A group of directors from content production company Wisebuddah have announced the formation of a stand-alone audio-only production company called Listen Entertainment, which will help brands take advantage of the growing demand for audio content.
Wisebuddah, which produces content spanning audio and film, will continue to operate but its content team will move to the new business, including a trio of senior management.
Listen will be headed by Wisebuddah’s head of content, Adam Uytman, as director of content; head of business development Josh Adley as director of commercial and client relations; and managing director Tim Hammond as executive director. Wisebuddah founder Mark Goodier becomes chair of the Listen board.
The management team will be joined by executive producers including Nick Minter, Clare Chadburn, Paul Thomas and new appointee Alex Smith, who is joining from BBC Studios.
As part of the launch, Listen will also acquire Wisebuddah’s content production business, including the production, business development, marketing, operations and production finance teams.
Wisebuddah already produces podcast and audio-on-demand content for the BBC and commercial radio, as well as branded podcasts. It is the latter that will become the focus of Listen. The team is currently working with a pharmaceutical company on an audio project.
Following the formation of Listen, Wisebuddah’s jingles division will be led by Phil Tozer, while Adam Mart has been put in charge of studios. Mart, who was appointed earlier this month, was previously at the BBC, where he was most recently a senior technical producer.
Wisebuddah is behind branded podcasts such as The Dan Wootton Interview for The Sun, Couch to 5K for the NHS and Now That’s What I Call a Podcast for Now That’s What I Call Music.
The move is a response to the growing demand among marketers for audio content. In July, Campaign reported that Stitcher and Wordery had joined forces to enter the UK podcast market. The move allows advertisers in the UK to buy premium ad inventory locally and globally from the joint venture, Podfront UK.
Adley said: “As a team, we do a significant amount of work helping brands engage with their audiences through audio content and, as more and more brands grasp the opportunities of audio-on-demand, Listen is there to guide them through what’s possible.
“We are able to attract the right type of talent to projects, whether it’s partnering with big names like Simon Cowell, Bill Bryson or Sir Ian McKellen, or through establishing creative partnerships with organisations such as the Science Museum, the Roald Dahl estate or Remember a Charity.”