Economic uncertainty bubbles up in the conversations on the first day of Possible by Michael Bürgi
The general vibe of executives visiting the Digiday Studio during day 1 of Possible in Miami is one of caution and concern. Zeta Global founder David Steinberg finds it encouraging that marketers haven’t yet slashed their budgets, opting to hold out in a wait-and-see strategy. 3C Ventures CEO Michael Kassan echoed the sentiment, saying the big players who usually seize opportunities during economic upheaval haven’t made any moves yet this time around.
2025 media and entertainment outlook
Current trends, pulled from Deloitte’s 2025 Digital Media Trends study, suggest media and entertainment studios are continuing to evolve their approach for breaking through signal noise. When it comes to social marketing, generative AI might be a key to creating hundreds (or even thousands) of ads with slight variations that allow for even more accurate targeting. An approach that could find its way into podcast advertising, but might also help solving the discovery problem with more fine-tuned pitches for specific podcasts to potential audiences.
Unique Opportunity: A Spectrum of Branded Content in Podcasting by Paul Riismandel
As more and more news sources talk about the power of branded content in podcasting, Riismandel notes the marked lack of podcasting discussion at Branded Content Days, hosted by the Native Content Institute in New York shortly after Evolutions by Podcast Movement. He finds old excuses like “podcasting needs better measurement” don’t hold water anymore, and the industry has the data to back that up. Branded podcasts work, the question becomes how much will brands escalate their brand integrations.
British and European marketers trim ad spend in the face of Trump’s tariffs by Sam Bradley
As news breaks of Q1 in the U.S. being the worst financial quarter since the COVID outbreak, WARC and the Advertising Association cut their U.K. ad spending forecast due to stagnant economic growth and tariffs. The new expectation is ad spend will grow 6.3% in 2025, 0.6% less than the January version of the same prediction. European agencies tell Digiday their clients who export to America, including fashion and electronics, are considering reallocating marketing budgets away from the U.S. into local markets where conditions are more favorable.
Welcome to Coworking, a recurring feature in The Download where we highlight some of the folks working in the business of podcasting. If you’d like to toss your hat in the ring and answer some questions, fill out this form!
Today we’re highlighting Marc Sanchez, Senior Post Production Manager, Podcasts at American Public Media Group. Sanchez’ specialty is kids podcasts, and believes they remain a big source of untapped growth potential in the industry. With a little creativity, he argues there could be a kids’ version of all the top adult podcasts. And kids’ podcasts are a godsend for advertisers, who would do well to remember that not only do kids listen to backlogs, they re-listen to favorite episodes ad nauseum (with their income-earning parents within earshot). For all of Marc’s interview, including sage advice from 17 years of podcast production, check it out now on Sounds Profitable.
As for the rest of the news…
- Deadline has coverage of Wondery signing a first-look deal with Lindsay Graham, allowing Amazon’s podcast company several years of first dibs at new podcast series created by Graham and Airship.
- JAR Audio has put out a final call for submissions to their Emerging Women in Podcasting pilot competition, which closes the submission window tonight!
- Veritonic has announced a new batch of enhancements to their Creative Measurement solution that mirror recent functionality upgrades made to their Brand Lift product, including customizable permissions and the ability to define study parameters more efficiently.
- Brian Morrissey has an interview with Hubspot Media head of audience growth Kyle Denhoff on The Rebooting Show to discuss how Hubspot’s CRM software has built their own media arm.
- An email sent to users of Apollo, the podcast app exclusively for audio fiction, announced this morning that the app will be shutting down on May 7th. Users are encouraged to jot down any favorite podcasts in the app and re-follow them on another app.
