Among the entries were former reality stars
Squarespace and Gimlet Creative asked users to submit their ideas for their own podcast series and the response has been overwhelming. In the three weeks the contest was open for submissions, more than 5,000 entries poured in.
Squarespace, an online publishing platform, and Gimlet Creative, the team that oversees branded podcasts, will produce its own, separate podcast series, called Casting Call, to document the contest. Katelyn Bogucki, senior producer of Casting Call, said they were “blown away” by the number of submissions.
Those who wanted to participate were asked to give a podcast name, some audio and a written pitch for the show.
“We were inspired by the many podcast listeners out there who continually let us know that if they hear a Squarespace ad on a show, they know it’s going to be a good one,” said Squarespace CMO Kinjil Mathur. “Since the community views our ads as a seal of approval for good content or a marker of a podcast’s legitimacy, we knew that if we were ever to do our own show, we couldn’t let them down. Our own podcast needed to challenge the traditional concept of branded content and be nothing short of original.”