Meme Marketing Perils, New Zealand’s Podcasting Pedigree, & More

Amazon’s online car ‘dealership’ with Hyundai is now live by Andrew J. Hawkins

Starting yesterday, shoppers in 48 U.S. cities can shop for Hyundai vehicles on a new Amazon car shopping spinoff dubbed Amazon Auto. The arrangement acts as a storefront for dealerships to list their inventory and for customers to order, finance and arrange delivery all within an Amazon-owned storefront. While interesting in its own right, from a podcasting perspective one only has to look at Amazon’s current system to see potential for something big. Amazon’s DSP integration with podcast host Art19 would be a natural fit to lean into direct-to-consumer car ads being deployed in Art19 podcasts. Podcasts have moved countless mattresses over the years, imagine the affiliate rate or commission on shifting a car.

An extensive survey and history of podcasting in New Zealand by Lewis Tennant

An academic study into the history of podcasting in New Zealand from 2005 onward, encompassing 722 podcasts, as well as broad examination of podcasting in the country overall. In addition to tracking specifically podcasting in New Zealand, Tennant’s research highlights big gaps in the industry overall, such as inconsistencies with podcast terminology, a lack of a ubiquitous list for podcast formats/definitions, and the fact that outside of the confines of True Crime, most podcast genres lack enough specificity to clearly define a lot of podcasts.

The podcast middle class will continue to shrink by Alex Sujong Laughlin

In a Nieman Lab prediction for 2025, Laughlin projects a growing trend in podcasting could amplify next year: growing difficulties for podcasts living in the $100,000 to $500,000 range in budget. While the ‘gold rush’ of 2010s podcasting was not perfect with its land-grab mentality, it was an environment in which shows big enough to sell ads could exist without expectations of dominating charts. Contained, quality productions. With $100 million deals being made even after the end of “dumb money” in podcasting, the middle class is shrinking and at risk of shrinking further, as money is funneled more into a handful of expensive big-ticket podcasters. A possible future akin to the state of comedy films in mainstream Hollywood, where up-and-comers are only trusted with low-budget experiments while the rest of funding goes to massive projects with big-name celebrities carrying the project.

The kids are online: How brands are navigating Gen Alpha marketing by Katie Hicks

The elders of Gen Alpha, largely classified as those born between 2010 and now, are in their early teen years and have only experienced a world with social media and influencers. They’re coming of age in a world where most ‘tween’ brands aimed at older kids (e.g. Teen People, American Girl Magazine) have faded away, leaving Gen Alpha to largely consume content aimed at adults and favor brands not explicitly designed for kids. Some brands, such as Drunk Elephant, have leaned into Gen Alpha attention by designating which of their products are safe for kids to use, while others have established formal relationships with Alpha influencers, such as Cult Gaia and Claire’s working with 13 year-old Evelyn Unruh.

The year the memes took over reality – and marketing followed by Seb Joseph

Memes have come a long way from the 4chan-generated image macro templates of the 2000s, now dominating pop culture. Recent highlights include Hailey “Hawk Tuah” Welch riding a viral TikTok to podcasting fame, only to spiral into controversy when her Hawk Tuah-themed cryptocurrency was allegedly outed as a rugpull. Joseph’s overview of memes and marketing highlights the core premise that social media, by design, favors controversy. Angry comments and positive comments hold the same value. As such, most memes are inherently bred from controversy, so marketers should use caution and consider the implications before firing off a quippy Instagram post. Audio of Kendrick Lamar shouting “Mustard” in the new song TV Off is a viral TikTok sound, but to use it is to tacitly declare a side in the Kendrick/Drake beef and incur the wrath of Drake’s (remaining) fanbase.

As for the rest of the news…