Which? have successfully pivoted their approach to meet a societal need and attract a new, younger demographic – bringing real people stories to the Which? brand and achieving successful cross-promotion between their audio product and other content channels.

For two years after it launched the Which? Money podcast focussed largely on getting the most from financial products and investing your money. But, when the cost-of-living crisis started to unfold, the team shifted away from advice about managing your spare cash to helping people on a lower income manage what little money they had.

As the UK’s consumer champion, Which? has positioned itself to be the go-to place for advice to help people deal with the cost-of-living crisis. Nothing proved this more than the actionable, easily digestible advice provided through the weekly Which? Money podcast. Since the scale of the crisis became clear, the team completely repositioned the podcast, shifting away from traditional financial advice on topics such as investing and pensions, to cover crucial issues like the rising cost of energy, food and household bills. Starting with a five episode miniseries aligned to a campaign, it went on to become the cornerstone of the podcast content and helped the show grow to new heights.

Working to ensure alignment with a wider content and advertising campaign aimed at helping all UK consumers with free content, the team launched our special five episode ‘Ease the Squeeze’ series in early 2022. The episodes provided instant help and advice and centred around the stories of real people. The team scoured social media to find a pool of people who could help build a clear picture of how the crisis was affecting society. Take unpaid carer Amy from Wales, who explained how her bills had skyrocketed, with no way of reducing her usage due to the equipment required to care for her disabled son.

Alongside this, the Which? team brought brilliant advice from our then Consumer Rights editor Adam French and other in-house experts. These were joined by the likes of Chris Bavin, host of BBC show ‘Eat Well of Less’ and Anna Moss, energy analyst at energy consultancy Cornwall Insight.

Serious consideration was also given to the tone and style of the series, with a decision made to deliver a friendly, warm tone of voice, helping to alleviate some of the understandable stress and concern our listeners would be feeling as the crisis began to unfold.

The miniseries was such a success it became the blueprint for how the podcast would develop and although they do still do episodes on pensions and investing, the core of the content is aimed at helping as many people as possible and ensuring Which? becomes the home of everyday advice.

The series would drive a combined reach of 2.4 million people on the Which? Money socials for the duration of its run while the continued evolution of the podcast to cover issues at the heart of many people’s everyday struggles has led to a permanent shift in style that resulted in the podcast gaining its highest listening figures to date, topping 50,000 downloads a month for the first time. The podcast regularly tops Apple podcasts’ ‘Investing’ and ‘Business’ charts (there is no personal finance category), and has seen its audience demographic shift with more female listeners and a younger than usual demographic for Which? content, with the majority of listeners being between 18-45 years old.

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