But the worst of all is Adam Curry, he made his podcast an adcast and is mixing content with advertising – very bad.

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

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!!

Ok, admittedly your dulcet tones tend to be more neutral than most and you have a great “radio” voice. But…..?

Heh heh.

Russell

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.

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.

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.

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