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A veteran PR executive, David Parmet has worked with diverse companies ranging from IBM to a Savile Row tailor and a South African vineyard. His current clients include several notable Internet businesses involved in blogging, podcasting and other forms of social media.
David has been interviewed on the impact of blogging and participatory media on marketing and public relations by national media, including National Public Radio's Marketplace, and has spoken at several conferences including Syndicate and the New Communications Forum.

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A Second Podvertising Perspective: Explaining Once More Why Podcast Product Peddling Couldn’t Hurt

Written on
August 24th 2006
Author
by David Parmet  |
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Authenticity is a key for most podcasters and their audiences. The relationships between the two are strong and the audience expects the podcasters to remain true to the notion. While this could be viewed as a negative for some advertisers, others are finding the association with a trusted podcaster can reap more rewards in terms of brand loyalty than through traditional advertising.

As an example, Dave Slusher, host of the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast once said he would never accept advertising money from any company that wouldn’t let him make fun of them on his podcast. Yet advertisers are willing to take that chance that they might be made to look a bit silly but a bit more human because they know that Slusher’s audience will view them in a more positive light having taken that chance.

It’s a subtle notion — the relationship between podcasters and their audiences is often built on trust and most podcasters are not traditional media personalities. So a podcaster accepting a sponsorship is not an automatic, but something the advertisers might have to earn.

As noted already, podcasting’s chief allure for advertisers is in its ability to target very specific niche audiences and enthusiastic ones at that. For example, Brian Ibbott of Coverville reaches not just music fans, but fanatical music fans that know every detail and minute fact about a particular artist and are extremely enthusiastic about their music. These are engaged and motivated listeners who are more likely to spend when they hear about something that relates to their interests and passions. In other words, exactly the sort of customers most advertisers want to reach.

So now with an understanding of the advantages of advertising on podcasts, you might wonder how to go about approaching these new creatures? In fact along with the growth in interest in podcasting, podcasters themselves have become more professional in their approach to business. There are now even podcast networks - Podshow and the BackBeat Media Podcast Network are just two of the most well know, there are other networks supporting more niche players.

On the web sites of many podcasters you’ll even find media kits like you would for any major mainstream publication. Rates and formats are already set so you’ll be up and running in no time.

What can you expect? While it’s no longer the wild west of a few years ago, the world of social media like podcasting is an ever-evolving one. What works is still up in the air and formats are changing as quickly as the seasons. While most podcasters stick to a specific schedule of two or three podcasts a week, others podcast when the muse hits them. Time formats are similarly evolving — there are some who insist that 20 minutes or shorter is the optimal timeframe while others regularly offer hour-long programs and longer.

How advertisements and sponsorships themselves are integrated into podcasts is also evolving. Some podcasters are happy to read copy written for them by an ad agency, others prefer to acknowledge the sponsorship within the ebb and flow of the program itself. And others allow produced spots at the end or even within a program.

Metrics are still evolving but as more and more advertisers and marketers are leveraging social media like blogs and podcasts, the tools to measure the impact of such campaigns are becoming available.

As podcasting has evolved into a mature medium, advertisers are finding podcasts to be an essential part of any multi-channel marketing program. So if you are considering it, take the plunge.



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Reader Comments.

David, this is a fantastic article and one I hope readers/advertisers will take to heart. People tend to forget that podcasts allow for niche marketing to the nth degree and that advertising for that specific an audience can increase your ROI more effectively than a scattershot radio ad in a market where you’re not sure who’s listening.

Advertisers also can learn from podcasters in terms of the value-add mentality listeners demands from their podcast shows. Gone (hopefully) is the Used-Car salesperson approach to advertising your product/service; consumers now demand honest depictions of a company in a relationship-marketing paradigm. Or at least an entertaining spot that shows you aren’t speaking down to them.

Great article.
JCH
About.com

Posted by John C. Havens | 12:48 pm on August 24, 2006.

Agreed, great article. All we need now are a few respectable podcast-specific advertising agencies that return customer service calls and/or emails in less than a week’s time.

Dominique Einhorn
Executive Producer
Estelle TV
http://www.estelle.tv

Posted by Dominique Einhorn | 1:29 pm on August 24, 2006.

I too would agree with David’s assessment. More broadly, I would argue that Podcasting actually offers a myriad of advantages to all communications professionals, as well as marketers, over the traditional methodologies.

At CityCast, we’ve summarized the advantages of Podcasting in the following 5 pillars;

1) Offers the ability to develop customized client-centric media.

2) Media continues to “live-on” and reach new audiences over time.

3) Enhanced visibility online - allows a clients message to be delivered beyond their own site.

4) Fully on message - gone are those traditional barriers, which would potentially skew a campaign off of its intended message.

5) Measurable impressions - the results are real and straight-forward - no more doctored numbers.

Jason Cohen
President, CityCast Media, LLC.
http://www.citycastmedia.com
1-866-931-4866
Specializing in Podcasts, Webcasts, Blogs, & RSS Technologies

Posted by Jason Cohen | 12:02 pm on August 25, 2006.

I’m not too familiar with podcasting and how it works, but I do know the basics of it. I think that it is an excellent way for advertisers to reach out to their customers while at the same time reaching to a whole new audience that would never see their advertisement if it were on television or radio. Many people are constantly browsing the web to look for news and information. Podcasting allows people to take the news with them. There are some questions that come to mind when thinking about this. How far are the advertisers going to go? Who is responsible for making sure that the podcasts are suitable for all audiences?

Posted by Adam | 2:35 pm on August 28, 2006.

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