The International Women’s Podcast Awards, a unique event celebrating the very best moments in podcasting created by women and non-binary folk, has announced their winners for 2022. The awards recognize the work of women and non-binary people in podcasting, both behind the mic and behind the scenes, who have created incredible audio moments and intimate listening experiences.
The 2022 International Women’s Podcast Awards was hosted at The Conduit in London by acclaimed comedian, podcaster and writer, Deborah Frances-White, whose own podcast The Guilty Feminist has had more than 95 million downloads worldwide. 180 guests were present in London for the event, with nominees attending fro as far afield as Los Angeles, Israel, Zambia, and Switzerland. A wider global audience watched via a lifestream from The Conduit, giving the awards a truly international reach.
Naomi Mellor, founder of the International Women’s Podcast Awards, said:
“It’s been a real joy to hear the entries we received from across the world for this year’s International Women’s Podcast Awards. We were amazed that in 2022 we tripled our submissions from last year, receiving entries from women and non-binary folk from a huge range of countries, and I’m thrilled to have announced the winners in our 10 categories this evening. The quality of work entered was astoundingly high, and confirmed all our suspicions about the depth and breadth of talent out there. Congratulations to all the winners – your work was truly brilliant and fully deserving of this recognition.”
Naomi also added her sincere thanks to the event’s sponsors, Acast, Amazon Music, Focusrite, Shure and Wondery, category supporters Captivate and Blubrry, plus all the fantastic brands that had contributed to the event.
The full list of winners:
The Amazon Music and Wondery Moment of Comedy Gold: presented by Craig Stratchan of Amazon Music
Winners: Helen Brown, Emma Goswell, Been Khetani and Terri Sweeney of Effin’ Hormones
The Acast Moment of Behind-The Scenes Brilliance: presented by Melissa Matanda of Acast
Winner: Laura Sheeter, Taking on Putin
The Focusrite Moment of Raw Emotion: presented by Ollie Russell Piercey of Focusrite
Winners: Kierna Mayo and Florence Barrau-Adams, Culturati: Conversations with Kieran Mayo
The Captivate FM Moment of Entrepreneurial Inspiration: presented by Sarah McDowell of Captivate
Winner: Helen Fospero, The Convex Conversation
The Moment of Insight From A Role Model: presented by Laura Blake of UK Audio Network
Winner: Suzy Grant and the team at Listen Productions for 28ish Days Later
The Blubrry Moment of Dramatic Tension: presented by Toby Goodman of Podcast Network Solutions
Winner: Selly Thiam, AfroQueer Podcast
The Moment of Touching Honesty: presented by Imriel Morgan of Content is Queen
Winner: Samantha Bains, The Divorce Social
The Moment of Calm Unflappability: presented by Maven Rana of Times Radio
Winner: Eve Bishop, Deer Humans
The Moment of Visionary Leadership: presented by comedian, actor, and podcaster Samantha Baines
Winners: Lina Prestwood, Ella Saltmarshe and Madeline Finlay, The Long Time Academy
The Shure Award For Changing The World One Moment At A Time: presented by Jack Drury of Shure
Winner: Willow Belden and Sam Baker, Out There
Voiceworks Sport, a fast-growing business of sports audio experts backed by Communicorp UK and based in Manchester, has welcomed three new key appointments to its senior leadership team to spearhead its next stage of growth. It includes Michael Holt as Director of Commercial Partnerships, Stefan Doyle as Head of Sport Social and Richard Herrick as Sport Partnerships Director.
Focused on helping sports brands and rights holders to reach new fans through audio, the slate of new hires comes as Voiceworks Sport, and its business Sport Podcast Network, celebrate significant growth in 2022 to date. The new appointments will be focused on securing key commercial and rights holder partnerships, and growing Sport Social’s network of shows and creators.
Michael Holt joins with over 20 years’ experience in audio and TV, spanning Commercial Director roles at Discovery Inc., TRACE and The Drum as well as sponsorship and strategy roles at Virgin Radio, Guardian Music Group and the Radio Advertising Bureau. As Director of Commercial Partnerships, he will be tasked with developing new long-term brand and rights holders’ agreements for both Voicework Sport and Sport Social Podcast Network.
Doyle joins as Head of Sport Social, with former Head Jim Salveson stepping into a new role of Director of Sport. Having previously worked across Bauer Media Group’s national portfolio and as a producer for Global, Doyle will work closely with Sport Social’s network of podcast creators to develop content and grow listener audiences.
Doyle joins as Head of Sport Social, with former Head Jim Salveson stepping into a new role of Director of Sport. Having previously worked across Bauer Media Group’s national portfolio and as a producer for Global, Doyle will work closely with Sport Social’s network of podcast creators to develop content and grow listener audiences.
Herrick, founder of Herrick Associates Sports Consultancy, has also been announced Sales Director – Sport. Herrick will be targeting new rights holder partnerships of both Voicework Sports and Sport Social.
Founded in 2020, Voiceworks Sport launched its Sports Social Podcast Network in February 2021, as a dedicated podcast platform to bring together sports content creators. The network is home to popular shows including Seaman Says, The Late Braking F1 and The Joe Marler Show, and recently celebrated 3.5 million monthly downloads. With a new roster of new shows the pipeline and having recently signed a partnership with Italian football talent management agency S!, the new team will be tasked with unlocking further further growth.
Sophie Hind, Managing Director at Voiceworks Sport & Sport Social Podcast Network said: “Over the last five years, the marketing and media space has moved on rapidly, and arguably audio more than any other medium. There’s an increasing demand from rights holders and sports club to reach fans in an authentic and engaging way, which we’re focused on helping them maximize. As the volume of brands and creators we work with grows, we’re investing in the team to meet the demand, in particular at a senior level. We’re excited to welcome the latest members of the team to the business, who bring a wealth of experience and talent with them.
“Michael, Richard and Stefan will play a key role in this next phase of growth for both Voiceworks Sport and Sport Social, particularly as we explore new commercial and creator partnerships both at home and abroad.”
Novel, the UK-based studio that has become Europe’s largest independent podcast producer on the back of a host of acclaimed, award-winning and globally chart-topping podcasts made for partners including Wondery, iHeart, Spotify, Amazon, the BBC and more, announces the hiring of Neil Krishnan as their new Head of TV and Film. Krishnan joins from his role as Director of Creative Acquisitions for Universal Studio Group, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies.
Krishnan brings a keen eye for exceptional stories and the creative vision necessary to shepherd the company’s slate of audio projects into the Hollywood landscape. As Director of Creative Acquisitions for Universal Studio group, he was instrumental in finding and landing undeniable IP across NBCUniversal’s four television studios and approximately 200 talent deals, and was a key player in closing several competitive IP projects across books, graphics novels, and podcasts.
Previously, Krishnan worked as a creative executive at Erik Feig’s PICTURESTART, an independent multimedia studio that produces and finances stories rooted in self-discovery for all mediums. Recent releases have include Cooper Raiff’s Cha Cha Real Smooth for Apple TV+ and the upcoming adaptation of Luckiest Girl Alive for Netflix. Prior to his work at PICTURESTART, Krishnan began his career in business strategy with stints at Bain & Company, Microsoft, and Netflix before making the leap to the creative side of Hollywood. A vocal advocate of those from marginalized backgrounds, Krishnan seeks to amplify and elevate underrepresented voices and perspectives through his work.
With robust experience in both creative development and production, and strategy, his wealth of experience is especially suited to take on the newly-created role of Head of TV and Film at Novel. Krishnan says, “I was immediately blown away by Novel’s bold approach to story, incredible access to original journalism, and unyielding ambition. I’m thrilled to utilize both my creative and business backgrounds as I help grow the already burgeoning Novel brand across the podcast, film and TV landscapes.”
Sean Glynn, CEO of Novel, says, “Novel is on a rapid expansion journey. The exploitation of our IP beyond podcasting is a key part of our future as we increasingly look to self-fund, in addition to working with our partners. Neil is going to be integral to this and we couldn’t be happier.”
Matt O’Mara, Managing Director, says, “From the moment we met Neil we were taken aback by both his excitement about Novel and his incredible dual creative/commercial outlook, which is rare. It’s fantastic that Neil has joined the business and will bring with him his vast experience and a huge number of industry connections.”
Today’s announcement is Novel’s latest in its series of top-level podcast industry talent hires: since March, Novel has announced the hires of Julie Shapiro as Executive Creative Director (formerly of PRX and Radiotopia), Austin Mitchell as Creative Director, Production (formerly of New York Times’ The Daily), Mythili Rao as Managing Editor (formerly of the Guardian’s Today In Focus), and Indira Birnie as Head of Marketing and Communications (formerly of Penguin Random House).
Now with over 40 staff and a thriving partnership with United Talent Agency, Novel is primed to meet the demands of its ambitious repertoire of content planned throughout 2022 and beyond. The company is already exploring adaptation possibilities across its varied slate, including for its recent releases The Superheroes Complex, and Deliver Us From Ervil, made in partnership with iHeart Media.
Veritonic, the industry’s comprehensive audio research and analytics platform, announced that AudioPlus is utilizing its audio Attribution and Brand Lift solutions to help its clients track, measure, and ultimately optimize podcast ad performance.
As a trusted player in the audio advertising space, AudioPlus has been pioneering and successfully delivering campaigns across Europe since 2013, representing the world’s biggest and boldest in podcast streaming, including Talk Talk, Intel, and TFL. The company will use Veritonic’s Attribution and Brand Lift solutions to gain actionable insights that further the ROI of their clients audio advertising performance.
“Veritonic’s unprecedented audio Brand Lift and Attribution capabilities provide end-to-end measurement and analytics that will allow us to gain actionable insights that are indispensable in creating and maintaining a high-return audio strategy,” said Esther Mason, Commercial Director, AudioPlus. “This data is critical in our efforts to help brands meaningfully connect with their audiences through the intimate and personal nature of audio advertising.”
Podcast advertising has been long established as an effective and complementary marketing vehicle due to its ability to reach targeted audiences at the right place and time and with the right message. With the industry expecting to reach $2 billion in revenue this year and podcast ad revenue projected to exceed $2.5 billion in 2024, the ability to understand the return on investment in audio assets has never been more vital.
As part of Veritonic’s powerful Campaign Performance solution, Brand Lift and Attribution solutions enable brands to understand the impact of their audio creative across any app, hosting platform, or listening device. The data from these solutions allows users to make more informed and optimized decisions around every element of audio creative, including script, voiceover, music, pacing, and more.
The combination of both Brand Lift and Attribution provides companies with independent, full-funnel campaign performances data on top-of-the-funnel branding initiatives through bottom-of-the-funnel conversions and transactions, providing today’s most comprehensive set of lifecycle audio measurement analytics in the industry.
“The research, testing and measurement of audio assets are vital to campaigns pre-market, in-market, and post-campaign,” said Scott Simonelli, chief executive officer of Veritonic. “By deploying our audio Attribution and Brand Lift measurement solutions, AudioPlus is able to provide brands with a holistic picture of how a client’s audio is performing, further comprehending how their audio assets are achieving their goals as it relates to favorability, intent, and recall. We look forward to furthering our partnership with one of UK’s leading digital audio companies to help validate and support the audio investment of brands worldwide,”
For more information about Veritonic’s audio Attribution or Brand Lift solutions, visit www.veritonic.com or contact sales @veritonic.com.