Growing Strathroy-Caradoc Podcast Series
Strathroy-Caradoc is a rural municipality of approximately 25,000 located just southwest of London, Ontario. The local economy is diverse and the municipal economic development department targets three sectors, agri-food, manufacturing and small business. The municipality’s slogan is Urban Opportunity Rural Hospitality which is aptly described by each of the guests in the podcasts. The “Growing Strathroy-Caradoc” was deliberately created to establish a call to action for listeners. With a very limited budget,(approximately $6,000.00) the creation of podcasts were completed to animate and tell the story of the advantages of locating businesses in Strathroy-Caradoc. Podcasts are a new way to pitch your community on a global level and provide an opportunity for your local business community to provide true testimonials of their experiences.
The Municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc retained the services of Storied Places to professionally produce the first season of podcasts. Economic development staff worked with the company to create a discussion outline for each of the three podcasts for the first season that featured quality of life, small business and manufacturing. Season two production is currently underway and will feature agriculture, community health and community safety. The podcasts will be complimented by a series of video shorts that feature local businesses in 2024.
All three episodes are approximately 30 minutes in length which provides an opportunity for an in-depth conversation about the advantages of locating in Strathroy-Caradoc. Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular as they are portable and decision-makers can listen to them on their own schedule.
The quality of life episode featured the experience of a “new to town” economic development commissioner and a “born and raised here” young professional and spoke to the quality of life from two different ends of the spectrum.
The small business podcast features two established small businesses in Strathroy-Caradoc. One is a financial services business and the other a small jam production/retail business. One founder is not from Strathroy, and one has deep family roots and both explain why they choose to do business in our community.
And finally, the last podcast deals with a long established manufacturing facility that is a major employer from the automotive sector, and a growing industry that will start construction on a new, larger facility in our north end industrial park. One business explains why they continue to thrive in our community and the other documents their reason for choosing Strathroy to grow their business.
Performance statistics show listeners are mainly from the London and Toronto area, while there are listeners from across the globe from locations in the United States, Netherlands and South Africa . Statistics indicated by the number of downloads that the podcasts were top performers upon their release.
Links to the podcasts can be found here:
Episode 1: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/be974c39-b3cb-45e9-94d7-939021715c26
Episode 2: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/234fe567-3efe-40b1-8d41-f88749862c20
Episode 3: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/10f81b1a-905e-460b-947e-66e841537dec
