Spotify to add podcasts to Sax ‘later this quarter’ by Jack Benjamin
While Spotify’s in-house ad exchange did promise podcast inventory would come eventually, now there’s a deadline. According to Spotify Associate Director of Product Marketing Savanna Ramsey, speaking at the Sparks event in London last week, podcast inventory is coming to Spotify Ad Exchange by the end of Q2. In addition, the generative AI tool within Spotify’s Ads Manager dashboard is getting a wider release to the UK this quarter. And the AI tool has been tweaked , as Spotify says they’ve worked to actively incorporate UK accents into their model for its UK release.
WARC Study Finds Brands Are Gaining Ground With Audio’s Help
The new WARC report The Multiplier Effect is built from data from over 1,000 brands, including case studies of specific companies like the direct-to-consumer mattress brand Saatva. In Saatva’s case, they shifted some of their marketing investment from paid search to audio (including both radio and podcast ads), which caused a spike in branded search, revenue, and better margins. As Audacy Senior Director Reggie Shah says, audio didn’t just drive awareness, it caused real revenue results. Further reinforcing the notion that if one is looking to increase their brand’s reach and get in front of engaged audiences, podcasting has to be in the conversation, if not a large focus.
Can Anyone Supplant Joe Rogan as the Most Popular Podcaster? By Ashley Carman
Carman points to the Edison Research top 50 podcasts for Q1. Rogan remains at the top of the pile, which undermines a sub-genre of article that has become popular in recent years: finding podcasting’s Rogan-toppler. Various outlets have taken to reporting on brief moments the biggest podcast technically isn’t #1 (usually on days when Rogan has a more rote guest with less celebrity cache his more viral episodes). It’s one thing to technically be #1 on a zoomed-in chart looking at a single day, week, or even month. It’s another to understand the sheer size of JRE and its chart-neighbors. Weekly charts will give newer podcasts with celebrity hosts leveraging their existing audience for engagement (think Tucker Carlson or Theo Von) on occasion, especially on good weeks with good viral moments . Meanwhile, Edison’s top 50 for Q1 has the same top 6 shows as last month, and a good portion of the top 20 are shows that have been in that chart-neighborhood for years. Virality is good, momentum is another thing entirely.
Mark Zuckerberg just declared war on the entire advertising industry by Nilay Patel
In an interview with Ben Thompson, Zuckerberg shared that Facebook’s advances in ad targeting using AI-powered tech is leading towards a future where Facebook also generates ad creative. Of course, this dream of handing payment details to Facebook for an automated process to run ads that report back using proprietary numbers is antithetical, if not hostile, to the wider advertising industry. Major players in advertising questioned by The Verge say brand safety is a big concern when having a black box magically generate and run creative without input.
Upcoming Events
Every now and then The Download’s news coffers overflow with time-sensitive news. In those moments, I like to whip up a digital bulletin board of community announcements, so let’s take a look at what’s happening soon in the business of podcasting!
- This Wednesday Hernan Lopez will be debuting the results of several months’ research into how big the global podcast economy is, and where the opportunities for growth are. The debut will happen in the Milken Global Conference panel Charting the Rise of the Global Podcast Economy, May 7th at 11:30 a.m. PST.
- Ossa will be co-hosting an IRL panel with Harvard Business School on May 13th: Investing in the Channels That Build Billion-Dollar Brands in New York, starting at 6:00 p.m. EST.
- PRX has announced a Podcast Creator Summit in Austin, TX taking place June 16th through 18th, followed by a second Summit in Atlanta July 30th through August 1st.
As for the rest of the news…
- Rococo Punch co-founder Jessica Alpert has launched a new series dubbed No Resumes, Just People highlighting people to show what creativity and passion lies in the margins of what an automated software might not consider a “perfect fit” in a resume. The first issue, interviewing podcaster John Moe, is available now.
- According to Semafor reporting, former Pushkin Industries VP of content and production Mia Lobel is moving to Slate as their new Executive Producer of Podcasts.
- Zeno Media has announced the appointment of entrepreneur Rodrigo Tigre as their new Director of Podcast Strategy.
- Dear Media has signed April McDaniel and Savannah James’ podcast Everybody’s Crazy to the network just in time for the debut of a new season later this month.
- Headliner has beefed up their paid advertising platform Podcast Promo by integrating with six new campaign tracking services, including Cohost, Magellan AI, Podscribe, Podtrac, and Swap.fm.
