Mamamia has pulled back the curtain on a new slate of podcasts for 2027, including a comedy show celebrating lazy girl hacks, a spin-off recommendations series and an audio memoir exploring the messiness of mid-life.
The media company and podcast network presented its 2027 upfront on Thursday, showcasing a range of new podcasts set to launch later this year and into 2027, alongside an expanded offering for brand partners.
Among the new audio projects announced was Parenting Out Loud, an expansion of the company’s flagship Mamamia Out Loud franchise.
The new weekly podcast will have its own dedicated feed, taking a more conversational and culturally focused approach to parenting, rather than concentrating on the everyday practicalities of raising young children.
Mamamia is also giving its popular Out Loud Recos segment its own dedicated podcast feed.
Previously appearing as a recommendations segment within Mamamia Out Loud, the spin-off will give listeners a standalone destination for the hosts’ recommendations across lifestyle, entertainment and culture.
Another new addition is Lazy Girl Hour, a comedy podcast launching in November, hosted by twin sisters Clare and Jessie Stephens. The pair previously hosted comedy podcast Canceled, which they described as one of the top comedy podcasts before stepping away after having five babies between them in three years.
Jessie Stephens told the audience the new show was about making time to hang out with her sister again, with the podcast built around the everyday shortcuts, confessions and humorous realities of being a woman.
Also launching in November is Grout, an audio memoir from Mamamia co-founder Mia Freedman, exploring the challenges of navigating mid-life and the feeling of losing one’s identity along the way.
Freedman previously described the project in a Substack post as being about “the transition into mid-life when I have felt so lost, so dislocated from my identity, so untethered from my body and so unable to get a handle on how I feel or who I am that I’ve felt like human grout”.
Beyond the new podcasts, Mamamia outlined how it is looking to bring brands closer to its shows through a new partnership offering.
Speaking during the presentation, Mamamia director of sales Lanai Wiadrowski introduced the company’s new ‘Spark Sessions’, which will invite selected platinum partners into the planning process alongside its podcast teams.
“Your brand is seamlessly integrated into the very fabric of the show, across every single touchpoint that that show turns up in, in turn, fully mobilising the trust, the attention, the goodwill, and the advocacy of its loyal audiences,” said Wiadroski.
Wiadrowski said the approach would sit above and beyond Mamamia’s everyday campaigns, with the publisher also looking to strengthen its existing commercial offering across five areas: insight, trading, measurement, product innovation and generative engine optimisation (GEO).
The company is also introducing a platform called Culture Pulse, which will give brands access to cultural data to feed into their planning and media buying.
Wiadrowski highlighted Mamamia’s recent work with Coca-Cola, which she said made it the first Australian publisher to trade a fully automated supply and buy-side campaign using Ad Context Protocol.
The publisher is also expanding its measurement offering, having more than doubled the number of brand uplift studies it can complete, with the aim of making measurement accessible to brands with smaller investment levels.
Wiadrowski said Mamamia would continue investing in vodcasting, extending video advertising opportunities into the Apple Podcasts environment and a new FAST channel across Samsung connected TVs.
She also pointed to research showing a 35 per cent uplift on industry norms when Mamamia’s vodcast is added to a media mix.
But what do the media agencies think?
Speaking with B&T at the event, Wavemaker ANZ head of investment Sydney Kim Norman said she was pleased with the presentation.
She said the publisher’s expanded distribution across platforms could also help brands reach audiences in new environments.
“We all know that we’re being served content on our platforms based on our algorithms. So, hopefully now with Mamamia branching their distribution into more of those platforms, it means our algorithms are going to change in terms of what we’re getting served.
“The brand extension opportunities that Mamamia stood up there with today are really what brands are looking for now as well.”
Norman also welcomed Mamamia’s approach to having fewer brand partnerships, rather than filling its shows with multiple sponsors. This, she said, was a change in the direction of travel for much of Australia’s media, describing the opportunity for exclusivity as “smaller and smaller”.
“Exclusivity gives them the opportunity to have the space, but the longevity to create that brand salience and that brand relationship with a really lucrative audience who are considered, educated, and are making those decisions for the multiple generations in her life,” Norman said.
“With the multiple touchpoints that you get with the Mamamia offering, from video to audio to social to events, it really does demonstrate to brands it’s worth that investment because of the multiple ways that you can connect with the Mamamia audiences at different times of the moment that she is in.”
“So whether that be her parents, her own family, her grandchildren, whoever they may be. So I think that that is really valuable for brands for them to be able to build trust over a long period of time.
“It also gives them the opportunity to speak creatively at those different touchpoints again with those hosts to be able to build that credibility in a very, very genuine and trusted environment, and I think that’s what consumers are wanting for brands to turn up in a very genuine manner.”
Mindshare Sydney MD Nancy Lam said the focus on fewer brand partnerships could help advertisers looking to cut through.
“They aren’t just out there selling volume, but they are selling impact,” she said.
“It’s great that media brands are thinking about commercial models in different ways, because ultimately, what we’re interested in delivering for our clients is not media metrics. We need to deliver commercial and brand metrics. So the more that they can deliver impact through partnerships, the better.”
Lam said the new content slate offered opportunities for brands across different categories to find a natural fit, particularly those looking to communicate practical shortcuts or solutions to everyday problems. She pointed to FMCG brands in the laundry category as one example.
“A lot of our clients are struggling with mid-funnel breakthroughs. How do we drive engagement? How do we drive consideration? We’ve become so attuned to converting very lower funnel that we’re missing that middle funnel,” she said. “The impact of content and the impact of brands are so important in that space.”
Meanwhile, Initiative’s national head of communications design Emma Greenhalgh said she welcomed Mamamia’s emphasis on building deeper relationships with audiences and brand partners.
“Everyone always talks about fewer, bigger, better. But I think going into that deeper trust and relationships is really great.”
Greenhalgh said many media owners and platforms were continuing to prioritise producing more content to feed algorithms and reach new audiences, making Mamamia’s decision to focus on its existing audiences refreshing.
She also said the approach to exclusive sponsorships could help brands build stronger relationships with consumers, rather than simply appearing across multiple shows and platforms.
“We have so many portfolio clients, and they’re wanting to grow order value and maintain and repeat purchase, and that’s something that we get tasked with a lot. But it’s really hard to do that when you’re just constantly re-engaging across everywhere. But the fact that they have such loyal and engaged audiences throughout the year across multiple touchpoints, which they’re obviously investing in, is really, really powerful,” she said.
“It’s not logo slop or just sponsors constantly, and I think that’s what reinforces trust. So I’m really, really excited about that. I’ve already got some ideas for clients, so I thought it was great.”
