The main purpose of creating our podcast, Merging Into Life, was twofold: Meet our members where they are and form personal bonds, and introduce AAA to a newer, younger audience. With about 50% of Americans listening to podcasts each year, according to Pew Research Center data, there are bound to be quite a few AAA members – and future members – among them.
Our podcast offers valuable insight on some of life’s big decisions through interviews with experts at AAA and other professionals in various industries. With episodes such as “Buying Your First Car,” “Theme Park Secrets” and “Insurance 101,” the podcast covers topics AAA knows best. While its target audience is Generation Z and younger Millennials, there are lessons for all ages.
To bring Merging Into Life to our audiences, we enlisted the help of JAR Audio, a podcast production company in Canada, after vetting many others. They helped us define our episodes, set a cadence, source external guests and advised on distribution before and after launch. Internally, we've leveraged our social media channels (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, primarily) in order to connect with existing and new, younger audiences, deployed dedicated emails to our 6 million+ members, and have promoted the podcast in audio and video formats across all platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, Pocketcasts.
The challenges were what you would expect in launching a podcast—ownership, resource management, guest chasing, how to collect data and use it to inform future episodes—but all were overcome through the dedication of our talented team and help from JAR. The greatest challenge was cutting through the noise and just being heard. We have submitted applications to be featured on the podcast platforms, and had success with being chosen by Apple Podcasts to be highlighted in their "Adulting 101" spotlight last month.
Having launched in May 2024, we've watched our metrics rise with the release of each new episode. We have just released our eighth episode of a planned 24 for the first season. Our consumption rate has stayed over 75% overall, our audience is primarily younger listeners under the age of 45, which was our target, and the number of downloads has steadily increased over time.
As in any new venture, we continue to learn and pivot our content based on our metrics and feedback we've received from listeners. As we roll out each new biweekly episode, we gather more data on what works, what doesn't, and how we can better reach our target audiences.
