The podcast is going through a phase that is rather curious. Never have people listened to so many, never have so many organisations considered having one and never has it been so easy to produce it. Perhaps we should ask ourselves whether we do we really need another podcast.
Every 30 of September is celebrated as the International International Podcast Day. A few years ago, we would probably have taken the opportunity on this date to talk about the virtues of the format, but now I think that it is not neccesary.
In Spain, 76% of the internet users are familiar with the format and 61% say they have listened to at least one during the last year, according to the Study on Digital Audio 2026 by IAB Spain and Nethodology. It is now the second format of digital audio most listened to, trailing behind music.
It has also established itself as an industry. Digital audio received 144.4 million euros in advertising investment in Spain during 2025, an increase of 8.5% on the previous year. Podcasts still account for a small share of that market (8.3% of investment in digital audio), but grew by 27%.
We are not, therefore, faced with a trend, but just because a format works does not mean that everything we do with it will work.
The real luxury is finding time
There is one feature of the podcast that I find particularly valuable: it requires time.
We might skim past a post on LinkedIn in three seconds; leave a website without paying attention to the information on it; swipe away when a video doesn’t immediately grab our interest… Listening for thirty, forty minutes, an hour… to two people in a conversation is different, because it means we have chosen to stay.
In a communications landscape obsessed with generating engagement, impressions, views and ever-shorter content, getting someone to set aside that time for us is almost an anomaly.
The fact is that podcasts offer something particularly valuable to organisations: space. Space to explain; to provide context; to share information; to express differing views; to develop ideas that do not necessarily have to become absolute truths. And, just as importantly, space to listen.
This explains why specialized podcasts have such a significant impact, even if they do not reach a mass audience. A small, clearly defined community that is genuinely interested can be far more valuable than thousands of undifferentiated impressions.
Podcasts as part of a communication strategy
The potential of a podcast goes beyond simply adding a new channel to a company or organisation’s content ecosystem. It enables the creation of a dedicated space for conversation and knowledge-sharing around issues that are relevant to the organisation and its audiences. It helps establish the positioning of experts and senior managers, brings in external voices, explains complex issues, fosters internal communication, builds a sense of community, and addresses specific topics in a depth that might not be achievable in other formats.
The research begins, furthermore, to document these uses. An academic study published in Spain this year, based on the analysis of 68 episodes of podcasts by Coca-Cola, Mapfre and Banco Santander, demonstrates its use particularly in internal communication to inform and train, strengthen the corporate culture and foster a sense of belonging. The study also identifies an external dimension linked to leadership, social responsibility and corporate reputation.
We are not talking, therefore, only, solely about marketing or advertising. We are talking also about reputation, positioning, leadership in terms of opinion, culture and relationships with the groups of interest.
But here an interesting paradox arises: the more corporate the objective is, the less corporate the content should prove to be in many cases the content. A study on branded podcast highlights, furthermore, a relevant issue: the greater the presence of the brand and the more obvious it is its persuasive intention, the more it weakens precisely that which distinguishes this format from advertising in the conventional sense.
I think this is a fundamental distinction. An organisation does not necessarily build its reputation more effectively the more it talks about itself. Sometimes the exact opposite is true: it builds its reputation by creating an interesting space where others want to be, listen and get involved.
A podcast is not a strategy
In recent years, companies, institutions, the media, universities, consultancy firms and professionals have been incorporating podcasts into their communication channels. The key must be to move beyond the cliché of ‘what do we want to say?’ and ask ourselves ‘why would anyone spend time listening to our podcast?’.
If what we have is an internal need to seek out innovative or different forms of communication to talk about ourselves (our products, interview our senior management, amplify corporate messages, etc.), then a podcast may not make sense.
The range is growing. The bar should also be raised
We cannot deny that the ease of producing a podcast has led to a surge in the number of podcasts available.
iVoox added more than 100,000 new programmes in 2025, over 80,000 of which were in Spanish. Its catalogue now comprises over two million podcasts and 13 million episodes. These figures come from the platform itself and therefore do not, on their own, represent the market as a whole, but they do give an idea of the scale of the content available.
All of this reflects that there are more voices, more specialisation and more opportunities to find content for practically any interest, but this abundance has a clear consequence: publishing is no longer a distinguishing feature.
What will really set us apart is ensuring that someone finds us amongst all the other options, decides to listen to us and – what is even more difficult – wants to come back. To achieve this, we need a recognisable editorial vision, a clear eye for selecting topics and guests, consistency, production, distribution and a very clear understanding of the community we wish to reach – whilst bearing in mind that not every topic is suitable, not every guest is a good fit, and not everything that is of great interest within an organisation is necessarily of interest outside it.
The podcast is no longer just audio either
Meanwhile the very format is changing. IAB Spain points out in its Study on Digital Audio 2026 that two out of every three consumers of podcast in Spain already consume video podcasts. Among the youngest people, 81%t prefer to watch the video whenever there is that option.
The platforms themselves are driving that transformation. YouTube announced in February of 2025 that it had surpassed the 1,000 million of active monthly users of podcasts. This is a figure provided by the company itself and should be interpreted as such, but it gives an idea of the scale that the audiovisual format is taking on.
Spotify is following the same path and is gradually stepping up its commitment to video podcasts. The company itself states that more than 500 million users have played a video podcast on its platform, almost 50% more than a year ago. Spotify also describes video as a central part of its podcast experience. Meanwhile, the Reuters Institute has also been documenting this transformation: podcasts are moving away from being exclusively an audio experience to increasingly combining with video and spreading across YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms.
Therefore, and from the perspective of communication, we need to think much more beyond the mere episode. The podcast is a complete ecosystem: programme, video, clips, distribution, the ability to generate further conversations, its searchability and the lifespan that it will have after its publication.
But let us not confuse that proliferation of formats with proliferation of value. Bad content remains bad even if we chop it up into twenty pieces.
What we have learnt from El elefante verde
When comma launched El elefante verde, we built it around a very simple idea: to talk about communication and, in particular, those aspects we don’t talk about enough or simply don’t dare to discuss. To seek out those ‘elephants’ that exist in newsrooms, agencies, communications departments, companies, universities and consultancy firms, and sit down to discuss them with someone who can genuinely contribute interesting experience and expertise.
We’ll be kicking off the ninth series very soon. We’ve racked up over 36,600 listens so far. It’s not a huge figure, nor do we intend to present it as such, but 65.2% of our listeners play the episodes in full, and the fact that some of them choose to stay until the end strikes me as a much more meaningful measure of success than simply racking up fleeting impressions.
Our episodes last between thirty and forty minutes and are aimed primarily at communications professionals and anyone interested in understanding how the world is portrayed – and experienced – through this medium.
Over these years we have learnt that:
- The guest matters, but the conversation matters more. A well-known name might get the first click; it’s unlikely to hold people’s attention for forty minutes if they don’t have anything interesting to say.
- A podcast needs editorial criteria. Choosing involves discarding and that isn’t always easy.
- A conversation works best when it is not geared towards a predetermined conclusion.
El elefante verde is an initiative by comma and forms part of our strategy for knowledge generation and sector analysis. However, we do not produce the podcast to talk about comma, nor do we want our guests to come on to promote their services or their companies. We want to highlight their talent, their professionalism and their career paths. We want to find out what they know, ask questions, discuss and learn – above all, learn.
And then artificial intelligence appeared
There is one final factor that makes this debate even more interesting. We have never had so many tools at our disposal for producing content. Artificial intelligence can help us research, write, edit audio, generate images, create videos, translate, transcribe, summarise, identify interesting clips and distribute them – and it will get better and better at doing so.
That represents an remarkable improvement in productivity. But it has also a consequence that is quite obvious: we are going to produce a great deal more content than we already produce.
Our ability to produce content increases, but our ability to pay attention to it does not. That is why I believe that, in the coming years, the focus will shift. Production will become easier and cheaper, but discernment will not. Knowing what is worth telling, from what angle, with whom, for whom, and why someone should devote their time to it will become even more important.
And that is where the true future of the podcast as a communication tool lies.
We don’t need more podcasts but rather good reasons to make them
A good podcast can build a sphere of knowledge centred on a specific organisation. It can bring it closer to communities that are very specific, connect it with voices that contribute different perspectives, humanise to its experts, to generate conversations which subsequently continue in other channels and demonstrate knowledge without having to proclaim it constantly.
It’s an extraordinary tool. And that’s precisely why we shouldn’t use it just because it’s trendy, because others have one, or because we need to fill our content calendar. Podcasts have become firmly established. The range of options has multiplied. Platforms are transforming them. Artificial intelligence will make them even easier to produce. Perhaps the time has come to set our sights elsewhere.
On 30 September, as we begin preparations for the ninth season of El elefante verde, I still find myself wondering whether there’s anything worth listening to. If the answer is yes, then let’s go ahead. If it’s no, perhaps the wisest decision (in terms of communication) would be not to make another podcast.
That’s why we’re already on the ninth season.
