Creating a podcast series for Marks & Clerk
Podcast Results
- YouTube Channel – 2048 views of all episodes
- Spotify – 500 approximately 500 plays across all podcast episodes
- Amazon Music – Approximately 250 plays
- Apple Podcasts – Around 300 plays of the podcasts
- A dedicated landing page for the IP-Driven Start-Up podcast on the Marks & Clerk website
- Promoted heavily on LinkedIn Business page
These stats are really good for a specific B2B podcast which only had a three episode run.
We wanted a way to connect with the start-up community that felt authentic, not like another piece of legal marketing. Letting founders tell their own stories, in their own words, did exactly that - and having it filmed in our Manchester office meant we could show, not just tell, people that we're part of that community. The Marketing Optimist team understood that balance immediately and made the whole process, from filming through to the final shorts, genuinely easy to be part of.
Creating a podcast series for Marks & Clerk
Marks & Clerk is a leading IP and tech law firm, with offices across the UK and around the world. Their patent attorneys, trade mark attorneys, commercial lawyers and IP litigators provide every type of intellectual property service alongside a specialist AI, cybersecurity and data legal advisory practice.
Marks & Clerk wanted a route to position themselves at the heart of the high-value start-up sector – businesses that need strong guidance on IP matters to protect their ideas as they grow. Many of these companies operate in highly technical, scientific or technology-driven fields, where protecting ideas early is critical to their success.
Why a podcast series?
The Marks & Clerk team wanted a way to engage their target audience without preaching or overtly selling their legal services. They wanted to show real businesses that had grown successfully through the start-up phase, and the most natural way to do that was to let those businesses tell their own stories.
The medium they landed on was a podcast.
Most people think of podcasts as an ongoing show requiring constant new episodes and promotion. Marks & Clerk’s series, by contrast, was built with a clear strategic purpose. The aims were to:
- Position Marks & Clerk as experts in IP law
- Demonstrate their connections and experience supporting start-ups through their IP journey
- Further enhance their presence in the Manchester and North England start-up sector
- Reach their clients where they are most likely to engage with the firm’s messaging, as part of a longer-term marketing strategy
How we helped create the podcast
Over two days, we filmed three podcast episodes with five guests at Marks & Clerk’s central Manchester office, overlooking “Manc-hattan” – the city’s fast-growing business hub. This gave every episode a striking visual backdrop, placing Marks & Clerk firmly within the sector they wanted to reach.
We used the office and surrounding area to build brand presence through cutaways and B-roll woven throughout the series, giving it a consistent visual identity from episode to episode. We set the space up to feel like a studio – with considered seating and microphone placement – while making sure the equipment never distracted from the conversation itself.
A great Podcast host holds it all together
When you’re creating a podcast series having a knowledgeable, trusted presenter was essential to the series. Each episode was hosted by Anis Naidu, Principal (Patent Attorney) at Marks & Clerk, who advises on chemical and life sciences technologies. Anis was the ideal host not only for his expertise, but because he already knew the guests and their businesses well thus allowing for genuine, relaxed conversations that put guests at ease in what might otherwise have felt like an unfamiliar setting.
Editing and producing the podcasts
Each podcast episode was recorded as roughly an hour of conversation, giving us plenty of strong material, but also the challenge of shaping each one down to around 30 minutes. To manage this efficiently, we produced time-stamped transcripts on-site during filming, so the team could quickly review each conversation and flag the sections they most wanted featured in the final edit.
Enhancing the brand
We followed Marks & Clerk’s brand guidelines throughout while creating the podcast series, ensuring correct use of logo, colourways and typefaces at every stage. We also worked carefully alongside each guest’s own brand guidelines, so that every episode felt cohesive rather than mismatched.
Promoting the podcast on social media
To extend the reach of each episode, we produced nine short-form clips – around 30 seconds each – highlighting key moments from the series. These were cropped to vertical format with burned-in captions, so they could be watched with the sound off. The shorts served as a gateway to the full episodes, giving Marks & Clerk flexible content for YouTube Shorts, and social media such as LinkedIn and Instagram.
Covering every podcast format
Podcasts today come in every shape and size, so we filmed each episode in 4K with professional sound and high-quality royalty-free music. This allowed us to deliver broadcast-quality video episodes for YouTube and streaming platforms, alongside high-quality audio-only versions for services like Spotify.
