Advertising Week Briefing: Creators emerge as the industry’s new power brokers by Alexander Lee
The role of the content creator has shifted in recent years at events like Advertising Week New York. This year’s edition featured a live taping of Hot Ones, a $25,000 creator pitch contest sponsored by Adobe, and a session with Dhar Mann whipping up a campaign for Gap on-stage. Advertising Week global president Ruth Mortimer told Digiday the event has done private events built around creators, but this year things like the Meta-sponsored creator lounge are a new development. Traditionally creators are the last to be brought into a campaign, chosen to fit an agreed-upon direction a brand has decided on. Now creators are making an effort to reverse the flow, hosting their own brand activations and positioning themselves as a vital part of the advertising industry.
Spotify’s Advertising Week panel highlights the power of fandom for advertisers by Marisa Jones
During an Advertising Week New York panel, Spotify head of global thought leadership Jenny Haggard positioned the streamer’s recent additions of comment sections, direct messages, and sharing capabilities as building a space where fans can connect and interact with favorite artists. McDonald’s chief loyalty and engagement officer Allegra Krishnan spoke to the power of leveraging fandom authentically, such as the chain’s collaboration with Warner Bros. to run a meal themed after A Minecraft Movie. Something podcasting is no stranger to, as one of our top genres (sports) is, in essence, built entirely around leveraging fans.
New Podcast From Twitch Streamers is Making Over $58,000 a Month on Patreon by Ashley Carman
The aforementioned podcast, Lemonade Stand, is a comedic business discussion podcast that started as a collaboration between podcaster Aiden McCaig and Twitch streamer Brandon Ewing. Seven months in, the show is solvent to the tune of $58k monthly income on Patreon and 195k subscribers on YouTube. The secret sauce, as far as third co-host Doug Wreden is concerned, is podcasting’s lack of algorithmic guardrails. Topics can be explored at length without worries about ticking off a particular platform’s algorithms or another’s demand for punchy, quick content. There’s also the fact that Twitch, despite being largely addressed as a separate entity from podcasting, is effectively a training ground for video podcasters. Your average Twitch streamer, especially ones who don’t lean exclusively on playing video games, is training themselves to have longform conversations for hours on end in an ad-supported environment and with the knowledge they have to be entertaining moment-to-moment to keep audiences engaged. Which is to say: basically the job description of a good video chat-podcaster.
Report: iHeartMedia Considering A Massive Podcast Acquisition
Allegedly, Audioboom has hired the services of J Goodwin & Co. to evaluate a potential sale. According to media analysts speaking to Sky News, the two most likely companies in the running are iHeart Media and Fox. The current market cap for Audioboom sits at $134.8 million USD.
As for the rest of the news…
- American Public Media group has sold Brains On! Universe to the original co-creators of Brains On!. The sale includes the relevant feeds, social media accounts, books, spinoff podcasts, and live show rights to the Brains On! Brand.
- Multiple sources tell New York Times reporter Ben Mullen that NPR podcasting strategy chief Collin Cambell is leaving NPR to join Apple.
- Acast has announced the appointment of Laura Hagen to SVP, Regional MD Americas & Global Head of Agency Relations.
- The full list of Black Podcasting Awards nominees is now available.
- The official IAB YouTube has a new short video asking industry experts whether they think certain trends in the industry are heading up, or down (along with fun stock chart emoji props).
- This week’s episode of PodBiz features Jack Levy of Manifest Media Productions discussing the monetization capabilities of podcasting beyond the usual ads and sponsorships.
