The 2024 Ambies Award Winners
Last night the fourth annual Podcast Academy awards ceremony capped off the first day of podcasting’s descent on Los Angeles for Evolutions by Podcast Movement. Podcast of the Year went to Slow Burn: Becoming Justice Thomas. Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus took home Best Interview Podcast. Best Kids Podcast went to The Cat in the Hat Cast, which Download readers will remember as Wondery’s entry in the flurry of branded kid’s podcasts launched last Summer. Malcolm Gladwell was presented the Governor’s Award for his impact on the podcasting industry. [The Hollywood Reporter] [Variety]
The Podcast Listening Habits of Highly Influential Executives by Jeff Vidler
Signal Hill Insights regularly conducts brand lift studies focusing on the B2B (business-to-business) side of podcasting. Based on 24,505 Demos+ surveys conducted over the past two years, SHI finds high-level and mid-level executives at organizations with more than 500 employees account for 4% of all adult monthly podcast listeners. And they’re voracious listeners, with 83% of surveyed execs having listened to a podcast in the last week (compared to the 66% average of all respondents). 29% of executives listen to at least five hours of podcasts a week. [Source]
Why Marketers need to embrace the funny when it comes to podcasting
In collaboration with The Drum for their entertainment focus week, IAB UK spoke to several members of the IAB Audio Group on the popularity of comedy in podcasting and the benefits of incorporating humor into advertising. While there’s no sure-fire formula to being funny, brands that lean into comedic ads find the effort has a good success rate. A funny ad is a sticky ad, and audio podcasting is a great way to let solid comedy writing shine without the extra burden of filming or animating video. [Source]
How to Turn a Comedy Podcast Into a Comedy Documentary by Rebecca Alter
Vulture writer Jesse David Fox has adapted Good Ones, an interview podcast featuring comedians breaking down parts of their routine (Song Exploder for jokes), into a Peacock docu-special. Good One: A Show About Jokes expands on the premise of the original podcast to follow standup comedian Mike Birbiglia as he writes new material. Fox’s upgrade further demonstrates the ability of podcasting to be grown into something bigger than the original show concept. [Source]
Indigenous Screen Office (Canada) partners with Acast for inaugural podcast program
The Indigenous Screen Office selects 12 Canadian podcasts annually to support Indigenous storytellers. Their new partnership with Acast adds more to the ISO support, including Acast-lead information sessions and access to Acast services (including hosting) for the lifetime of the podcast. [Source]
…as for the rest of the news:
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The Locked On podcast network has announced a new advertising relationship with AdsWizz
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PBS NewsHour covers issues the podcast industry faces after the explosive growth in 2020.
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Nominees have been announced for The Radio Academy’s 2024 Audio and Radio Industry Awards.
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The Drum interviews comedian Adam Buxton about his approach to creating podcast ads (spoiler alert: comedy is important).
