The New Audio Offensive: “kicker” Relies On Podcasts

Just under a quarter of an hour from Nuremberg Central Station, Franconian media professionals are among themselves: the media house with the somewhat unwieldy name Verlag Nürnberger Presse Druckhaus Nürnberg GmbH & Co KG, or VNP for short, is located on and around Badstrasse. On the other side of the street is Olympia-Verlag with the brands “ALPIN”, the sports agency kicker business solutions and “kicker”. Anyone with a passion for soccer will recognize the white lettering on a red background. In recent years, “kicker” has managed to overcome the challenges of digitalization with successful strategies. One of these is podcasts - the sports medium is tackling this issue and wants to continue its success story with a new audio offensive. Isabella Fischer is a central figure in the strategy. In December 2023, the audio editor crossed the street and joined “kicker”, having previously set up the first audio team at the local VNP newspaper “Nürnberger Nachrichten”. Among other things, she produced the podcast “Klick Klick Boom - Die Maschine Amazon” about working conditions at the online mail order company, for which she and the production team received the Dr. Georg Schreiber Media Prize in May 2024.

Central coordination of all audio matters

At “kicker”, Fischer can be heard on “kicker Daily”, the daily 15-minute soccer news podcast that has been running since November 2023. But also in “kicker's” first audio reportage format, “The Fourth Star”, a five-part documentary podcast about the 2014 World Cup. The topic: the German men's soccer team winning the title in Brazil. The production is not only proof of Fischer's ambition to develop new formats at “kicker”. It also demonstrates her strategic approach: “Der vierte Stern” is evidence of a better integration of audio content with social media, online editing and audience development. “All audio matters come together in my department,” says the editor, explaining: ”Although I'm part of the digital editorial team, I'm involved everywhere and provide input, for example for marketing and distribution measures.” As an audio editor, she has to think strategically across the board and consider whether and how to place a podcast episode in the digital or print magazine, which social media formats are suitable and which advertising partners are suitable. It is not enough to simply record a podcast and put it live. “That's why the social team in particular had a lot of extra work during the European Championships with the distribution of 'The Fourth Star',” she reveals.

Breaking new ground, sticking to the brand essence

Alongside “kicker Daily” and “Der vierte Stern”, there are four other formats in the podcast portfolio of the soccer top dog, including the successful format “kicker meets DAZN” (KMD) and “kicker FE:male”. Those who are less interested in soccer can listen to “Icing the kicker” on the National Football League (NFL) or the e-sports podcast “/gg”. Because: “kicker” is more than just soccer, even if the ball sport remains the hobbyhorse of the sports media brand: “We also explore the potential of other sports, such as handball and basketball. But there are also many opportunities in soccer that we can exploit,” explains Benjamin Schmid. The Product Manager for Social TV and Audio is working on the strategic expansion of video and audio formats and on exploiting marketing opportunities. Schmid and Fischer were jointly responsible for the production of “The Fourth Star”. Fischer sees “an incredible amount of opportunities to develop new formats with other sports”, as “kicker” also benefits from a positive reputation. “I was recently at a triathlon, where people were thrilled that 'kicker' was interested in them. There is a lot of potential to tell exciting stories.” In addition to looking at other sports and narrative forms, the publishing house's portfolio also includes an independent podcast platform.

In March 2023, the publishing house took over “Football was my first love” (FWMFL), where soccer enthusiasts or fan groups can publish podcasts on and from soccer fan culture and also listen to audio books and fan chants. An exciting addition to the serious “kicker” offering, as emotional aspects play a particularly important role here: “With ‘kicker’, we have a clear journalistic offering that classifies topics and is in high demand. At FWMFL, private individuals can also place and monetize their content 'from the bottom up', so to speak. There are completely different target groups and formats. It is an exciting business area in which we also generate a lot of experience. Overall, this shows our broad strategic positioning of the business areas here at the company.” The pragmatic “kicker” is also becoming more approachable itself, for example through videos of reporters celebrating with Dutch fans or podcast editors telling personal stories. “That's a great development. Our people can now be seen and heard more often. Not just an impersonal abbreviation under an article that readers can't associate with anything,” says strategist Benjamin Schmid.

More frequency, more coverage, more breadth?

Now “kicker” is at a crossroads: use potential - also outside of soccer - and develop new formats or focus on optimizing the current variety of formats. This requires a lot of self-reflection. In addition, the team must constantly examine what “kicker” conveys as a brand and what it wants to be in the future. Schmid notes that plenty of experience has been gathered: “When it comes to marketing, reach is very important. Marketing works very well with our flagship format 'kicker meets DAZN'.” This is partly due to the weekly publication rhythm. Due to the high frequency and topicality, there is a limited time window within which you have to generate figures. On the other hand, this gives you quick results and a good chance of building up a loyal audience that listens to the format continuously - which allows you to enter into an exchange with marketing partners. “'Der vierte Stern', on the other hand, was a flagship project that works very differently.”

Compared to serial formats, a reportage format is not a daily news program with a short half-life, but generates long-term listener figures. The key is to keep the target group's attention for the podcast high in the long term. Isabella Fischer explains: “It takes a long lead time and patience. With a reportage format, you can't expect everyone to jump on it when it goes live.” Fischer was surprised by the audience development team's high reach forecast: “I was a little underestimated at first. But of course there is a big difference in reach between a national magazine like 'kicker' and the local medium 'Nürnberger Nachrichten'.”

Not just hard figures

But it's not just numbers and utilization that play a role in podcast planning. It is also an editorial decision to take on a topic, says Fischer: “It would have been a huge mistake if ‘kicker’ hadn't done anything about the 2014 World Cup. We had many reporters on site who were close to the team. They were able to tell stories that you can only hear from us.” This should now also pay off in the long term. The “kicker” team can take “Der vierte Stern” as an example of best practice and continue to work with the experience gained. For example, from the cross-channel approach to “The Fourth Star”, says Fischer: “We put an article from back then about the historic 7:1 semi-final success on the homepage together with other podcast articles, and at the same time posted a quote from it on social media. We asked questions about the tournament in a quiz, and listeners found the answers in the podcast. We were able to see how this influenced the number of hits on the podcast.”

On the other hand, the success also lies in the positive message that “The Fourth Star” conveys. “Everyone remembers it fondly. The European Championship this year was an additional factor. People wanted the story to be told further. However, it's not our job to create an atmosphere for the big event. The team is responsible for that - and Julian Nagelsmann, who announced that we will be world champions in two years' time. That boosts the euphoria for soccer. But of course we would have done the podcast even without the European Championship.” Last but not least, it's a question of attitude: “It may be a cliché, but it really is the case. If everyone believes in the project, is up for it and pulls together, it works - even in a very short space of time,” says Fischer.