Göteborgs-Posten (GP) knows the importance of the saying “fish where the fish are,” but first it had to learn a lesson in what kind of bait to use.

Aiming to attract a younger audience to the brand, GP had been partnering with a popular music festival in Gothenburg, Sweden, for years. Starting in 2018, it showed up at the Way Out West (WOW) Music Festival, believing it would find a strong synergy between Gothenburg’s largest music festival and its largest newspaper.

GP journalists worked from the booth and talked to anyone interested in journalism. That idea, GP discovered, was a total flop. In subsequent years, it tried selling subscriptions and giving away tons of free swag. That didn’t work either. 

Taking a new approach

GP wasn’t connecting to its target audience and couldn’t see a clear return on investment or benefit to the brand. It realised it couldn’t make its target audience care about something they had little interest in. So, in 2023, GP narrowed its focus and concentrated on a product that resonated more with a younger audience: its podcast.

Set up in the same location as prior years, GP’s 2023 activation looked and felt much different. This one was all about its Nyhetsshowen podcast brand.

Nyhetsshowen had a lot going for it: It was new to GP, having launched less than a year before the August 2023 festival. The goal of the podcast was to attract a younger audience — the same audience that attends WOW. 

The daily news podcast has a laid-back approach and dissects important and popular stories in an interesting way without sacrificing journalistic integrity. Listeners can find the podcast on the GP Web site, all major podcast platforms, and on YouTube. 

GP decided to take the show on the road for the first time ever. Leaving the comforts of the studio, it set up a live broadcast booth at the festival and built set that included a studio, lounge area, and a place to display merchandise. The set was more playful and colourful than what the brand typically is known for. 

Drawing a crowd

 The idea was to create a comfortable and relaxed environment to give people a break from the loud and crowded festival. The team wanted to expose more people to the Nyhetsshowen brand and give them an opportunity to discuss news and culture and hang out with friends. They also hoped this would boost the GP brand as a whole.

GP measured these results by tracking how many new listeners it attracted at the festival, online activity, and how many social media followers it got during and after. They built excitement by giving away VIP tickets on their social media pages leading up to WOW and invited the winners to check out the Nyhetsshowen booth. 

The team also took an attribute Nyhetsshowen is known for and flipped it on its head. Nyhetsshowen typically broadcasts in the early morning hours. That wouldn’t work for the festival, but the regular morning show was still on summer break, so it created a new live time slot for festival weekend: 5 p.m.-6 p.m. 

GP invited its culture journalists to talk about music, fashion, and food. The live audience competed for Nyhetsshowen merch. GP used both its own and the festival’s social media accounts to market what it was doing.

Streaming success

Nyhetsshowen’s live and reruns streaming numbers were much higher than their typical show streams. Its social media reach for sponsored WOW posts was 165,084 people, and it generated 6,350 visitors to GP’s Web site. Nyhetsshowen increased its number of Instagram followers by more than 186% during WOW weekend compared to 2022. 

Most importantly, GP built brand awareness and equity, creating a community around the festival. Many audience members stayed and engaged with the crew after the live show. This created additional interactions and solidified the value of GP for them.

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