Denver-based firm dives into podcasting

By Julie Hutchinson, Special to the Rocky

Published November 3, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Special To The Rocky

The "landing page" of a podcast. "People who want to get information quickly prefer to get it through a podcast," economist says.

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For businesses eager to present a cutting-edge image and keep loyal customers, the podcast is the next new thing.

And Denver-based ProLogis is jumping into podcasting in a big, big way.

The company's first podcast, featuring a proprietary research report on how manufacturers in Mexico are competing successfully against China, was produced last month and was to become downloadable free to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection last Friday.

Denver-based ProLogis, a Fortune 500 company and member of the S&P 500, ranks as the world's largest owner and developer of distribution centers. The company's operations span North America, Asia and Europe.

"Podcasting isn't brand-new, but it's becoming much more important," said Leonard Sahling, a research economist who heads ProLogis' global research department. "We're always looking for new ways of disseminating our research. Written research is becoming less and less important, and people who want to get information quickly prefer to get it through a podcast."

Other companies producing research reports for subscribers via podcasts on a regular schedule include Wells Fargo, IBM, General Electric, Deloitte and Vanguard.

ProLogis is one of the first international real estate businesses to adopt podcasts as a regular part of its marketing, Sahling said.

The inaugural podcast, "Mexico's Maquiladoras - Climbing the Ladder of Success," will be available free on iTunes. Working from a script written by Sahling, the podcast features Sahling, ProLogis research analyst Amanda Buie and, as moderator, longtime Denver TV news anchor Ed Sardella.

The podcast is produced in high-quality video and was filmed in the company's boardroom at its Denver headquarters, which was staged as a library for the production. The production included a makeup artist and several rehearsals.

"We studied lots of production techniques to see what would work best for us," said ProLogis marketing director Viki Mann. "With the quality of the research, we felt we needed to deliver a quality podcast."

Mann declined to reveal the cost of the initial podcast.

ProLogis' extensively researched reports, which cover topics from moving freight to voice-recognition systems to logistics infrastructure in central and eastern Europe, have been available for five years on its Web site as PDFs.

The research acts as a valuable tool for ProLogis in establishing the company as a "thought leader" - corporate-speak for a business that "takes a long-term or wide-angle view of the business and the industry," Sahling said. "We want to come across as people who understand the business and go to great lengths to do so and to communicate that knowledge."

For now, ProLogis plans to produce about four of its research reports a year as podcasts, but that could change depending on the response, company officials said. Dozens of free research reports produced by ProLogis over the past five years are available as PDFs at prologisresearch.com/ news.

Sahling pushed ProLogis to adopt the podcast approach for distributing its research reports because he believes it's the future - and statistics back that.

According to a report issued in August by the Pew Research Center, 19 percent of all Internet users say they have downloaded a podcast to listen to or view later - an increase of 50 percent since 2006. Pew's research indicates 34 percent of American adults and 43 percent of Internet users own an iPod or an MP3 player.

"Businesspeople are inundated with printed information," Sahling said. "What we believe is that many people are willing to download a podcast, which they can watch and listen to at their convenience on a computer or an iPod or a telephone."

Mann said ProLogis anticipates the podcasts will drive more traffic to the company's Web site and allow it to tailor information even more strategically to clients' needs.

The company knows from its Web site that 50 percent of registered users come from outside North America, a "wonderful surprise," Mann said, that has made the Internet marketing of ProLogis "a global initiative."

The podcasts also will help to build ProLogis' image and brand by way of its presence on Internet search engines. The podcast on manufacturing in Mexico, for example, will turn up in any Internet search on topics such as Mexican tax reform.

"Research shows that 85 percent of business-to-business buyers are turning to search engines," Mann said. "It's very important for us to be present there."

Mike Schrader, president of Littleton-based Moxie Media, which produced the podcast for ProLogis, said video ranks as an increasingly important part of marketing for many businesses.

"Video is becoming a part of everyone's daily diet of information that they're taking off the Web," Schrader said.

Podcasts also are a valuable tool for businesses seeking to reach a younger demographic, ProLogis' Mann said.

"The median age of people hitting our Web site is 39 to 45," Mann said. "That age group is interested in podcasts and video."

Cynthia Evans, who teaches business at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, said students are completely comfortable with all the whiz- bang technology and that even UNC professors are beginning to share information with one another in the form of podcasts.

Podcast Q&A

* What is a podcast?

A podcast is video or audio that can be viewed or downloaded from a Web site.

* How is a podcast different from video or Flash?

What distinguishes a podcast from, say, a YouTube video, is that podcasts are produced and distributed on a regular schedule.

* How are podcasts distributed?

Podcasts are distributed automatically to subscribers whenever a new one is produced.

* How are podcasts viewed?

Subscribers transfer downloaded podcasts onto MP3 players, iPods or cell phones for listening or viewing at their convenience.

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