Ad Boom for Podcasting
In many ways, podcasting has been the bastard-child of the user-generated content world - talked about but mostly unloved by the masses - while blogging and video-blogging have hogged the spotlight.
eMarketer, however, believes podcast advertising is poised to explode (relatively speaking). The research firm, which seems to be bullish about an awful lot of online markets (the New Forrester Research?) suggests U.S. podcasting ad spending will nearly triple to $435-million by 2012 from $165-million in 2007.
All things considered, it’s pretty impressive growth. Perhaps I should revive the Talking Tech podcast given this bullish environment.
eMarketer suggests advertisers will be seduced attracted by the growth of the podcasting audience to 65 million by 2012 - with 25 million being active users who listen to a podcast at least once a week. The audience growth will be driven by:
- Greater ease of consumption for podcast content
- Growing awareness of podcasting
- Terrestrial radio’s use and promotion of podcasting
- Increased penetration of portable players
- The evolution of smart phones and proliferation of affordable mobile data plans
Frankly, I don’t see (or hear) this kind of growth in the size of the ad market or audience. To me, podcasting will remain a second-tier UGC activity for a niche audience - mostly geeks - as opposed to a mainstream medium. Then again, I spent considerable time driving on the weekend, and commercial radio is mostly crap so perhaps podcasting could thrive if MP3 connectors become standard in new cars.
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Podcasting
February 4th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Mark, bring your show back and put it at http://www.geekcast.fm, a new thing we started for geeks.
February 6th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Excellent post, Mark. I’ve been an independent podcaster for the past two years (and a listener/watcher of the space since 2005). Advertising within podcasting is trending upward; most notably, with companies making deals with podcasting networks such as PodShow.
I think your comments about the podcast audience being “mostly geeks” is accurate, to a point. Podcasters face several hurdles in acquiring uninitiated listers, one of the most frustrating being that many podcasting directories (such as iTunes) are horribly flawed. These services provide little direction or help for curious newcomers questing for content.
For my podcast, I ask my audience to actively evangelize my work beyond the podcasting community, and have seen healthy growth in my listener base since 2006. This WOM buzz is the “secret sauce” for a podcast’s success, and eventual mainstream acceptance.
Thanks again for such a thought-provoking post!