BEDE'S WORLD TOURISM PODCAST STORMS ITUNES CHARTS!
Podcast Digital has just completed two podcasts for Bede’s World, the museum, heritage site and visitor attraction in Jarrow, North East England. Bede’s World is dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon Wearmouth-Jarrow Monastery and is now a candidate World Heritage Site.
The podcasts, which use voiceovers from professional story teller Adam Bushnell and also local school children have been an online success and have seen the well known online music store iTunes feature the podcast as part of its history podcast charts for well over 2 months.
The podcast gives people a tour around Bede’s World’s Anglo-Saxon demonstration farm Gyrwe (pronounced Yerwee), which has plants, animals and buildings typical of those thought to have been around in St Bede’s day, giving fascinating insights into life over 1,300 years ago.
Users from all over the UK and beyond have been downloading the podcast from iTunes and it is hoped that many of them will be visiting the site in Jarrow, North East England. The podcasts will also be available to visitors as audio guides as they tour the farm. It is hoped that people will download the podcast or mp3 audio tour to their mobile devices like iPods and mp3 players and use them on-site.
Steve Bainbridge, MD of Podcast Digital adds, “We have been creating Enhanced Audio and Video based podcasts for around a year now. In this instance the podcasts were an effective way of promoting the museum to a wider audience. We wanted to reach a large amount of potential visitors and also communicate some of the exciting attractions of the site. The podcast brings together all kinds of media for the farm tour including photography, graphic design, voice, music, web-links and text information. We used photography to capture the farm and its animals and buildings, we also used storyteller Adam Bushnell to narrate the tour of the farm. The podcast also features web-links to the Bede’s World website (www.bedesworld.co.uk) where users can find out more about the history and farm. Podcasting is an effective platform for communicating the various attractions of the site and very cost effective to. Hopefully it will also assist in boosting visitor numbers to the site.”
Pearl Saddington of Bede’s World explains, “Bede’s World is visited by people from all over the world. We wanted to use new media like podcasting as another way to communicate the attractions and history of the Bede’s World site. It’s such a rich area with so much to see and do. We were also keen to involve local young people in this project as part of our ongoing work aimed at using the site’s rich history as an inspiration for new generations in the region. We encourange anyone interested in Anglo Saxon history to download the podcast and visit Bede’s World”
Download The Podcast
Visit Bede’s World Website