Podcasts and Gaming: Elevating How We Cater to Industry Interests by Edward Fuller
The second in a two-part article series about the potential podcasts hold for game marketing by Media Bodies CEO Edward Fuller. A big hurdle podcasting will need to overcome to be accepted in mainstream game marketing mix is refreshing outdated presumptions marketers have, such as the premise podcast ads are purely for brand awareness. Fuller also notes podcasting needs to demonstrate we can offer competitive CPMs (cost per thousand impressions as an industry, emphasizing how much data is available at every step of the advertising process. The piece ends with a succinct list of areas a veteran games marketer wishes to see podcasting grow into, including more robust tracking solutions and improved behavioral targeting. Some of the bullet points are things that need addressing, some are things the industry can deftly handle already but needs to do a better job of communicating to the wider marketing world.
Spotify Takes On Competitors by Giving Its Podcasters a Raise by Jessica Testa
According to information given to The New York Times’ Dealbook, Spotify has paid out over $100 million to podcasters since launching their partner program earlier this year. With financial incentives to drive more premium subscriber engagement and upload more video content in said partner program, Spotify reports they’ve seen a 40% increase in video consumption since January. Alan Abdine, head of advertising revenue at YMH Studios, told the NYT YMH’s quarterly Spotify revenue more than tripled after joining the Spotify Partner Program, describing it as a “game-changer.” Meanwhile, TechRadar has the details on a Financial Times piece detailing Spotify’s plans to up Premium subscriptions by €1 in European and Latin American markets this summer. The U.S. price reportedly isn’t changing soon, but we do know there’s the super premium option in the works that’ll cost $11/month that likely will come with additional perks. Price increases and plan stratification are likely a sign of streaming music going the same path as video streaming, with potential new features like paywalling popular new music releases to super-premium users on specific apps, instead of the current shotgun-blast approach of music being equally available on most platforms on the same day.
YouTube’s Ad Revenue Jumps 10%
Alphabet’s first quarter earning call last week revealed YouTube secured $8.93 billion in advertising revenue in Q1, a 10.3% year over year increase. Alphabet touts over 270 million paid subscriptions overall, with the lion’s share coming from YouTube and the Google One cloud storage service (with YouTube’s own report last month clocking 125 million paid subscribers to YouTube Premium and YouTube Music, a 100 million year-over-year increase). According to MoffettNathanson estimates, YouTube is expected to overtake Disney by the end of the year as the world’s largest media company with a worth of $500 billion.
As for the rest of the news…
- Fairing co-founder Matt Bahr has announced on LinkedIn that the company has made LTV (Lifetime Value) Analytics free for all Fairing customers on current plans, allowing them to connect post-purchase survey response data to their spending patterns, which can empower predictions of future purchase behavior.
- Podscribe has unveiled some new tools for smarter campaign reporting and attribution, including some upgrades to dashboard customization and the ability to schedule recurring reports (e.g. measurement, delivery, and verification).
- Reuters covers recent Bloomberg reporting that Tencent Music Entertainment Group is in advanced talks to buy podcasting company and audio platform Ximalaya.
- To promote their new whitepaper Media Pulse: Podcasts, The Media Leader has a new article giving an overview of the video podcasting industry.
- Everybody Media has announced tickets are now on sale for their annual International Women’s Podcast Awards, which will be held in-person at the BBC Radio Theatre in London on Tuesday, June 17th
