In 2021, Red Hat faced challenges in finding new and engaging ways to communicate with new audiences that were burnt out with virtual fatigue. Traditional marketing tactics, like video and paid advertising, were forced to compete in a crowded landscape for audiences’ attention. At the same time, Red Hat’s need to expand its reach and footprint became more urgent as more companies adopted technologies to face a post-pandemic world.
Having a successful foray into the branded audio space with Command Line Heroes, Red Hat created a new technology podcast that launched in August 2021. This show, Compiler, is designed to introduce new audiences to Red Hat’s point of view on contemporary technologies and the realities of working in tech. More importantly, it is a podcast created to provide a friendly, accessible primer to these topics to new or underrepresented voices in technology.
Compiler allows Red Hat to cover topics more core to the product portfolio as well as engage new audiences who are unfamiliar with the brand. It also provides listeners with diverse perspectives on new and emerging technologies that can help further their careers.
It’s important for Compiler and Command Line Heroes to not target the same listener profile so Red Hat could grow its overall audience. Each show offers a unique value to its audience. In order to do this, Red Hat approached creating a new show with the mindset of creating a media network. Each show should speak to a well-defined and distinct audience profile and focus on different topics.
While Command Line Heroes is loved for its ventures into technology history, the audience had an interest in hearing more about Red Hat and its work in more modern issues. Red Hat is uniquely positioned to provide an accessible, jargon-free introduction to technology topics from experts due to its participation in upstream open source communities.
Compiler is a 30-minute biweekly podcast. In each episode, hosts and producers seek to answer questions like: “Should managers code?”, “How are tech hubs changing?”, and “Do we want a world without technical debt?”. The hosts and producers take the listener on a journey with technologists and other subject matter experts. It is lighthearted, humorous, and entertaining. It is conversational but highly produced to help it stand out from other podcasts in the tech space.
In its first 6 months in market, Compiler has received over 110,000 downloads and reached over 74,000 unique listeners. Each episode receives about 8,000 listeners after a month in market and has ranked on the Apple Podcasts top technology charts worldwide.
In a study of Compiler listeners, there is only about a 2% overlap between Compiler listeners and Command Line Heroes listeners, showcasing the success of the network-building approach. Because of this, the overall reach for Red Hat’s branded audio shows is about 650,000 unique listeners.
