Banking and financial services provider HSBC UK is the newest headline sponsor of The News Agents, Global has announced, thanks to the agreement of a six-month deal.
The partnership will see podcast hosts Jon Sopel, Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall highlighting the company’s position as a leading international bank, and discussing its benefits across both business and personal banking.
As part of the agreement, HSBC will also receive a one-month sponsorship of The News Agents: USA - a new weekly spin-off show with Maitlis and Sopel looking at US news, which the bank will be sponsoring throughout July.
“We’re delighted to welcome HSBC UK as the new sponsor of The News Agents and our freshly launched sister title The News Agents: USA,” said Katie Bowden, director of commercial for audio at Global. “We know that long-term partnerships help build a strong affinity for brands with listeners and Emily, Jon & Lewis have become synonymous with engaging host reads so I’m looking forward to hearing their take on HSBC’s products and services!”
HSBC replaces BT Business, which was the podcast’s launch sponsor for the several months of its release. Simon White, marketing media manager for BT Business, told delegates at Campaign’s Media 360 summit last month that the partnership was highly effective for the company.
“We were very, very lucky with The News Agents that it took off as quickly as it did,” said White. “The uplift in intent to recommend BT to other people went up by 110%, consideration went up by 35%, which was way more than we estimated.”
“Also, when we're looking at things like that, we need context so we asked Global what were the normal levels on this, and we've beaten norm on everything as well… we couldn't have wished for more.”
The News Agents has been a notable success since its launch in August last year, becoming a regular fixture in the UK podcast charts and breaking a number of stories. The podcast has now passed 30 million downloads, according to Global.
“We’re pleased to have agreed this partnership with Global for their hugely successful news podcast, The News Agents,” said Becky Moffat, CMO at HSBC UK. “It’s a great opportunity to feature on one of the UK’s most popular podcasts, and we look forward to working closely with Global over the coming months.”
