How is a branded segment different from a branded podcast?

A brand that commissions its own podcast owns the show and has to find it an audience, while a branded segment or sponsored episode sits inside a show that already has one, and borrows its host and its listeners for a few minutes or an hour. It usually costs less and starts sooner, and it depends more on choosing the right show.

Do sponsored segments need a disclosure?

Yes, when the segment sounds like the show's own content. Under the FTC's Endorsement Guides, as revised in June 2023, an obvious commercial read by a host early in a podcast needs nothing added, because listeners would assume the host was paid, while a segment that passes for the host's own editorial material does. The outline carries the disclosure wording, so it is said plainly in the audio before the segment starts.

Does the brand get to approve the content?

Yes, for the subject, the claims and the disclosure. The conversation stays in the host's hands, since a segment that sounds scripted by the sponsor loses what made the show worth sponsoring.

Branded podcast segments and episodes / Lucid Media Partners

For products that need more than a minute, we plan longer formats inside existing shows: a presenting sponsorship, a branded segment or a sponsored episode. A pension provider, a university course or a piece of business software may be better explained over several minutes, by a host who can ask the questions a listener would, and some brands want to be associated with a show for longer than a single read.

The formats

A presenting sponsorship attaches the brand to an episode or a series, usually with reads at the start and in the middle and a mention at the close. It works when the brand’s subject sits close to the show’s and the brand wants listeners to connect the two over time.

A branded segment is a few minutes inside the show about something the brand understands deeply, often with a guest from the brand or a specialist it works with, while the host leads the conversation. It suits products that are easier to understand when someone explains how they work.

A sponsored episode is a whole episode built around a subject the brand supports, made by the show in its usual style. It is the largest commitment and the one that most needs a host who is free to ask real questions, since listeners will hear the difference between an episode the show wanted to make and one it was paid to make.

Disclosure

A segment that could pass for the host’s own editorial material has to be disclosed aloud, which a plainly commercial read does not. The FTC’s Endorsement Guides, revised in June 2023, use the case of a host who opens a podcast with something obviously an advertisement: listeners would assume a payment, and nothing more needs saying (16 CFR 255.5, Example 12). Listeners make no such assumption about a segment, so the material connection needs a clear and conspicuous disclosure, which the Guides explain as one that is hard to miss, easy to understand and made through the same medium as the content (16 CFR 255.0). The outline opens the segment with the disclosure, and the episode description repeats it.

Keeping the show’s voice

The brand approves the subject, the claims and the disclosure, and the host leads the conversation, since the show’s own voice is what the brand is paying to sit beside. We look for subjects the show’s listeners would want to hear about whether or not a brand had paid for them, and we turn down formats that would ask a host to perform enthusiasm they do not have.

Measuring longer formats

We judge a segment or episode on more than response. Where the show can report it, we look at how much of the segment people listened to, and we add a survey or brand lift study to see whether listeners came away understanding the product better or thinking better of the brand. Codes and pixel attribution still apply, and we keep the reading window open longer, since an episode goes on finding listeners for weeks after it is released.

What you receive

A format proposal setting out what the brand would sponsor, how long it runs, and how the host keeps editorial control.
A segment or episode outline agreed with the host.
Disclosure wording for the audio, the episode description and any video version.
A measurement plan suited to a longer format, including listen-through where the show can report it.

Questions we are often asked

How is a branded segment different from a branded podcast?: A brand that commissions its own podcast owns the show and has to find it an audience, while a branded segment or sponsored episode sits inside a show that already has one, and borrows its host and its listeners for a few minutes or an hour. It usually costs less and starts sooner, and it depends more on choosing the right show.
Do sponsored segments need a disclosure?: Yes, when the segment sounds like the show's own content. Under the FTC's Endorsement Guides, as revised in June 2023, an obvious commercial read by a host early in a podcast needs nothing added, because listeners would assume the host was paid, while a segment that passes for the host's own editorial material does. The outline carries the disclosure wording, so it is said plainly in the audio before the segment starts.
Does the brand get to approve the content?: Yes, for the subject, the claims and the disclosure. The conversation stays in the host's hands, since a segment that sounds scripted by the sponsor loses what made the show worth sponsoring.

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