How much or little narration or interviewer guidance should you have to set the stage for guest or customer stories in a branded company podcast? To experience what it sounds like to go with a really stripped down approach, let’s take a look at Statefarm Insurance's podcast:

Roundabout

The show has two producing partners, Acast Creative and DCP Entertainment. I listened to the final episode of eight, with each episode being an independent story from a pair of consumers about their experience together driving and roadtripping. The show structure jumps directly into the customers introducing themselves and telling their story. There’s also a great soundscape with background music and sound effects. They run a producer-read midroll ad for StateFarm auto insurance, and at the end, the customer narrator reads the credits.

I found the format intriguingly creative but also a bit too unstructured to reinforce the show and brand. The name of the show is not stated at all to start the episode, and only once in the ending credits. And while there was an immersive and authentic feel to only hearing the voice of the storyteller, remember that a significant amount of podcast episodes start while the listener is doing another activity, so they may not have just intentionally clicked on your show or are looking at your cover art to see the show name and logo.

StateFarm has a lot of built up equity and recognition from their advertising and branding across different channels. It was a really smart touch that they used their familiar audio signature (the music notes that for years have gone with “like a good neighbor”) to jump into and out of the ad segment. I just wish they had gone for the full integration with their video ads and had “Jake from StateFarm” read the ad!