Following the success of their podcast The Honest Talk, co-founders, hosts and communications experts Catherine Clark and Jennifer Stewart are using the strength of their brand to build out a new digital platform with an altruistic bent.
“Our mission has always been to help women lead better, healthier, happier lives,” Clark tells MiC. “Our podcast features remarkable women who have survived challenges and embraced opportunities, and our new digital platform will be an extension of that – a unique, engaging, evolving space designed to inform life choices and inspire confidence.”
“We decided that one way to help empower women was to provide free ad space to women-focused non-profit organizations in our first month of launch,” adds Stewart. “Catherine and I believe in giving back, and we hope that by providing these organizations with a bit of profile, we’re helping them to gain new supporters, which in turn lets them enhance the good work they do to make communities stronger and safer for women.”
The Honest Talk was recently named one of Canada’s top podcasts for women (Feedspot), and features discussions focused on the experiences, challenges, aspirations and lessons shared by women entrepreneurs, business leaders and professionals. The duo lean on their expertise as executives in the communications and marketing industry – Clark is president of Catherine Clark Communications and Jennifer Stewart is president of full-service agency Syntax Strategic.
The Honest Talk has been downloaded 22,000 times, and has 9,000 unique listeners. Women make up most of the audience (88%), of which 35% are 34-44, 22% are 45-54, with a majority (almost 75%) living in Canada.
The new The Honest Talk digital platform will be positioned to inspire and empower Canadian women just like the podcast, but it will feature additional formats, subject matter, and channels for engagement to complement the original podcast, as well as build new advertising opportunities like custom content, paid profiles, sponsorships, newsletter activations, and traditional digital banners, on top of full episode sponsorships, pre-, and mid-roll ads on the podcast.
The ad opportunity is scheduled to start with the platform’s launch on November 1 and will include locations across the site aligned with an organization’s focus (i.e. an NGO advocating for mental health would be featured on the Life page).
