Successpod's desperate quest for relevance

Audible, a leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, unveils a launch campaign for Adam Buxton’s new podcast, Successpod, by Audible.

Created by Fold7, the work drives excitement for the new title, which is the antidote to hustle culture and about Adam's paranoia around ageing and becoming irrelevant in this modern landscape.

To prick the pomposity of podcast culture, Fold7 identified what it is that makes audiences suspicious about modern hustle culture. Namely how over-engineered it is; flashy graphics, exaggerated SFX, clickbait statements, gimmicks, camera trickery and podcasting hosts doing anything to remain relevant to audiences.

This led to the idea of ‘Hyperbuxton’: two promos that start out taking cues from the slick, overly produced modern podcasting landscape, before the façade begins to unravel. In the first film, Buxton films himself in a private jet, saying: “Hi Adam Buxton here, welcome to the private jet that podcasting bought.” The camera pulls back revealing it’s just a DIY set-up.

A second film sees Buxton filming himself against a picture-perfect backdrop of a tropical beach. “Sup bro, Adam Buxton here. Yeah, I’m one of the most successful podcasters in the world. Why else would I be on a private beach.” An interruption by a local neighbour reveals he’s standing in front of a green screen in a local park by a dog waste bin.

Both films end with the line: “Successpod, my desperate quest for relevance.”

Dave Billing, Executive Creative Director at Fold7, said: “I’ve long been a fan of Adam’s, all the way from the Adam & Joe Show through to his hugely successful podcast. So, working with him was a bit of a treat, all the more so because this new podcast touches on a subject never far from the mind of any creative person over the age of forty: how do you stay relevant and at what price does success come? As you’d imagine, there was a lot of co-creation on this project as we needed to leave room for Adam’s unique comedic brain to roam free.”

James Finn, Global Head of Brand & Content Marketing at Audible said: "Adam Buxton's comedy works because it's honest about the thing nobody admits: the desperate quest to stay relevant. We didn't want a campaign that sat next to the show – we wanted one as funny, self-aware and absurd as Adam himself. Working with Fold7, that's exactly what we made: something authentically Adam."