A podcast to connect the country

The challenge

With the power of podcast, National Highways wanted to create a new platform to explore the future of England’s motorways and major roads – how they can make them safer, greener, digitally transformed and more reliable. Our digital team set up an editorial, production and promotion process for a series of pilot episodes called: ‘Connecting the country’.

The solution

Our initial conversations with National Highways was all about content. While the podcast wasn’t going to be entirely scripted, we helped put together a framework script which included a pre-written intro and outro from a subject matter expert and host. We then discussed key industry speakers who could join the conversation – working with them ahead of time to confirm the kind of questions and responses they would like to cover. This was captured as a general structure – but which allowed for natural dialogue and a conversational flow at the time of recording.

The results

Recorded at 44’s preferred podcast studio in Birmingham, the podcasts have seen an average play time of 28 minutes from its hundreds of listeners. The pilot podcast launched on Anchor FM and is featured on other major podcast platforms. Following this successful trial, National Highways are exploring the debut of a full series of monthly podcasts for 2023. Make sure to follow and subscribe here.

“44 has helped us to produce a high-quality podcast pilot series that brings to life our work via thought-provoking conversations with road industry experts. It’s been a pleasure working with the team who have provided outstanding guidance and consistently made extra efforts to help us provide interesting and engaging content for our audiences.”

Sharon Creary, Senior Strategic Communications Manager, National Highways

Alan Coates

Why we love it

“From planning to production, National Highways are such a great team to work with – and have such interesting topics on their comms agenda. We’ve put together a process that runs like clockwork – and so now it’s all about the content.”

Alan Coates, Partner – Digital