ITCOMMS Case Study: How We Launched the First Venture Industry Podcast in Kazakh

How we created the first venture market podcast in Kazakh and built a communications strategy that delivered 8.4M reach and a surge in partnership inquiries for investment holding EA Group.

Background

In recent years, Kazakhstan's venture market has been growing rapidly: investment volumes are rising, the number of startups is increasing, and new funds are launching. Yet professional content in Kazakh remains scarce — most of it comes out in Russian or English. The shortage is especially acute in video and audio formats, which dominate media consumption (according to local research, YouTube and TikTok are the country's leading media platforms).

Against this backdrop, investment holding EA Group — a client we have worked with for over a year — came to us with an idea: "Let's launch a Kazakh-language podcast about Kazakhstan's venture market." For EA Group, it was a natural fit: the holding's representatives are seasoned professionals eager to share their knowledge and expertise, and they actively support Kazakhstani startups and projects both at home and abroad.

Goal: create a podcast that makes complex venture market topics accessible to Kazakh-speaking audiences, promotes the Kazakh language, advances the country's startup ecosystem, and strengthens EA Group's position as a leading player in Kazakhstan's venture industry.

ITCOMMS objectives:

• Raise EA Group's profile as a venture industry thought leader;

• Develop the concept and manage the podcast production process, ensuring distribution across key platforms;

• Build a communications strategy to promote the podcast and grow its listener base.

ITCOMMS managers served as the connective tissue — bringing together not only the concept, but also the output of multiple vendors, the nuances of each distribution platform, and the coordination between podcast guests and hosts.

Solution and execution

The podcast rollout unfolded in several stages:

1. Developing the project concept, including defining roles and responsibilities among all participants;

2. Podcast production, including creating the visual identity, sourcing guests, recording episodes, and preparing video content for publication;

3. Podcast promotion: media partnerships, collaborations with bloggers, and supplementary content creation.
   

Project concept

The podcast was named Invest Dala — a symbol of the fusion between investment-driven growth and local identity.

The core idea: unpack the dynamics of Kazakhstan's venture market and its ties to global trends through the stories of Kazakhstanis who have achieved remarkable results.

• The defining element of the project is language: guests and hosts speak exclusively in Kazakh;

• Format — candid conversations with entrepreneurs and investors;

• Target audience — startup founders, ecosystem participants, investors, and venture sector professionals.

The podcast hosts were experts from EA Ventures, the venture arm of EA Group: Adilbek Kamiev, Head of EA Ventures, and Gani Kassymov, Investment Partner at EA Ventures. It was important to find not just hosts, but people who genuinely understand venture investment, actively work with Kazakhstani projects, know the market players, and can make complex investment topics approachable for a broad audience.

The project gained an extra dimension through a partnership with QARA Studios — the creators of the popular films "ҚАШ" and "Взаперти".

Podcast production and guest management

Production was handled by the QARA Studios team. They developed the project's visual identity, managed the filming process (including all technical aspects), edited each episode, and prepared video content for the podcast's social media channels.

Project visual identity

Guest sourcing and management were ITCOMMS's responsibility.

The agency team:

• compiled and approved a longlist of guests;

• led negotiations and coordination with experts;

• aligned the filming schedule around guests' and hosts' availability;

• developed scripts and briefing materials for each episode;

• oversaw the process both on set and in post-production.

  
  

It was important to us that guests bring hands-on expertise, be willing to share their experience openly, and be able to speak fluently and naturally in Kazakh.

The podcast featured startup founders, investors, and venture industry leaders from Kazakhstan. The first episode's guest was Amirkhan Omarov, founder of Parqour, a startup operating in the smart parking space.

Guest sourcing and coordination turned out to be one of the most resource-intensive aspects of the project: some experts faced a language barrier, while others simply couldn't find time in their schedules for filming. Agency managers handled each objection individually, explaining the spirit of the podcast — what matters is a genuine conversation, not perfect diction. To streamline the process, we scheduled up to two recording sessions per day, carefully synchronizing calendars and managing the workload. This accelerated the timeline and had a positive impact on the project budget.

The scriptwriting process deserves a mention of its own. It started as a set of questions accompanied by a short guest brief. Over time, we added more context to each script so the hosts could navigate the episode's theme with confidence. We also ran training sessions for the hosts, walking them through communication techniques, practicing how to ask questions, and keeping the conversation dynamic.

Distribution and support

We were also responsible for technical distribution:

• Setting up and managing the YouTube channel, uploading episodes to a hosting platform for distribution across podcast directories (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and others);

• Reviewing final video cuts and glossary cards with term definitions;

• Creating and running social media accounts, where we published short clips featuring the most compelling moments from each episode, and responding to listener comments.

Each episode was accompanied by Russian-language subtitles, which significantly broadened the podcast's reach and made it accessible to audiences who don't speak Kazakh.

Promotion

Podcast launch announcement

The official podcast announcement was backed by a full PR push. The ITCOMMS team prepared a press release detailing the project's concept and vision. The fact that Invest Dala is the first podcast about the venture industry in Kazakh served as the central news hook.

The story was picked up by Kazakhstan's leading industry media outlets, including Digital Business, 98mag, and others. At the announcement stage alone, the project secured 16+ organic publications.

Marketing and PR support

Following the official announcement, we launched a promotional campaign for the project. The bulk of the activity was timed to coincide with new episode releases.

The campaign consisted of:

• Targeted advertising on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

• Episode announcements distributed through industry chats, communities, and to sector-specific bloggers;

• Native promotional posts on media social channels, Telegram channels, and through bloggers. Quotes and standout moments from guest conversations were used to amplify the impact.

For podcast promotion, we sought out genuinely relevant channels and blogs — while keeping hypothesis testing at the center of our approach. One hypothesis we confirmed: placements with micro-bloggers (under 50,000 followers) focused on IT topics delivered better results than placements with large bloggers (100,000+ followers) covering business content.

In parallel, we continued publishing episode clips on Instagram and TikTok. Videos were subtitled and included attention-retention inserts to keep viewers engaged. For instance, when a guest mentioned a blogger's collaboration with a popular automotive brand, we cut the relevant ad footage directly into the video.

We also produced episode summaries and guest tips for the Astana Hub blog. Additionally, we arranged an organic op-ed in Digital Business by Adilbek Kamiev, sharing key takeaways drawn from the podcast.

Results

Between August 2023 and April 2024, 11 episodes were published. Guests included Mirat Akhmetssadykov, CEO of MOST Holding; the co-founders of 1Fit; Nurken Rzaliev, Head of New Ventures by inDrive; Adil Nurgozhin, Managing Partner of international venture fund Big Sky Capital; and other experts and participants in Kazakhstan's venture market.

Overall results:

• 70+ publications in media and social channels

• 4,500+ subscribers across social media and the YouTube channel

• 100,000+ views on YouTube

• 6,800,000+ reach via media and opinion leaders

• 1,700,000+ reach on Instagram and TikTok

• Partnership inquiries from venture players and international institutions

Conclusion

Invest Dala did more than popularize Kazakhstan's venture market — it advanced the Kazakh language in the business world. The ITCOMMS and EA Group teams demonstrated that high-quality Kazakh-language content is in real demand, and that a well-crafted PR strategy can turn a podcast into a powerful engine for business and industry development.

Project team:

• Concept, marketing support: Zhanna Skripal, Account Manager

• Guest sourcing, technical support (episodes, subtitles), episode announcements, and social media management: Sholpan Omar, Account Manager

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