The Franklin Institute
How Slice Communications leveraged a strategic influencer marketing campaign to solve off-season audience churn for The Franklin Institute’s “So Curious!” podcast, leading to record-breaking listenership.
Challenge
The Franklin Institute faced a common but critical challenge with its “So Curious!” podcast: maintaining audience interest and listenership during the off-season.
Analysis of their podcast analytics revealed a predictable pattern: a steep 84% dip in downloads between the end of one season and the launch of the next. This significant audience churn meant having to re-acquire listeners each season, hindering cumulative growth and momentum. The core business objective was to build a sustainable, year-round audience by keeping listeners engaged even without new episodes.
Solution
Slice Communications developed and executed a targeted influencer marketing campaign designed to generate authentic buzz and drive podcast subscriptions during the crucial off-season period. The strategy was built on precision targeting and creating genuine connections, not just paying for posts.
- 1. Strategic Influencer Vetting & Outreach: We identified and pitched 88 client-approved influencers, bypassing generic lists to focus on creators in specific, relevant verticals: Mental Health, Science/Polymath, and creators with a strong Philadelphia connection. This ensured every partnership would resonate authentically with the target audience.
- 2. Full-Service Campaign Management: Slice handled all aspects of the campaign, from negotiating contracts and managing payments to briefing creators and ensuring content quality. We secured 8 paid partnerships that resulted in 25 unique pieces of content.
- 3. Fostering Authentic Conversation: The campaign’s goal was not just views, but meaningful engagement. Influencers were encouraged to share their genuine reactions to specific podcast episodes, sparking conversations in the comments and creating a ripple effect of authentic interest.
Impact
The influencer campaign successfully transformed The Franklin Institute’s off-season slump into a period of sustained engagement and growth, delivering quantifiable results that directly addressed the core business challenge.
- Reduced Audience Churn by 10 Percentage Points: The campaign successfully preserved interest between seasons, reducing the typical download dip from 84% to 74%. This stabilization provided a much larger and more engaged listener base for the new season launch.
- Achieved Record-Breaking Downloads: By maintaining momentum, the podcast launched its new season to its largest audience ever, achieving record-breaking download numbers that surpassed all previous season premieres.
Generated High-Quality Audience Engagement: The campaign produced significant, measurable engagement that indicates true audience interest beyond passive views. - Sparked Authentic Community Interest: The 67 comments across the posts showed genuine follower interest, with users tagging friends and adding the podcast to their personal rotations—a key indicator of high-quality conversions.
This case study demonstrates our ability to turn data into strategy. By identifying a key business challenge in the analytics, we developed a targeted campaign that not only generated buzz but delivered a measurable ROI by solving the critical issue of audience churn.
- 583k+ Potential Impressions
- 38.5k+ Video Views
- 133 Clicks directly to the podcast
