I’m a big fan of Podcasts, listening to perhaps 10 or so a week - mainly when exercising or travelling.
I also think that the future for Podcasting is especially rosy, as they become easier to download, store and consume on the mobile phone. This will make them accessible on a truly mass market basis, as opposed to the niche (OK, quite a big niche) of the specialist MP3 player.
The obvious business model for Podcasting is ad-funded or sponsorship in most cases, though I guess subscription (pay per programme), discretionary donation and Government funded (like the BBC or PBS) all have a role too. But I’d put my money on ad-funded and/or sponsorship being the leading models, going forward.
So surely there’s an opportunity to significantly improve how sponsors’ and advertisers’ messages are communicated?
Take my two favourite Podcasts - and I’ve chosen them as examples because they do such a great job in every other respect - The Jason Calacanis Podcast (still in beta) and G’Day World, which is made by Cameron Reilly.
Both are sponsored by a large domain name retailer and it’s great to see them getting involved and supporting Podcasting at this relatively early stage in the medium’s development. But, frankly, the marketing execution plummets to new depths.
Jason’s method is to digress mid-cast into a mini-lovefest along the lines of “we interrupt this programme to bring you these messages” in a style all too reminiscent of the worst of early radio. Cam inserts a pre-recorded segment before the Podcast begins about how great the sponsor is and how we can take advantage of one of their coupons - incidentally, the same type of coupon available on every other Podcast these people sponsor.
There’s actually nothing wrong with these sorts of messages the first couple of times you hear them. The format works - up to a point. I mean it’s not the most entertaining advertising I’ve ever heard, but it gets the message across clearly and effectively. The trouble is that by the time you’ve heard it two or three times, it’s just plain annoying, quite frankly.
My solution is to just fast-forward, so it’s no big deal - apart from that this means I no longer get exposed to the sponsors’ messages. Which means that the advertising isn’t working any more.
If there’s going to be a long term future for the medium, the challenge is to find a way that’s acceptable to consume advertising and which works on more than a one-off basis. Otherwise, the whole medium is going to struggle.
A few final thoughts:
- Is it just me that finds these ads annoying? Maybe so, in which case I’ll shut up.
- Is the Podcaster self-producing the advertising the right approach, or should marketers look to specialists to provide the solution? Most marketers get specialist radio production houses to produce radio commercials, as an example. This seems to be the approach favoured by the traditional media who are into Podcasting, like CNET.
- It’s a new medium, so should we be looking to reinvent how we use the channel for marketing? What other approach might work better?
Please leave a comment and have your say. My intent here is not to criticize the great work of people like Jason and Cam, but to try to work out a way in which they can deliver the best value to the companies who are supporting their efforts. Then we all win.
“Is the Podcaster self-producing the advertising the right approach”.
Nope - I don’t think so.
Having a radio voice - ie a voice that holds people’s attention and brings life to a script - is a special gift.
Most of us don’t have one, and when we try to engage an audience for 20 mins without the aid of body language, props and Powerpoint slides we struggle.
If you are a business podcaster and you don’t have good podcast presentation skills I think you risk the authority of your message being lost.
The listener tolerance threshold is pretty low, and if you are flat, whiney or if you do that thing where you go up at the end of sentANCES? you will be punished.
I tried to do one once but, when I listened back, I could only manage a couple of minutes before I got on my OWN nerves.
I am now saving up to commission Bill Nighy/John Nettles.
Luke - I’d tend to agree generally. But in this case, the guys are already producing great audio content. Well, Cameron’s voice does go up at the end, but that’s coz he’s an Aussie, so I think we can forgive him.
So this isn’t really about whether people should Podcast, but rather if the presenter (or “DJ” using totally outdated parlance) should produce the advertising element.
Russell
Yes, sorry, I trailed off on a podcast tangent there.
Podcasters should avoid presenting ads, in keeping with professional practice elsewhere, and no matter how good a presenting voice they have.
There needs to be the effect of a distance between presenter and ad.
I have to think, due to the nature of Podcasts, that it’s got to be VERY similar to a radio advertisement, only it needs to be different for every podcast. Not different indefinitely, but different from the podcast episode immediately preceding it. Thus, if a certain sponsor had 2-3 different ad copies, and rotated them sequentially, or more and rotated them sporadically, it would make a HUGE difference.
Personally, I also don’t see anything wrong with the talent/host presenting the ad. Depending on the sponsor, I could see that being of more value. For instance, the one radio station that I listen to, the morning show talent usually does the ads, saying they’ve used it and it’s good. Lies or not, (honestly don’t know) it lends more credibility, and makes it easier for me to listen to, cause I’m already prepared to hear their voice.
The worst ever is to hide them. One radio station here has an advertiser that basically rewrites a song that *would* play on the station with their own lyrics, so you don’t realize it till 10-15 seconds into the song that it’s not really a song at all. Sounds great, but REALLY annoying to me, and makes me have negative feelings once I figure it out.
Russell, thanks for the commentary and suggestions. I agree with you. Playing the same ads on every show can get annoying. Radio plays the same ads over and over as well but because they have so many ads, I guess the repetitiveness is less obvious than a podcast that only carries a couple of ads. At this stage we’re hoping that the audience is accepting the premise that we are producing these shows for no money and most of us aren’t gangsta-rapper rich like Jason or Curry or Doug Kaye.
I would love to find better models, so I’m completely open to feedback, criticism and suggestions!
Now… on the other hand…
MY VOICE GOES UP AT THE END??! Get outta here. That is about the worst insult you can make. Tell me my podcasts suck, I’m an idiot, but that?!? I left Queensland 20 years ago mate. I’ve worked hard on my dulcet tones.
[...] Russell Buckley hates the GoDaddy ads that Jason Calacanis and I are running. [...]
Cameron, mate, thanks for stopping by and really sorry to be the one who breaks it to you?
I mean you have a great Podcast? As I said above? But the fact is that Aussies tend to talk as if they’re asking questions? Even though they’re making statements? And questions tend to go up at the end of the sentence?
Ok, admittedly your dulcet tones tend to be more neutral than most and you have a great “radio” voice. But…..?
Heh heh.
Russell
Hey Russell:
First off; thoughtful post, I swear! I’m gonna disagree with it, but that doesn’t make it uninteresting.
I came her from Cameron’s post on the same subject, and I left a longer post there (hm…not so much longer, in retrospect. LOL)…but my quick response would be that I think “truly awful” is a bit much. I checked Cameron’s most recent long ad (#209)…it was a 30 second intro for another TPN show, and then about a 40 second ad for the Giant Domain Name Retailer We Shall Not Name. Then an hour long podcast. I can TOTALLY live with that. Heck..if you’re in agreement that advertising is going to pay for these things, how else do you think it’s going to work? *grin* I’m amazed that we get as upset as we do over a couple of minutes an hour. C’mon!!
Sure, we can imagine the “insert a totally customized ad” fest in the future. OTOH, I’m making this comment in a TEXTAREA on your blog that has a “Unlimited Calls Service for Filipinos” ad below it (just for me!)…so maybe that won’t go quite as well as we expect. *grin* (for the record: nothing _wrong_ with said Filipino call service in general, but it’s absolutely useless to me!)
And specialized podcast ad production houses? That sounds like the beginning of re-intermediating the middlemen that we just got excited over disintermediating! *sigh*
“Something we gotta live with for now”…sure. “Truly awful”? I don’t think so. Go back and listen to terrestrial radio again…you’ll remember what Truly Awful really sounds like.
Note: Don’t take this the wrong way…I realize you’re just thinking out loud here. I just wanted to toss my two cents in the bucket!! Vive la podcast!!
Ken - thanks for the comment and it’s fine to disagree
My concern here is primarily to stimulate debate on what would make the ads better. Because better = more effective = happy advertisers = rich Cameron. And the converse holds true that ads that aren’t working because everyone skips them, means that advertisers stop (or don’t start in the first place).
I totally agree that the length of the ads isn’t a problem and in comparison with other media, Podcasts offer exceptional value. But I’d also argue that this is the wrong mindset. In this day and age, we shouldn’t be looking at ads as something we “have to” consume, but something that we’re happy to consume. Maybe they entertain us somehow. Or give us useful information. Or a special offer that interests us. Or an ad that truly engages us.
I don’t pretend to be an Advertising Creative. But personally, I’d far prefer to listen to Cam saying something along the lines of “And here’s today’s interesting fact bought to you by our sponsors XYZ. Did you know that the most dangerous animal that ever lived is the mosquito, which is estimated to have killed about half the people who ever lived.” Obviously that would need to change for every show
but it seems to me to be far more in tune with the G’day World Podcast than talking about saving 10% off a domain name.
I’m not suggesting that this is the solution, but something along those lines would surely be more preferable to an ad that you hear once and then skip.
Russell
The way Jason talks about his sponsors gives the listener the impression that it is irony and that he is just joking. I doubt that this is any good for the sponsors.
But the worst of all is Adam Curry, he made his podcast an adcast and is mixing content with advertising - very bad.
[...] 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. [...]