Influencers Focus Live Events, Podcast Ad Size Matters, & More

Advertising Week Briefing: Marketers are taking the athlete influencer opportunity seriously by Sam Bradley

Digiday’s coverage of Advertising Week New York continues, with today’s focus looking at panels about brand advertising and sports. The growth and maturation of brands’ relationship with influencer marketing has a knock-on effect when working with athletes. Brands are more used to working with a single person, and modern athletes are more familiar with operating as an influencer (if not fully having their own influencer presence in addition to their chosen sport).

Influencers are shepherding their online followers to IRL events as they look to build communities and make money by Amanda Perelli and Sydney Bradley

Touring’s not just for musicians and standup comics anymore, with influencers hitting the road with everything from live show presentations to screenings of new videos. Children’s animated series Battle for Dream Island sold out the Saban Media Center in North Hollywood with a watch party for their newest season. Podcasting is no stranger to live shows and touring, but with the influx of online media personalities doing live events, the infrastructure for smaller-scale touring media productions has formed.

Questions to… Spotify’s Maya Prohovnik

Podnews editor James Cridland sat down with Spotify VP of Podcast Product Maya Prohovnik, who oversees internal teams that build new tools and features for the podcast side of the company. When asked how important video is to podcasters, Prohovnik stated Spotify will always be an audio-first platform. That said, Spotify data strongly suggests video helps a podcast find its audience faster. She also notes Spotify recognizes the importance of RSS feeds in podcasting and Spotify plans to continue supporting both on and off-platform distribution of shows via RSS.

MAGNA Media Trials & Spotify Reveal Key Strategies for Effective Podcast Advertising

The latest MAGNA Media Trials study, done in partnership with Spotify, was conducted in the U.S. using test ads that tested for respondent reactions to ad length, music, voiceover tone, and contextual alignment. When compared to 15 second ads, the 30 second test spots have a 29% higher impact on aided ad recall when measured by audience, as well as a 36% increase in recall for audiences who hadn’t purchased the brand before. Mellow voiceovers scored higher recall and purchase intent than ads with music.

As for the rest of the news…