Explore

Hospitality.FM Blueprint

Overview

⁠

Hospitality.FM⁠

started as a way to solve the problem I saw in 2021. Podcasters in our industry loved the medium but needed help with things like promotion, discoverability, production and staying consistent, and other things around software & recording equipment. They wanted to own their craft and even make a few bucks doing it with advertising dollars backing their show concepts and voice.

HFM has reached a “growing up point” in its almost two years of operations. How do we scale this with a focus on ownership of IP and increase ad dollars spent in the network while focusing on quality content (sound and format) rather than just having every show under the network out there.

This Blueprint outlines the direction and roadmap that will lead us to become the best-known podcast network for our vertical and lead the way for other networks to come.

⁠

Two Divisions of the Network

⁠

Management Division:

This has made HFM so valuable with our top creators because we know the landscape of audiences, the brands/advertisers’ budgets, and how to structure deals in terms of consistent ad revenue and brand awareness for the brands. This is where the network makes its profit and a big chunk of OpEx.

What wasn’t working?

We took on too many team members and had too much overhead with a changing ad market for this type of thing to work in other areas we’ve been lacking, especially with shows like Slick Talk being the primary source of OpEx and not being on a regular payment structure like the rest of the podcasts in the network.

This is all going to change.

Moving Forward

The new management division will now be run by just me (Wil Slickers) to lower our OpEx and start transitioning the networks’ financial position, which means putting my podcast on the 25% commission split and keeping the same model with all other shows.

We will have two different management clients:

Podcast Creators:

These people have a following on one or more social networks and have a current podcast OR would make a great podcast host. This will be our primary source of talent acquisition when we’re looking at building out our own HFM Originals in 2024

Social Media Influencers/YouTubers:

I see more demand for this type of sponsorship from brands where a creator has a decent following on Instagram or YouTube and would like to tap into that audience. These are the creators I think would make great options to pull into a podcast setting as long as we control the production and IP.

Pricing & Revenue

We take a 25% fee from the total spend with the creator for any podcast sponsorship revenue. Sometimes, the creator may want to make more net from the partnership, so we can add 25% to their net price and make the gross revenue slightly higher. For influencer clients, we’ve seen 20% play out a little better for some reason, but these deals have proven to be a smaller dollar spend than audio.

Future Revenue Streams: Moving forward, we want to shift towards owning IP (a small percentage) of the top-performing podcasts in our Management Division so if/when they’re approached for a potential acquisition, we will have a slice of the pie and be able to carry our production services over to wherever they decide to house their show. This is also going to position the network to have an exit itself if a brand or media company were to acquire HFM.

Production Division:

This wasn’t a big focus for me in the beginning. Still, as the last two years have unfolded, I see that the more we control the production and editing of the podcasts, the better we understand their audience and can sell the show to a potential advertiser. So, not only will we be able to make 25% from advertising dollars, but we can put all of our podcasts and creators on a production payment model.

Production Pricing:

Production Pricing Chart

Production Pricing Chart

Production Item

Payout Per Item

Total Charged to Creator

Audio Only - Episode

$75.00

$100.00

Video + Audio Episode

$100.00

$150.00

Social Media Clip (video)

$65.00

$85.00

Audiogram

$15.00

$25.00

YouTube Video (not made for audio)

$85.00

$125.00

Audiobook

$750.00

$1,500.00

PAAS Shows

$275.00

$400.00

Credit Card Processing Fee on all Invoices

There are no rows in this table

⁠

Note: Outside of these offerings, I am not sure I would want to expand the production side of things too much as a full blown agency with Graphic Designers, etc. One thing to play with would be a subscription model of a show paying for a producer and an editor as an extension of their team & the option for HFM to take on the guest booking process for podcasters for a monthly fee/subscription.

⁠

2024 & The Vision Moving Forward

IP Ownership & Acquisition

HFM is uniquely positioned to produce some of the biggest and high quality shows for the hospitality industry. Some of the top listened to podcasts already under our umbrella, HFM should approach these creators to restructure some of the agreements within the management and production of the podcasts in order to have a slice of the shows IP.

From there, once shows like No Vacancy, STR Secrets, Behind the Stays, Boostly, and others have given up some IP to HFM - the real work begins to focus on building out our production teams and then finding gaps and podcast/show concepts to build out and hire our own hosts for. These shows will most likely be seasonal and not reoccurring outside of the show titles stated above. HFM will then have IP ownership, 25% sponsorship commission off shows not fully owned/90% for shows owned, and then production revenue.

HFM IP Structure

HFM IP Structure

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4

HFM Originals

HFM Split (Some IP but mostly RevShare)

HFM Production Revenue Drivers

Friends of the Network (TBD)

These will be shows we fully own the IP and or develop in house

These will be shows already currently in the network that perform well and we’d have a small piece of IP + RevShare + Production Revenue

Shows (not under IP ownership and don’t meet download requirements) that only receive production services from HFM

This is a tier for shows to pay a monthly or yearly membership to be in the slack, listed on the HFM website, and the networks hosting platform, Megaphone.

There are no rows in this table

⁠

Co-Branded Content / Podcasts

Sponsorships will stay as a core offering to the tech brands in the industry but one thing we will start doing with these brands is offering co-branded produced shows. The content won’t be sales-y but help position these brands as a thought leader in the industry based on their expertise and client base. By them elevating and spotlighting their clients, the better it makes them look.

This can also lead into...

Co-Branded Research!

This is pretty self explanatory so I won’t dive into it further.

⁠