Achieving 49% Viewership Retention for Wipro Lab45’s ‘ThinkTank’ Podcasts

The Helveticans Perspective

Our journey with Wipro Lab45 began with a need for a 'Primer,' a document that provides an overview of the latest technology trends, developments, and real-world use cases of cutting-edge technology. It may seem like a small task, but we at Helveticans believe in giving more than 100% in any task, big or small. This commitment sets us apart and assures you of the quality of work we bring to the table.

We went above and beyond designing the Primer to create a ‘no-expectation’ video around it and shared it with the leadership team at Lab 45.

Arvind Ravishunkar, a visionary leader, is part of a team of tech futurists entrusted with making Wipro Lab45 a reputed center of tech innovation where emerging technologies are discussed, researched, and harnessed to deliver future-proofed solutions. He is tasked with positioning ‘ThinkTank,’ a Lab45 entity, as an industry leader in driving discussions around emerging technologies that have the potential to change the world and make it a better place. ThinkTank aims to shape the future of organizations with a tech-led approach and implement a more sustainable future for the world backed by cutting-edge technologies.

He sees podcasts as a definitive communication tool that brings bleeding-edge technologies in front of business and tech leaders who want to understand how next-gen technologies can help shape a meaningful future for people across the globe.

Got an idea around "Making Podcasts"? Let’s brainstorm together!

Reach out to Jayan, our CCO

Recognising our commitment and ownership, the Lab45 team entrusted us with bringing the ThinkTank podcast to life.

The ask was straightforward: support Arvind’s efforts to get the ‘Unpacked’ podcast up and running. However, as they say, ‘Still Waters, Run Deep,’ and we slowly realised that there were no clear boundaries to this objective. We were involved in an end-to-end manner, from recording to publishing, distribution, and wherever the Think Tank team felt our skills could be put to good use. It was challenging yet a golden opportunity as the client gave us a free hand to come up with fresh new ideas and take ownership of the whole production.

We helped set up a professional online studio (initially StreamYard, later switched to Riverside) recording environment for both hosts and guests, ensuring seamless recordings of podcasts where hosts, co-hosts, and guests joined from different time zones and varied recording systems and input quality standards. Our team crafted engaging animations to enrich the conversations and managed the podcast's publishing across the website and all major platforms. Additionally, we oversaw the creation of promotional materials, performance monitoring, and optimisation.

This project was not just a challenge but an opportunity to demonstrate our skills, dedication to excellence, and commitment.

At the surface level, managing the various podcast activities seems simple. But dig a little deeper, and challenges abound:

Comprehensive Podcast Management

While The Lab45 team had experimented with podcasts informally, they now wanted to execute them professionally, and therefore, they wanted Helveticans to guide them through every stage of the podcast.

Collaboration Complexities

We were working with not just Arvind, the main host of the podcasts, who is based in the US, and the guests who could be located anywhere in the world, but also a co-host who is based in the UK and Nathan from Bridge Growth Agency, who is also responsible for executing certain aspects of the podcast, again based in the UK. We are talking about a podcast that happens from distributed locations but needs to be presented in a unified manner.

Managing Podcast Environment, Remotely

Ensuring that the recording apparatus, apart from the recording software, including the microphone, camera, the podcaster’s environment, the guest’s environment, and lighting, is conducive to an impactful podcast.

Multiple Feedback Loops

Numerous stakeholders offered suggestions on the tonality and length of the podcast. The podcast was undergoing progressive improvements and additions, e.g., the introduction of the co-host in the fourth round of the iteration. The focus was on improving the podcast with subsequent iterations to make it more engaging.

We also had to ensure that the podcast was not boring and kept the audience engaged throughout. We had to put our creative cap on to make certain unique interventions.

Podcast Quality

The podcast was being recorded from distributed locations and, at times, on laptops with bad cameras, and we had limited control over the video input. This resulted in low-quality videos that lacked the expected sharpness, and if viewed from large screens, the videos appeared blurred. Fine-tuning video quality was a challenging task.

Impactful Cover Art

Podcast cover art was a key design challenge, as it needed to resonate with the podcast's thought-leadership ethos. It needed to look professional and polished yet unique and had to exude a degree of seriousness.

Distribution Channels

Working with the team to identify the ideal channel for podcast distribution and ensuring each podcast complied with its submission policy. Not all channels are built equal, and different audiences frequent different channels. We had to identify channels that cater to the podcasts’ audience persona.

Constant Performance Monitoring and Improvement

Improving podcasts with an eye for podcast metrics and taking them through continuous evolution and refinement. Helveticans couldn’t produce the podcast, publish it, and forget about it. The team also had to monitor its performance and analyze what went right and wrong to take correct action in the subsequent episodes.

Overall, the team had to manage many podcasts with varying degrees of complications, which needed to be edited and published within the given time frame.

We started by getting our bearings right, which included learning more about the podcast's reasons and objectives. The Helveticans team also had to understand the technology topics discussed in the podcast series, not in detail but enough to edit the podcast and summarize it for optimization.

Our team then explained the nitty-gritty of the podcast environment to Arvind and the team and the basic requirements, starting with a good microphone and camera. We put in place a work methodology that allowed us to efficiently manage the production process by guiding the host and the guest to appropriately set the microphone and camera and adjust the room lighting in which they would participate in the podcast.

The team also identified StreamYard, a live-streaming and recording studio, as the perfect choice to record the podcast and prepared a ‘User Guide’ that listed the various steps to use the software and prepare for the recording, including adjusting the surroundings and the system setup.

Initially, the podcasts were more than an hour long, which everyone agreed was too long for the audience to invest in them. With subsequent iterations and meaningful interventions to speed up conversations and not diverge from the topic, we could reduce the podcast timing to ideal levels. More importantly, we established a process wherein we edit conversations that have no bearing on the quality of the podcast. But it did not stop with editing; we intersperse the podcasts with relevant imagery and B-rolls to ensure audience interest is not faltering.

To improve video output, we zeroed in on an AI tool called Topaz. This tool upscales video to the ideal resolution, stabilizes footage, and ensures that the video has a sense of finesse.

To manage the podcast from different locations, we decided upon a specific time for recording the podcast and making sure the team out of Bengaluru is available at that predefined team to manage the recording remotely.

More importantly, different stakeholders had different opinions and feedback about every podcast and continue to do so; we have a cut-off time until such feedback is discussed and implemented if needed—after which the podcast is published.

Helveticans identified YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts as the best channels for publishing the ‘Unpacked’ podcasts and bringing them to their intended audience. But publishing was just the first step in podcast distribution; podcast optimization was the next. We started creating a description and summary for each podcast for every publishing channel. Also, we made a podcast homepage (a show page), which included the correct title, logo artwork, description, and episode list.

Post publishing and page optimization, we were tasked with creating some buzz for the podcast by promoting it on LinkedIn. So far, the team has worked on 25 podcasts in season 1, and the same number of podcasts have been planned for season 2. We are talking about 100 podcasts that go through production, editing, publishing, promotion, and performance monitoring that are entirely managed by the Helveticans team sitting out of the Bengaluru office.