Today in the Business of Podcasting
Sounds Profitable launches branded podcast directory in partnership with Lower Street by Reem Makari
As announced in Bryan Barletta’s article on Wednesday, Sounds Profitable has partnered with branded podcast production company Lower Street to create Brands in Podcasts. The public directory for branded audio current contains over 500 podcasts and currently has open submissions. In addition to the directory, Brands in Podcasts intended to release a branded podcast benchmark report in the next few quarters, built from both the database and survey responses aiming to define the size of the branded podcast market. [Source]
Marketers to spend most of holiday budgets in November: report by Alyssa Meyers
New research from Comscore’s programmatic division and ad-tech platform Nexxen finds the biggest spending season for marketers is arriving very soon. An industry survey of marketers who manage programmatic holiday ad budgets found 75% of holiday budgets are finalized by September, and 97% of them are locked in by October. 53% of respondents say they intend to spend the majority of their earmarked holiday budget this month. 86% said they plan to spend at least as much on holiday ads as they did last year, easing recession fears. 27% said they intend on running audio ads. A number we think podcasting has the research and skills to get a sizable share of, if not increase audio spending in general. [Source]
IP addresses may not be the post-cookie data solution adtech wanted by Ryan Barwick
In mid-October Google announced intentions to experiment with a feature in Chrome that would cloak a user’s IP address, following Apple’s lead from 2021 when they started hiding user IP addresses in Safari and Mail as part of iCloud. Most phones currently have the ability to use a third-party VPN for all external calls, meaning – to a degree – many companies are seeing non-user specific IPs already. That said, the kind of person who regularly uses a VPN is largely a die-hard tech-savvy power user. Google and Apple exploring a similar option in-browser will likely increase adoption rates over third-party VPN solutions, especially if they take the next logical step and expand to device-wide protection. Google’s IP Protection in its current state blocks IP for third-parties, but specifically allows it for publishers. A cautiously optimistic view for podcasting is if this initiative does go device-wide, podcast apps will still be able to get IP data that they can share with hosting platforms. [Source]
…as for the rest of the news: Forrester Research finds CMOs are far less dour about Q4 than they were last year, Audioboom celebrates breaking one billion advertising impressions, and Tenderfoot TV acquires production company Resonate, the company behind the hit podcast Up and Vanished.
Research Database Snapshot
What it says: Two is the optimal number of spots in a podcast ad break
What it means: More than two ads are still effective, though cost per action (CPA) performance drops significantly with breaks exceeding five spots
Why it’s cool: This is really guidance for performance-based buyers, but there is a reason CPA performance drops with long ad breaks – listeners tune out!
