Will pod-vertising be bigger than blog-vertising? For some reason, PQ Media seems to think so: they believe pod-vertising will hit $400-million by 2011 while blog-vertising will be worth only $300-million by 2010. I have a hard time buying into this forecast because pod-vertising appears to have so little traction while blog-vertising is growing as advertisers become more comfortable about allocating more of their budgets to the Web.(Of course, my thesis not surprising given I work for a blog networking company). Anyway, it got me thinking that maybe there’s another side to the argument so what better way to explore it than to ask someone within the podcasting industry, Leesa Barnes, who put together a guest post for me. (It’s also on her blog). Take it away, Lisa.
“As I continue to interview podcasters for my book Podcasting for Profit, I’m discovering more and more that advertising and sponsorship can work in a podcast (although some do think they’re truly awful). So, it’s not surprising that eMarketer would release a report saying that spending on podcast advertising will reach $400-million by 2011.
While I don’t doubt these numbers, what concerns me is that many companies still don’t understand that advertising in a podcast has to be treated differently from advertising in other media, specifically television and radio.
There are so many benefits to consider when choosing to advertise in podcast:
1. Most podcasts target a niche audience. This allows a company to speak to a target audience that will not only listen, but take action.
2. The content in a podcast is evergreen. Scott Bourne talked about this on his blog. The fact that podcast episodes are available online well beyond its published date gives an advertiser an advantage that no other media does.
Advertising (and sponsorship) in a podcast has to be non-instrusive. The ad can’t stand out so much that the only thing the podcast listener or viewer remembers is how much the ad interrupted what they were consuming.
This is similiar to taking pictures. Personally, I hate taking pictures simply because I find the whole process to be contrived, fake and pretentious. Instead of the camera capturing the moment as it occurs, the photographer interrupts your conversation by asking everyone to stop, smile and say cheese. The best pictures are those that catch people in the moment. In other words, the camera should be non-intrusive and should weave seamlessly into the event.
The same of advertising. It should be non-intrusive and fit into the content of the podcast, not become a glaring interruption. Until those who buy advertising understand this, podcast advertising will be treated as nothing more than a gimmick or a stunt and I can’t forsee spending reaching anywhere close to $400-million.â€
Technorati Tags: Leesa Barnes, Podcasting
4 Comments
Leesa – I’m not sure I see or understand the correlation between speaking to a niche audience and them taking action on advertising included in the podcast. Do you have any additional stats that support this thinking? It’d certainly help me out in my job!
Cheers,
Ed
Ed, my message isn’t to the podcast listener. Whether they take action on an ad in a podcast isn’t my concern in my post.
I’m concerned about the number of stories I hear from podcast consultants who tell me about companies who treat podvertising as a one-off. Then, these companies walk away saying that podvertising doesn’t work, or that they couldn’t measure the CPM or some other absurd claim based on traditional ad thinking.
If those who spend money on advertising don’t “get it”, then we’ll see more companies abandoning podcast advertising way too early. For this reason, those numbers quoted above will never be reached.
Need stats? Go to my blog and click on the category called Podcast Statistics. You’ll get your fill there.
Now I’m really confused.
There are so many benefits to consider when choosing to advertise in podcast: 1. Most podcasts target a niche audience. This allows a company to speak to a target audience that will not only listen, but take action.
Isn’t that exactly what you’re saying?
My thinking is that while companies should be “pitching” themselves as guests for relevant shows (something that I hope will increase this year), advertising or sponsorship is, as you suggest, being handled rather cackhandedly. The host(s) need to be very careful on which opportunities to accept and then to integrate their sponsors into the show very carefully. Calacanis does a great job on this but the FIR guys do a lousy one.
Podcasting’s benefit (to the corporation) is not in directly shift widgets, but to create a “halo effect” around the organization – placing it as a leader, creating a community of passionate users and generating online awesomeness. As an aside, this halo can be both internal and external – maybe Mark should start a Nortel podcast…
Ed
You got it, Ed. Podcast advertising can only grow to the levels that eMarketer is predicting if the podcast producer and the company buying advertising in that podcast build a relationship. Just because a company has money to spend and finds a podcast that has an audience in the thousands doesn’t mean it’s going to be a good fit for the listener or viewer.
Rocketboom does this very nicely. They understand their audience, so they won’t just accept any type of advertising. Rocketboom’s numbers are very attractive to an advertiser, downloads and subscribers in the millions. However, just because they have the eyeballs doesn’t mean any type of advertising will work.
Like the halo analogy. May just use that in a presentation or two (with due credit of course