Hi Robert, What made you decide to do a podcast?

Hi Sebastian, my colleague Peter joined our team a year and a half ago and right at the beginning he came up with the idea: "Let's do a podcast for German-speaking ophthalmology in which different topics are examined from different perspectives by experts - hence the final name "BLICKWINKEL". I immediately loved the idea and started working on the concept to see what goals it could achieve for Bausch + Lomb - on the one hand, establishing a new, modern communication channel, and on the other, collaborating with doctors on a completely different level. Of course, the fun should not be neglected and for us (Bausch + Lomb) this is also a great medium to learn ourselves and to understand the market even better.

Your podcast is not a classic marketing podcast that is only about your products. What do you want to achieve with your podcast?

I would rather say it is not a classic channel to primarily promote products - in our case even rather secondary. We value neutral topics that are discussed and ultimately interesting for everyone who is in ophthalmology in some way.

Of course, we want to position Bausch + Lomb as a modern company, and there are certainly some topics where guests or even the host talk about their experiences with Bausch + Lomb / our products. And ultimately, we also invite guests who are working with Bausch + Lomb in some way or who we might also want to make Bausch + Lomb advocates, by going new ways with you and working with you in a different way. The podcast is certainly a communication platform through which we approach the target group of doctors and naturally also want to reveal details about Bausch and Lomb and, in the broadest sense, also the products - but conversely, we can also learn a lot from the market and the users.

What's the feedback on your podcast so far?

The feedback on the podcast so far is really very good. So far we have about 1400 subscribers and the number of listeners is growing steadily. We have a lot of streams of the individual episodes even or especially in the summer months and we are now already in the third season of the podcast with 14 episodes released so far. So from that point of view, the feedback is really very good. Of course, there are different interests when it comes to the topics. For example, topics that address career opportunities in ophthalmology are very popular with young listeners in particular. For some topics, there seems to be a very small target group that is interested in them, if you look at the number of streams. In general, however, we also get very good external feedback, of course from our guests or also via Florian Kretz, who hosts the podcast. So we are in good spirits and are happy that we already have the next episodes planned.

What are the advantages of a podcast in a conversational format over purely frontal content?

I think the advantage of a podcast over purely frontal content is that it's available and "consumable" anywhere, whether that's on the way to work, on the train, or in the car. What is a big advantage of podcasts is that it is a good mix of "sprinkling" and continuing education. Since our podcast is implemented as an expert talk, for example, the content quality is very high. That's why this format is particularly advantageous when you're new to a topic. In the end, you don't have to do a lot of research, but can simply listen to a conversation and then start your own research based on that - but it does give you a starting point.

That's why I see only advantages in the podcast, especially compared to the frontal content, especially since there is always the possibility to comment on the whole thing or to give us / the host / the guests feedback. For example, you can always write us comments via blickwinkel@bausch.com, comment via LinkedIn, or give us feedback on which topics you would like to hear an expert exchange.

Why do you think there are so few podcasts on ophthalmology so far?

I think in general this is due to several things. On the one hand, ophthalmology, although it is a very innovative field in terms of products and medicine alone, is not yet as digital as can be seen in other areas. Even if a podcast is certainly not the newest of the newest, one notices already that in ophthalmology the enterprises are not yet completely so far. On the other hand, the investments are often shied away from, because it is also not so cheap to produce a high-quality podcast. Some are also a bit undecided what the podcast generally brings and whether it generally makes sense to invest in something like this - and the measurability, at least on the ROI side, is not so easy. Here it is then really marketing strategic approaches that tip the scales in my view.

Why did you direct your podcast exclusively to physicians, aren't patients a good target group as well?

Exactly, the target group of our podcast is currently actually physicians and not patients - simply because physicians are our primary target group. Therefore, it was clear from the beginning what we want to focus on and who we want to address. Of course, we are hoping for a broad audience among (future) physicians, who associate Bausch + Lomb with the aforementioned characteristics, i.e. as an innovative company that can also position itself via new channels. Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility of adding another podcast for female patients at a later date.

Recently, live audio events have become increasingly popular, for example via ClubHouse. Here, the audience can be actively switched on and still listen to the content later. Wouldn't that be something for you?

Clubhouse is actually an interesting thing. The whole thing came up almost at the same time as we started the podcast. I think Clubhouse is a platform that can be interesting if you leave general points of criticism aside for the time being. Especially the possibility that listeners can join in and comment directly from the outside is of course very attractive. But what convinces us more about the podcast is that it can generate much higher-quality content that is permanently available to listeners. In addition, a clubhouse talk would partially undermine the concept of the expert talk and would be less focused. We are currently focusing more on high-quality, well-researched content on selected topics that allow listeners to be introduced to new topics in a structured way, regardless of where they are, without having to laboriously familiarize themselves with them. Or to show others perspectives of a topic or also to share experiences among the experts. This is an advantage in view of limited time resources and is seen by the audience as a real added value.

What are your favorite podcasts?

I'm not a particularly big podcast listener myself, but one podcast, besides BLICKWINKEL ? has really taken a fancy to me - Baywatch Berlin. A relatively long podcast (one episode about 80 minutes), which on the one hand clears the head very well, makes you smile and sometimes laugh out loud, but on the other hand also addresses many socially critical issues and makes me think. Very good entertainment and definitely recommended.

Thank you very much for your time Robert!

Further Informations:

https://www.bausch-lomb.de/fachbereich/augenchirurgen/blickwinkel/

https://www.podcast.de/podcast/832017/blickwinkel-der-experten-talk-der-ophthalmologie