Let's talk advertising

Hi there,

In this post I want to skim through some of the issues around advertising in podcasts.

It's a fast-moving business, because new technologies to insert advertisements into podcasts are only just emerging.

First off, as this blog concerns itself only with corporate podcasts, you might wonder why a company would want to have advertisements in its podcasts at all. You wouldn't advertise someone else's product in your corporate brochure, would you?

It's not so simple.

To return to first principles, a corporate podcast is not, and must not, ever, be a pure promotion. Pure promotions are those late night TV shows selling hocus-pocus beauty products and exercise machines you'll never use. There's a reason those shows are on late at night. You don't want to position your business in 'that' sort of company, do you? Instead, I can think of no better description for a good programme than the mantra adopted by the BBC at its inception- "To inform, educate, and entertain".

Podcasts are not like promotional literature; they can be much more creatively executed, and there may well be a good reason to insert advertising from other associated or relevant companies.

The media landscape is also changing: the technology is (almost) here for podcasts to be aggregated into channels, supported by ads. You like chess? Listen to a chess channel which aggregates podcasts from individuals and companies around the world, catering specifically for your interest. This sort of thing is on the way- and it will be highly monetised. Companies like Kiptronic in the US and Cheeze in the UK are matching up clients with podcasts.

Then, there are of course a whole bunch of corporate entities who should actively be recruiting advertisers- publishers or trade show organisers, for example.

So it's fair even in the corporate landscape to be investigating advertising technologies.

I have said elsewhere, that I think there are two trends on the way.

The first is the tools for insertion of adverts at the point of upload. This can happen on the desktop, and is effective for publishers who wish to manage their own traffic- very much like a radio station, in a basic way.

The second trend is server-based, and would insert ads at the point of download. This is much more efficient, as it allows back-catalogue podcasts to be indexed and ads inserted. A sponsor could, for example, own all traffic downloaded in March 2007, even though the original programme was recorded way back in 2006.

This second trend will win through, not only because of its flexibility, but also because clients are demanding ever more sophistication from their podcasts which should be delivered at the point of download. Advertisers will, for example, want A-B testing in order to find out which version of an ad works better. Similarly, clients will want versions of whole shows- one version free, one paid, for example. All this is easy to do at the point of download.

I believe that for corporates, the issue comes down to some very basic questions:

• Is this the sort of podcast, with the sort of traffic that can support ads, and if so, can I countenance advertising in my corporate media environment? (i.e. do I fancy a bit of extra money for my exciting content creation)
• If so, what sort of ads am I (and my listeners) prepared to tolerate?

All of which brings us to the content of advertising in podcasts. Some simple rules to be getting on with.

1. 20". That's the maximum. Radio shows have breaks of 2 minutes or more. But the internet is a medium of immediacy- listeners are intolerant, and in any case, if I am sitting on the train, I will fast-forward through a 2-minute break, whereas I can't be bothered to fast-forward through a 20" break.
2. The 20" rule is also why we think sponsorship works better than advertising.
3. As an aside, we also have a 5" rule: no matter how good your intro theme is, get to the introductory words within five seconds. Again, podcast listeners are impatient- hand over your wisdom fast!
4. On the plus side, few podcasts are longer than ten minutes at the moment. I expect this to change- we are already successfully delivering 30-minute corporate podcasts to happy audiences, and provided the content is right, people will listen. Insert ads at a maximum of once every ten minutes; or indeed sponsor messages at the start and middle of a shorter programme. Why not the end? Because listeners will switch off as soon as the outro music begins.
5. Finally, what about the content of the ads? It's very tempting right now to simply insert what are in the UK radio trade called "presenter-reads", ads read by the presenter. They're easy to do and require no commercial production. I am ambivalent on this. It associates the presenter with the product, and, particularly in the corporate context, I think it muddies the editorial integrity of the programme. I am inclined to learn from years of radio experience and keep ads separate, similarly people expect to hear sponsor messages neatly inserted onto the intro and break-bumpers of the programme. If nothing else, it makes sense to match an audience's expectations of a radio programme, rather than expect them to understand advertising messages delivered in an unconventional way.

I will return to advertising in future posts, but for now, don't dismiss ads entirely just because you're a company- there are models for business which will make money, and with the tools now at every marketer's disposal, everyone can be a profitable broadcaster.

Comments

[darren gerhold]

Some interesting comments made but id like to comment on the references you made to PRA's. Each media owner im sure has their own interpretation but here is Chrysalis Radio and specifically Galaxy Radio's policy. It has a Maximum 2 PRA read campaigns per week on each station
•PRS's are limited to 1 per hour and no more than 2 per show.
So people can still understand they are ads and thus keeping "editorial integrity" all PRA's appear in the middle of ad breaks and they are recorded (as live). these PRA's work very well as associating the presenter with the product without actual endorsement from preseter or station.

[Matt O'Neill]

this 'auto - insertion' of ads into podcasts stuff.. having heard a podcast with this in it, I found it rather jarring. All of a sudden, it just cut. No warning whatsoever.

At least with TV / Radio, you are 'warmed up' for it. Usually the transition to ads finishes with a cliff - hanger, or a natural break. Maybe the machines have a way to come before it comes across as 'natural'?

[Dr Savi]

I looked into this area last year but have recently seen adcast engine technology being implemented.
It does not resemble a cached (not cashed - pardon the pun!) scenario.

We've been podcasting audio since Oct'05 and video podccasting since Nov'06.

The theory is that the new 'attention economy' should give us niche based clients that are geniunely interested in the subject area that they have tuned or downloaded. However, as correctly pointed out, are they prepared to put up with an advert.

One arguement is that Podcasters should get on with developing high quality content and leave advertising to the specialists. How do we answer the question about positioning and timing.

I would suggest that advertising is obviously not new and the 20sec rule is good.

Should adverts be in the beginning, middle or end? What type of advert should be inserted? Is random placement an annoyance.

Future Solutions:
Google apparently are going offer the equivalent of adsense.
Phonecasting have an adcast engine that can automatically insert sensitised words at the beginning and end.