right now is more lofi than ever. FaceTime conversations, no captions, iPhone dominate the platform. Regular content still does fine but the new growth method is 5-10 videos a day in lo-fi, and then if you complement that with a lifestyle clippers can get their hands on… rocketship.
But to stand out of the podcast, to get that crucial first discovery that gets a YouTube subscribe or into someone’s library. Concepts, and production. Let’s talk about it.
The example I love the most is Fashion Neurosis. It is a completely normal podcast, one person interviewing another, but the SETTING is inherently viral. A therapists couch, the subject laying down, the other talking. An overhead camera, a wide of both and a shot of interviewer. It is a visual angle, a single concept that makes it inherently more interesting on social media than anything in its niche, when the content is essentially the same. Star studded guests helped skyrocket it, but even the pitch to them gets easier when you have a visual vehicle built to work on the internet
Over to the world of brands… one of my conceptual favorites, Boys Lie. Boys Lie is a womenswear brand that has become closely associated with reality tv. I can’t describe to you how smart printing the statement “boys lie” on clothes and then facilitating it being worn by reality stars who are in the middle of cheating drama is as an adoption strategy. Engaging high social value people at their most followed moments, likely much of it organic, and then having a cute, practical line to follow up with. True modern conceptual genius, you couldn’t better engineer Juicy Couture for the modern age if you had a $10m budget.
The corresponding gem… a podcast by the same name, where the concept is simple. The founders and friends sharing stories of lies in relationships. Scenarios that have potential on social, an emotional connection point that people can listen to if they want a lil drama in their lives, or if they’re dealing with grappling with the same issues. Maybe not a massive viewership, but talk about a retention mechanism for a clothing brand… smart.
And over in lo-fi, and most importantly, featuring remote guests, we have Greg Isenberg and the “Startup Ideas” podcast. I’ve been on this, Greg is a very passive interviewer, he lets guests do their thing, it is on Riverside, there is no production, but it succeeds because of the power of the concept. Each podcast, 0-1 is how to complete a thing that you can launch as a business that will make you money. No fluff, nothing else, just a pure tutorial of making n8n automations, launching and AI workflow, building TikTok shop whatever it. A browsable library of problems, solved, with associated monetary value, in the length of one video, published relentlessly.
More than ever - the concept and the production are all that will take you out in a sea of amateur media.
Related: An extremely impactful concept that should be talked about more… it’s time for the return of the staff photographer. But I’ll save that for another newsletter.
What’s working on social for creators right now
Dropping in from this current Cut30 cohort, been some awesome videos in our wins channel. Wanted to share as a reminder for how many styles of content can still work online, and what trying new things can do to skyrocket views and results.
Shivam using narrative to show off his hardware project with 100k views.
Caroline has been on a tear with both full breakdowns and these awesome one shot “idea” videos that just quickly highlight a savable insight. This one has 250k.
You cannot overestimate the market for practical marketing and design advice on TikTok. Jessica breaks down sizes to design with for web with 40k views.
Brody shows off the power of eye contact in making videos with great examples for 160k.
Mitchell has been working on organic for his grocery store and launched an in-store series that’s really started to pump, this one went for 150k.
Bella cracked her first 10k on TikTok with a straightforward, savable value video targeted to her niche.
Goshfather swapped it up with his dj content and started talking to camera, grabbing 100k and his best performing video ever.
Four Words started applying a strong opinion to their existing jewelry brand content, and put up 600k.
Our next Cut30 kicks off 9.16, waitlist HERE.
Kitchen Sink
A few examples of how branding on IG in various stages and how it propels narrative.
Product ideas and prototypes as personal branding
Making mixed media carousels
The new Outdoor Voices branding looks great, but what’s interesting is debuting it and showing the full guidelines, posted from the designer, in collab. Every brand stage is content, and it is content told in a story in the world of characters around the brand
Hyper Reports
Check out our market reports. We spend many hours researching markets, categories, and brands & products within the consumer space so you don’t have to.
Hi Oren. I've been a dedicated follower for the past year. You are simply spectacular.
Your insights and full-funnel marketing / AI / technology understanding is like no other.
I'm an MBA at Stanford Business School working at the intersection of brand, marketing and AI. I also help lead the Consumer & Retail Club. I'd love to explore bringing you to campus to share your expertise with the community.
Let me know if there is a good way to reach out more formally!
Best,
Katherine Miao