Tink Media’s founder, Lauren Passell
Audiobooks and podcasts have been sky-rocketing in popularity over the past three or four years. In 2019, the number of Americans who had listened to an audiobook passed 50%, a first for the medium. Podcasts are also on the rise, with investments from companies like Spotify and Pandora further encouraging a virtious cycle of audience growth and a broadening pool of podcasters.
At the top of the year, I predicted we’d see publishers and authors capitalizing off of audio in exciting and unexpected ways. Lauren Passell has just founded one interesting business, Tink, which that does just that. Tink is a two-month-old media company with a specific focus: It builds podcast publicity campaigns for writers.
How Tink Works
A few years ago, Passell was a podcast-obsessed Social Media Director at Little, Brown. She noticed publicists’ databases weren’t really up-to-date in the area of podcast outreach, a rapidly growing yet under-acknowledged side of a strong publicity campaign.
Why? Podcast audiences are simply more engaged: Podcast listeners will hear out all or most of 80% of the podcasts they start.
“I used to run digital ads for some of the books I was working on, and you can throw money at a Facebook ad, but I don’t think the results have ever been good, and they are worse now, as people continue to lose trust with Facebook in general,” Passell tells me. “On a podcast, you have the listener’s trust. Listeners have opted into the show they are listening to. And because podcasts don’t have to follow the rules of traditional media, an interview can run super long or be incredibly niche, and still find a highly-engaged audience. I know that when I am listening to a podcast, I am wildly googling the books, articles, subjects and people mentioned.”
Tink’s focus on nonfiction authors specifically also makes sense, given how well they mesh with podcast listeners’ strong interest in entertaining educational content. “People listen to podcasts to hear conversations with experts, to learn something, to get to know a new person or subject,” she explains. “A nonfiction author is an expert in whatever they are writing about, and their experience is truly unique.”
Passell is a little less interested in the massive household names in podcasting like WTF With Marc Maron or The Joe Rogan Experience, and more interested in the 600,000 or so shows that have niche yet reasonably large audiences.
She’s also interested in engaging with more diverse podcast creators: “I know some people think podcasts are all cis white men talking about movies in their basements, but that is not my wheelhouse,” she says. “I gravitate toward shows hosted and produced by non-cis people, women, and POC. That is who interests me most. So I have been able to connect with people at More Banana, Lemonada, and other networks that are specializing in underrepresented voices.” To that end, she works with both individual authors as well as traditional publicity teams that need a podcast expert.
Why Podcasts Are So Hot Right Now
Audio content has been around for a long time, from phonographs to cassettes to CDs. Podcasts themselves have been around since the iPhone debuted in 2007. Why is audio content suddenly experiencing a surge in interest now? Part of the answer has to do with our packed schedules.
“I think one big issue is time,” Passell explains. “People are busier than ever, and they can listen to podcasts and audiobooks while they do their husband’s laundry and clean their cat’s litter box (for example). It’s also just a different kind of experience. My favorite way to enjoy a book, hands down, is the physical book in my hand. But there is something to say for the rich and intimate experience you have when you hear David Sedaris reading Calypso straight into your ears.”
Another reason: A dropping interest in endless social media feeds and blogs. Podcasts are taking off “for the same reason newsletters are seeing a Renaissance,” Passell says. “People want good content curated and delivered to them from a source they know and trust. And as opposed to a blog, a podcast ends. You can feel like you’ve completely listened to something. You’re not scrolling for hours and getting lost in black holes.”
All Creators Are Welcome
Passell’s agency has already surprised her in the short time she’s been operating it.
“Tink is 2 months old and when I started it, I thought it was one thing. But with every conversation I have with an author,” she says, “I realize it is something more.”
“People are reaching out to me with really out-of-the-box ideas, like a Sri Lankan chef who has had her tart featured on the cover of Food and Wine, to a woman creating an Audible Original memoir about being the first Asian Woman in hip hop,” she adds. “On day one I said I wanted to connect nonfiction authors with podcasts. But I’m now seeing the people who I can help are artists and creators in general. I want to talk to anyone who has an interesting story to tell. I want to get their stories out there, their books sold, and I want to make podcasts better. Less cis white men talking about movies in their basements, and more unfiltered discussions between fascinating people that without podcasts, never would have happened.”
