All the way back in May of 2021 when I met my co-founder of Campaign Casters, Haven Joseph-Lyon, I joined his campaign as a player. I offered to record our zoom sessions as a way to preserve the story and have something to look back to. After some time, I pitched the idea that we make this campaign into a podcast and that was the start of the journey.
-Character art by Renata Cunha
Eldritch Origins was our first podcast, and it was a rough start for a number of reasons:
-Audio quality was bad. We didn’t use microphones, just the recorded file of that zoom meeting
-I was the only editor and was figuring out how Adobe Audition worked
-We didn’t have an artist, so having Adobe Illustrator made me the graphic designer
-I needed to release episodes every two weeks while balancing a full-time student schedule editing five hour sessions into at max, two hour episodes
-3 members were full time working adults and the other 4 were full time students as well
I was drowning in work to keep up because I wanted it to be successful. I used my classes and talked with professors on the course topics to see how I can constantly improve the show. I failed in keeping up with episode releases (I was lucky to post two episodes in a month), but our group didn’t want to give up. We survived a year with 11 posted episodes and around five episodes to catch up on, but in a huge twist, two members wanted to leave and the adults weren’t able to commit…
The podcast disbanded and it was Haven and I left to figure out what we wanted to do. We decided to rebrand and start something new with a better plan and a new cast and crew. In September of 2022, I got to work on the rebrand.
-Logo design by Bee “Mochi” Aritatpokin
Haven and I had three things in mind for this rebrand:
-A new name
-A unique logo
-A new color palette
I got to work with a good friend, Bee “Mochi” Aritatpokin, who we wanted to help out with our logo design. I started making mock-ups of the new logo with different color palettes of images I found online. The big focus was something that represented dungeons and dragons to indicate what our show was about but making sure it was different from other podcast groups. It took about two months, but we were able to be happy with the end result.
Once we got our new look, I took a deep dive into brand consistency and research on how to improve from our first failed attempt. Haven and I spent the next two years developing the show’s story, editing workflow, podcast layout, and content plan.
I was in my senior year of college, and I had a lot more knowledge to offer for the show. I made a marketing strategy laying our business goals, determining our target audience, creating user personas, drafting content pillars, and conducting social media audits on our competitors/peers.
Once we had a solid plan to begin working off of, Haven and I went to find a new cast to be a part of Campaign Casters. The summer of 2024 was long and lot of pre-production went into the launch. There was test recordings, documenting our progress, and finally getting ready to hit the publish button on our first episode. On October 11th, 2024, Campaign Casters went live and the rest is something you can listen to on all your streaming platforms!
The materials below are graphics I made along with some of the research materials I created for our marketing strategy, but with how constant the environment changes in media, we are constantly changing our methods too!
Target Audience
Problem Statements:
I want to understand how people stick with a podcast
Research Objectives & Questions:
Understand what makes people listen to an entire episode
What do people like when listening to an entertainment podcast?
What do people think is better in the duration of an episode? (Longer or Shorter)
What’s the difference between the D&D podcasts people like and the D&D podcasts that aren’t as popular?
Identify what makes engaging content for people to support
What makes people stick around for the next episode?
How have the D&D podcasts people like make content reachable?
Identify what digital platforms make the best method to interact with a podcast
What applications do people listen to for their podcasts?
What other platforms do people like seeing their creators on?
Geographic:
-College Campuses
-High School Campuses
Demographic:
-Age: 18-30
-Gender: All inclusive
-Occupation: Students and Entry Level Jobs
Behavior:
-Loves listening to episodic audio stories that include comedy
-Loves D&D and other TTRPG and board games
-Uses lots of technology and applications to support content creators
User Personas
Name: Jayce Carpenter
Age: 21
Pronouns: They/Them
Education: Enrolled Bachelor’s Degree
Hometown: Slippery Rock
Family: Single
Occupation: Full Time Student/Server
Bio:
Jayce is an occupied college student that focuses on their studies and server job to be able to afford rent and a meal plan. A lot of their time is spent studying and worrying about their next test/quiz for their coursework while working a job. They have been interested in finding a way to learn how to relax during their busy day. One of their most favorite hobbies was reading murder mystery books in high school.
Problem Statement:
Jayce is a busy student who needs a way to unwind during periods of downtime to ensure that they can focus on mental health.
Frustrations:
Time is Jayce’s enemy. They need to have a timely break period that can help recover from stress.
Simplicity is key. Jayce cannot add any new hobbies that will take up their time during the day.
Goals:
Jayce wants a way to focus on mental health where they can take their mind off of studying and serving.
Name: Brian Rivers
Age: 26
Pronouns: He/Him
Education: Bachelor’s Degree
Hometown: Pittsburgh
Family: Single
Occupation: Software Developer
Bio:
Brian is a recent graduate that has finally found a stable job outside of the city. He found an apartment that allows his pet dog “Smokey” to stay and a nearby park so he has somewhere to go. The only issue about his job is that he has an hour long commute. He loves his music playlists but he wants to find something entertaining while he drives so he doesn’t get bored with music.
Problem Statement:
Brian is bored of his commute and wants to find an entertaining show during his commutes to work.
Frustrations:
His travel time is a problem. Most podcast shows have a 20-40 minute runtime. That is not long enough for his drive.
Goals:
He wants to find a show that takes up his whole commute.