Prince Harry and Meghan Markle signed a deal with Spotify in 2020 to produce podcast episodes for the platform. However, after more than a year, the couple has not released much content. According to a PR expert, this has been reflecting badly on Spotify as a brand.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle released 1 podcast episode in 2020
In December 2020, Harry and Meghan released a podcast episode under their company Archewell Audio. This episode was a holiday special, and it focused on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also brought in many celebrity guests such as Elton John, Naomi Osaka, and Stacey Abrams. In the end, fans also got to hear the voice of Harry and Meghan’s son, Archie, who was 19 months old at the time.
However, after the release of the holiday special, there have been very few updates from the Sussexes on the podcast front.
The Sussexes are reflecting badly on Spotify, PR expert claims
According to PR expert Mark Borkowski, while Harry and Meghan provided a lot of positive publicity for Spotify when they first signed the deal, the couple has not been making the brand look good.
“It was a great publicity coup for them to create their narrative but also for Spotify,” Borkowski said on TalkRADIO (per Express). He added, “All these comparisons with this was going to be the new Obamas, this was Michelle and Barack. Lots of comparisons on the content they were going to produce.”
Borkowski continued, “This is hard work and you absolutely need a team of people to help you develop a quality product, particularly quality content and obviously they’ve never struck me as team players … What they think is great content, what they think they want to tell the world probably not particularly good and they’ve obviously lent on their celebrity mates Corden and Elton John to help them to get one thing off the ground.”
Borkowski believes that Spotify may have “looked at it and say, ‘God, we’ve got a publicity nightmare on our hands, we’ve got a PR nightmare on our hands.’” He added, “Because it reflects badly for Spotify as well. That these great golden gooses have laid nothing but more smelly old eggs, well they haven’t even laid an egg.”
Spotify recently posted an opening for an in-house producer
Recently, Gimlet Media, which is producing podcasts for Spotify, posted about a job opening for the role or Contract Associate Producer.
“We’re currently assembling a show team that will build and launch a new original show with Archewell featuring the voices of high profile women,” the posting read. It also added that this would be a “weekly show.”
A source told The Sun that this was Spotify’s way of getting content out there after a year of silence.
“Spotify has been waiting a long time for some content from Harry and Meghan and now it appears they have finally taken matters into their own hands,” the insider alleged. “Hiring a raft of in-house talent on Spotify’s side will ensure they finally squeeze something out of them as they bid to honour their contract.”
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