SERIAL - Road to Hired

Maximizing an Exclusive Podcast Sponsorship

ZipRecruiter became the exclusive sponsor of the hit NPR podcast Serial. Only one commercial per episode. So we made it count.

We created "The Road to Hired," a series of stories about the most unusual hires in America: Mud loggers, Directors of Fun, Flying Car Designers.

But we had to find them. So, I created a system to analyze internal job data, researched emerging roles, and tracked down the companies behind the most unexpected jobs we could find. Then expanded the campaign across all channels.

The Execution

What started as a single sponsorship became a scalable storytelling platform, with one exclusive, story-driven segment integrated into each episode of Serial.

We extended the platform beyond audio with a multi-city YouTube video series featuring the same employers.

We launched vanity landing pages and co-branded social content to deepen engagement.

We transformed the segments into evergreen performance assets that powered radio, podcast, TV, and paid social campaigns for years.

The Impact

One podcast sponsorship turned into a full 360° storytelling platform.