Harry Morton: 0:12

and I'm Harry Morton, and later I'm going to be talking about Low Street's very exciting acquisition of the Pacific content brand.

James Cridland: 0:19

So who is lower st? First of all,

Harry Morton: 0:22

Low Street is a branded podcast agency founded by me here in the UK, initially in London, and now I'm in Somerset. But we are fully remote team, so we are spread between here in the UK and North America, scattered around Europe and beyond a little bit as well. And we serve clients actually largely in North America but all over the world really. all that we do is, is podcasts with brands. That's, that's entirely our focus.

James Cridland: 0:48

podcasts with brands, which sounds very similar to the way that Pacific Content talked about podcasts with brands or stories with brands. We heard earlier this week that you'd bought the Pacific content brand Low Street has a great brand. Why Pacific Content?

Harry Morton: 1:03

yeah, firstly, I'm just it's like it's a huge milestone and really exciting opportunity for us. I honestly can say we were just a huge admirer personally, a huge admirer of, of Steve Pratt and, and his co-founders at Pacific Content and the work that they did. So we began lower St in the beginning of 2017. And so Pacific content had been around for a couple of years before that and sort of in the early days of of me slowly building up. I mean, in the early days it was, you know, me and my underpants in my bedroom saying, you know, we lower st

James Cridland: 1:37

Yes.

Harry Morton: 1:37

but very much it was just me

James Cridland: 1:38

Yeah.

Harry Morton: 1:39

and really sort of aspiring to the, to the amazing work that that they were doing back then. And you know, it's been a real sort of mission of ours to, to build up to the sort of calibre of work that they're doing. And I'm really proud to say that over the last couple of years I think we've we've really achieved that and, really solidly competing with the likes of Pacific content and others in the space and really trying to push the, the industry, the branded podcast industry forward. And so when the opportunity came up to buy the brand, obviously we were like firstly when the news broke that Pacific was shuttering, we were I was genuinely sad to hear that, you know, I am a real fan of the work that they're doing and a huge supporter and yeah, and as a fan.

James Cridland: 2:22

yeah.

Harry Morton: 2:22

So it just felt too sad for that to completely disappear and, and not continue. And so we sort of began discussions and it sort of developed from there.

James Cridland: 2:31

Well, what was it about the brand that attracted you?

Harry Morton: 2:34

Yeah. As I say, I was a huge been a huge admirer for a really long time. and of course, you know, their work is exceptional. Like they they do incredible creative work. And as a company they've talked for a long time about this idea of creative bravery and really pushing brands to do interesting, inspiring work in podcasts. And that's something that we massively believe in and agree with. not only that, but also the founders and many of the team at Pacific were just hugely generous in sharing the things that they were learning with the industry in an attempt to sort of build branded podcasting up and kind of push the space forward. So it was a combination of all of those things, just a huge respect and admiration for the work that they do, but also what they stood for and what they were trying to do in the space. was it was really when the opportunity came up, it was kind of a no brainer because I think we share many of those values and we're really trying to hold them up ourselves and in sort of purchasing the brand, we want to sort of continue that mission onwards, I suppose.

James Cridland: 3:32

Hmm. So you've. You've bought the brand. So you're not buying employees or clients or anything else, I guess.

Harry Morton: 3:38

That's right. I mean, we have a number of the Pacific content team gladly joining us, so we're really excited to welcome them. In fact, it's a funny time for them to join. We've got a company retreat in France next in a couple of weeks time. So they've got a bit of a trial

James Cridland: 3:53

Right.

Harry Morton: 3:53

by fire. They'll be meeting everyone in person in a couple of weeks. But

James Cridland: 3:56

Well,

Harry Morton: 3:57

that's really exciting too, to welcome a few of those as well. But you're right. You know, the.

James Cridland: 4:02

I mean, quite a few of them are Canadian, So they'll deal with the French perfectly

Harry Morton: 4:05

Exactly.

James Cridland: 4:05

well, won't

Harry Morton: 4:05

They'll

James Cridland: 4:05

they?

Harry Morton: 4:05

still slot right in, but but

James Cridland: 4:08

Yeah.

Harry Morton: 4:08

as you say, we we weren't purchasing entire sort of company as it were as more so the brand.

James Cridland: 4:12

So how did the sale come about? Was it something that you were offered by Rogers, who've been looking after that company for a while, or did you suggest the idea to them?

Harry Morton: 4:20

I suppose it was a rather organic conversation. You know, I have a really great relationship. I'm very glad to say with with Matt Myers in the leadership team at Pacific Content. And so we've been in touch on a regular basis anyway. And so as things unfolded, we just sort of kept the doors open and

James Cridland: 4:38

Mm

Harry Morton: 4:38

the

James Cridland: 4:38

hmm.

Harry Morton: 4:38

conversation alive and then it sort of sort of organically developed from there. Really. Yeah.

James Cridland: 4:43

So how will the two brands work together as you move forward?

Harry Morton: 4:47

low Street has a really strong brand of its own, which we're really proud of. And we're not set. It's certainly not going to be watering down through this.

James Cridland: 4:54

Hmm?

Harry Morton: 4:56

You know, as that develops over time. I think we will see. We'll we'll see what happens. Certainly there's just a huge amount of equity inside of the Pacific content brand. We're hugely proud. As I say, to to be the new stewards of it. So exactly what the future looks like is too early to call. but yeah, really, really very proud, too, to sort of carry that, as I say, the sort of mission and the values that they held forwards under the Low Street brand,

James Cridland: 5:20

Do you get to keep all all of blog posts and stuff like that? Because they did some really good work in terms of educational stuff there, didn't they?

Harry Morton: 5:28

they really did. I mean, it was just phenomenal stuff. I was an addicted reader and and still am and I haven't stopped. And yeah, so we do get to to maintain all of that as well. And Dan Wiseman actually reminded me of a pizza related article

James Cridland: 5:42

Indeed.

Harry Morton: 5:42

that he wrote a while ago. So we got the entire oeuvre of the Pacific Content blog. So we're very excited about that.

James Cridland: 5:49

And how is the branded podcast market? You wouldn't have bought this brand if you didn't believe in it. But is it is it going well?

Harry Morton: 5:58

It is going well. I mean, there's no getting around the fact that I'm sure every person listening to this will agree that the last 18 months has been less sexy. Shall we say, than than the sort of covered years perhaps for for podcasting. But we have regardless, seen steady growth, over the last few years. We've not stopped growing. I think we've spent the first, let's call it, out to push the first ten years of branded podcasting. We've seen early adopters and some really, you know, ambitious creative projects. But it's still very, very early in the adoption curve.

James Cridland: 6:32

Hmm.

Harry Morton: 6:32

And I think that we are continuing to see a really strong appetite from a number of brands that are seeing their competitors and their colleagues in the space begin experimenting with podcasting. And I, you know, it's my strong belief that any brand that can any agency like ours, but I think any brand in podcasting that can sort of ensure that their business model is sustainable. have a really strong belief that the next few years is going to be a really good one for the podcasting industry and for branded podcasting specifically. So so yeah, as I say, the last couple of years haven't been so sexy, but I do have a really strong belief that there's there's a lot of growth to unlock as more and more brands realise that the relationship they can build with audiences in podcasting is a hugely powerful complement to the

James Cridland: 7:16

Hmm.

Harry Morton: 7:16

the other kind of content marketing efforts that they'll be making in other areas.

James Cridland: 7:19

And I think we forget, don't we, that actually brand or at least I forget that branded podcasts, although they sound deeply unsexy, they're actually listened to by loads and loads of people. I noticed on your your website you you say that you weren't the number one spot on Apple Podcasts charts more than 100 times, and you wouldn't be doing that if the podcasts themselves weren't any good. So I think you know from that side that that's certainly something just to bear in mind as well.

Harry Morton: 7:47

Absolutely. I tell you what you mean, James. I think branded podcasts are the sexiest thing going. You're absolutely right. Look, they are. They are inevitably niche. I think that is the thing that you will, if you follow me or any of my colleagues or fellow agency owners in this space, you will see us talking about niche audiences a lot. So there's no denying that we're not likely to be competing with most, at least most branded podcast and not likely to be competing with, you know, the top ten in the in the in the podcast charts too often, or at least on a first on a sustained basis in terms of raw number of listeners. But there are real passionate, engaged audiences around branded content. And I think some of the studies that that Geoff Fittler and his team and and Tom Webster has put out over the years has really shown that actually people really value content from brands. So so yes, I would agree with you completely.

James Cridland: 8:43

So where can we go to find out more about you and your company?

Harry Morton: 8:47

Thank you, James. Real pleasure to chat to you. You can go to Low St Echo. All the information is there and and you can go to our blog to read about our exciting news and other things. And I spend a lot of time being a gobby person on LinkedIn, so you can find me there as well.

James Cridland: 9:02

Yes. And you're very good at coming up with a podcast Strategies for Individual brands as well on show rather enjoy. So carry on doing

Harry Morton: 9:11

Yeah,

James Cridland: 9:11

that. That's

Harry Morton: 9:11

that's always

James Cridland: 9:11

a good

Harry Morton: 9:11

a bit

James Cridland: 9:12

thing.

Harry Morton: 9:12

of fun. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah.

James Cridland: 9:14

Harry, thank you so much for your time.

Harry Morton: 9:15

Thanks, James.