Behind the Scenes of the Inaugural “Voicy Episode Awards 2025”: A Time to Reflect on “Value That Remains Because of Voice”

Hello! This is PR Sunny-chan 🍳

At SUNNY SIDE UP GROUP, various members participate as speakers at conferences and lectures, sharing our group’s core values regarding PR and communication with the outside world.

This time, Sunny-chan accompanied the judging session for the “Voicy Episode Awards 2025” 👀

This award selects “broadcasts that resonated with listeners’ hearts” from the numerous episodes distributed on the audio platform Voicy in 2025, based not on external metrics such as follower count or recognition, but on emotional impact.
Xiqiao Liu, President and Representative Director of SUNNY SIDE UP, was selected as a judge for this memorable first edition.

The Judging Session Begins! A Time to Seriously Engage with 13 Carefully Selected Episodes

On the day, judges with diverse backgrounds in editing, entertainment, and content production gathered, and the judging began in a friendly yet serious atmosphere.

After Mr. Kentaro Ogata, President and Representative Director of Voicy Inc., explained the overview, the judging began.

Based on 13 candidate works narrowed down from over 220,000 freely distributed episodes, the discussion proceeded with a focus on “what themes, stories, and tones remain in the heart.”

From left: Xiqiao Liu, President and Representative Director of SUNNY SIDE UP, and Ms. Rina Kuroiwa, literary editor

From a marketing perspective, Xiqiao judged based not only on expertise but on “how consumers receive it and what remains in their hearts.”

“Audio remains in memory together with the situation and emotions when you heard it, so it can remain much more strongly as an ‘experience’ than text. Even though I listened without taking almost any notes, I could clearly recall the content later,” he said, conveying to the judges that he had once again realized the power of audio to remain in memory.

Additionally, a common understanding spread among the judges through the discussion that the strength of Voicy episodes lies in narratives that are not overly polished—with slight hesitations and fluctuations—and moments where personal experiences show through, which are what move listeners’ hearts.

The Future of Audio Content as Seen Through the First Awards

In this judging session, the Grand Prize was awarded to Ms. Ran Domon’s “Becoming a Parent,” and the Special Jury Prizes were awarded to Ms. Nobuko Nakai’s “[Important Things] With Horei-san 🌸 Life’s Turning Points, Facing Illness” and Mr. Shimpei Takahashi’s “The Broadcast I Actually Wanted to Do for Four Years but Refrained From“!

The common thread was “individual lives and values being candidly expressed,” and it felt that the major criterion was whether that person’s way of life and emotions appeared as “voice” rather than flashy production.

Mr. Takafumi Nomura, Representative of Podcast Studio Chronicle

Through this memorable first edition, this judging session became a time to carefully consider the possibilities of audio: “what kind of episodes are etched in people’s memories.”

What can be conveyed and preserved precisely because it is audio. The “Voicy Episode Awards” will likely become an important venue for considering the future of audio culture.

See you in the next report 🍳✨