192.
That’s the number of episodes we’ve produced at Bespoken Media this year – of #podcasts, BBC documentaries, and audio features of all kinds.
We’ve worked with clients from Accenture UK and the Headland Consultancy, to the World Health Organization, via Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt universities, The King's Fund, and Grazia Magazine.
We've delivered podcast training to organisations across the length and breadth of the UK.
We’ve been proud to support the incredible work of parental mental illness charity Our Time, and SWGfL / the UK Safer Internet Centre. We’ve had contributors from the Swedish Arctic to Senegal, and we’ve seen continued growth in audience numbers for our mainstay podcasts OnFARM, Scotland's rural podcast, and Local Zero.
(OnFARM is ranked in the top 2% on global podcast ranking site ListenNotes, while Local Zero, packed with smart energy and climate change expertise, is in the top 5%).
We’ve done all this because of the brilliant, tireless, and creative people we work with. We’ll particularly namecheck Carys, Amanda, Patrick, Joel, Maddy and Jac - but there has been support and collaboration from many brilliant people along the way.
I’m proud to say that, in 2022, Bespoken became the first Scottish company to ever participate in MultiTrack, an industry fellowship that opens doors into the audio industry for people from groups at a disadvantage due to race, disability, or socioeconomic background. Stephen, who joined us via MultiTrack, has been a brilliant addition to our team.
I also want to give a shout out to other businesses out there alongside us, hustling for clients, making their way in the world, and doing brilliant work. Steve and Marina at Bengo, Gavin and Laura at Kalua, David and team at Whistledown, Adam at Airaphon, Dan and Pennie at Adventurous, and Matt at Depictar. You are a lovely, supportive and collaborative bunch of peers and mentors, and we wish you and your businesses every success in 2023 (and – for Bengo, who've just learned they'll be making Radio 2's early breakfast show next year – a long lie-in here and there).
So, what will Bespoken do in 2023 – our fourth year in business?
We’ve got at least one ambitious project for the BBC World Service on the way (but you didn’t hear that from me). We’ve also had a Creative Scotland grant to launch an exciting new arts project (again, sorry – but that’s under wraps for now).
We’ll continue to grow and expand the Scotland Audio Network, that we launched back in 2020, as a platform to help Scotland’s creative audio industry to grow and flourish. There are also many other projects, large and small, that we can’t wait to unwrap.
Speaking of unwrapping (and unwinding, and relaxing, and eating cheese, and ... eating more cheese) that’s what we’re off to do now.
This is Bespoken Media, signing off. From Dave, Amy and the whole team, we wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas, and all the very best for 2023.