Podcast Ad Marketplace
Megaphone is a dynamic ad platform for enterprise podcast publishers. We created a new user experience for aspiring professionals.
YEAR: 2018
MY ROLE: Junior UI/UX designer
CREDITS: Chelsea Kelly (brand designer)
LIVE: megaphone.spotify.com
Illustration of the Megaphone app.
The Problem
Megaphone has been successful by creating a top product in a small marketplace: technology for enterprise podcasters. But independent podcasters have many more options. With all the competitors out there, why would they choose Megaphone – especially when it would mean going through the hassle of switching platforms?
Use What the Pros Use
In order to convince smaller podcasters to switch over to Megaphone, we realized our product needed to offer easy onboarding, opportunities for professional growth, and competitive features and pricing. After several user interviews, we understood that our target user currently produces his/her podcast as a side hustle, but wants to take it to the next step – with the ultimate goal of podcasting full-time. So we wanted to position Megaphone as an opportunity for an aspiring podcaster to “use what the pros use,” fostering credibility with the name-recognition of our enterprise clients.
User story for Megaphone Starter, our feature plan for independent podcasters.
Marketing site map.
Marketing site redesign.
A New Look
As a part of our work to target Megaphone to this new audience, we decided to refresh Megaphone’s brand and visual identity. Despite now opening Megaphone to a consumer audience, we emphasized our enterprise brand with our new design. Our product’s enterprise background is its best differentiator, so we didn’t want our design to feel too consumer-oriented.
I worked with our marketing team to update our product’s brand colors, typeface, logo and overall tone. I also saw an opportunity to begin documenting an evolving design system. We used our newly defined design to create a cohesive experience from our marketing site, through onboarding, to the in-app experience.
Megaphone’s new design system.
Audience Exchange
We stripped away any enterprise features not relevant to independent users, and decided to roll out a new feature set to offer more value to these users: Megaphone’s audience exchange. The audience exchange allows users to enter into a new marketplace and exchange show promos with other Megaphone users for credit. Running a promo for your show in someone else’s show (or vice versa) allows you to grow your audience, and creates a sense of community with other independent podcasters.
User flow for Megaphone’s audience exchange.
Browse the audience exchange to discover shows on the exchange.
Select a show from the exchange in which you want to place your promo, and send a request to that podcaster.
Keep track of all of the promos you’re running in other podcasters’ shows in your outbound promos library.
Approve or reject requests by other podcasters to run promos in your podcasts.
View all promos sent to you by other podcasters in your inbound promos library.
Launch
Megaphone’s redesigned website launched in November 2018. However, leadership ultimately decided not to offer Megaphone Starter as a plan option, so these in-app features were not developed. (Update: Spotify acquired Megaphone in 2020.)