Fairfax Media's INMA-shortlisted Decoding Genius native content podcast for GE has been downloaded 142,000 times, the publisher says.

The 'Made by Fairfax' product ranked in Apple Store's top ten in its first week and has been the top podcast in the iTunes arts category during its campaign, and remains in the top ten.

The podcast project - with downloads continuing to climb - is a finalist in INMA's Global Media Awards for best marketing solution for an advertising client, winners of which are to be announced in May.

Decoding Genius is a six-part podcast series telling the stories of six "young geniuses", among them Mitchell Clark - a 17-year-old heading an IT business with 230 clients -biomedical engineer Jordan Nguyen who built a mind-controlled wheelchair, 17-year-old maths whiz Ian Zelich who has an IQ of 180.

Made by Fairfax produced a content series about the podcast, which was produced with Macquarie Media and amplified across Fairfax Media and GE's digital channels.

MBF editorial director Kate Cox says the podcast series reinforced GE's brand positioning as one of the world's most innovative companies in a unique and creative way: "It's a great example of the sort of high-quality, bespoke and immersive experiences Fairfax can achieve for brands by leveraging our content creation resources and expertise."

Cox says more than 20 per cent of Australians regularly listen to podcasts, making it an exciting time for brands to utilise the medium. "The results of this latest branded series for GE show that when brands tell an exceptional story, people will listen."

The six-part series campaign ran from October 27 to December 5 last year, and It is available for download here (for iTunes) and here (for all other channels). It can also be found on all Virgin flights.