Before we get started: Back in July Sounds Profitable posted the Podcast Industry Glossary, a collaborative effort between Sounds Profitable partner companies to build a comprehensive collection of key terms and terminology used in the podcast industry. We’re thrilled to announce there is now a Spanish-language version of the glossary provided by Genuina Media, available now.
Better Podcast Marketing and The Curiosity Gap by Tom Webster
Curiosity is a better driver of interest in media than a plain label. Webster’s example is how one might pitch the Scottish electronica duo Boards of Canada. One could simply say the music is “lo-fi chill electronic” and be done with it, but even just explaining the band title (music inspired by the uniquely low fidelity synth found in school PSA films produced and widely distributed by the Film Board of Canada) gives both context and breeds curiosity. People naturally want to fill in information gaps, which Webster proposes can further apply to feelings. Boards of Canada evoke a nostalgia for a version of being a kid in the 1970s and 1980s not captured by pop culture. Selling podcasts to people based on the feeling and tone they create would land more audience members who would listen to podcasts if they had a good reason to try.
Getting Audio & Podcasting on the Media Plan: A Guide for Mutual Success
The IAB has posted a free document built as a guide for pitching podcasting as a valuable part of media plans, starting off with an iHeart/WARC slide from The Investment Gap showing audio makes up 31% of media activity consumption in the U.S. in 2021, but only received 8.8% of the advertising spend. The full document acts as an amalgamation of podcast industry data, with 34 different reports cited.
How Emotion AI Will Transform Podcast Advertising by Alberto Betella
A brief overview of the history of parasocial relationships, from the term’s inception in the mid 1950s through to modern podcasting’s use of inherently one-sided relationships between hosts and audience members. Host-read ads are difficult to scale as run-of-network ads can quickly become impersonal and stale. The tech currently exists for delivering personalized, context-aware ads, but if the concept of Emotional AI – a voice clone that identifies the emotional tone of a scene and evokes appropriate speech inflections – were developed fully, voice clones could facilitate a version of ‘host read’ run-of-network ads that naturally fit the tone of every episode they’re slotted into.
A hot topic at Advertising Week New York was the eternal balancing act between performance marketing and brand-building. The conversation marches on with last week’s Masters of Marketing Conference hosted by the Association of National Advertisers. According to AdAge, the majority of speakers who broached the subject agree with the AWNY sentiment: brand vs. performance is a false dichotomy. Lower-funnel performance is important, but brand-building is an important tool for company growth.
As for the rest of the news…
- Pantheon Media has opened the first round of crowd equity funding on its StartEngine
- Tom Webster was a guest on “Podcasting Made Simple” with PodMatch to talk about finding new listeners
- Ossa Collective and Colture Media have partnered to launch the Colture Podcast Network
- Acast has partnered with Barometer to use their AI-driven brand safety and suitability tools on Acast’s content catalog.
- Amazon has launched a companion podcast to the Prime Video game show Buy It Now, with the podcast being dubbed This is Small Business: Behind the Buy.
- Nielsen has published a new report on Q3 audio listening trends along with the Edison Research Share of Ear.
