I just love it when the data weighs in to support something I have witnessed anecdotally and intuitively known long before research could prove it. Podcasting does the heavy lifting of finding niche audiences and capturing their attention in a way that is otherwise unattainable to marketers. Be sure to read all the way down to Rox's 4 L's of Podcast Success.
I was lucky to be on a panel of experts who spoke at ad:tech san francisco two weeks ago, on behalf of the Association for Downloadable Media. In our session, we released the latest survey data from Edison Research addressing both the size and the behavior of podcast audiences. Their data is oriented somewhat towards audio podcasts, and IMO video podcasts are audio podcasts on steroids.
The audience for downloadable media is not only growing, but also represents a very attractive target for advertising...and those 23 million Americans are affluent, spend lots of time (and money!) online, and are increasingly more difficult to target with interruption advertising. I would love to see more and more partnerships between mass media broadcasters and independent content producers. You need each other.
The second study gets down to the nitty gritty: so what if there are more podcast consumers, are they paying attention? Yes, and in ways that are unheard of in traditional advertising and marketing.
Average unaided ad recall of 68%
Average aided ad recall of 89%
73% average increase in likelihood to use/buy vs control group
69% having a more favorable view of advertiser due to ad exposure
Narrowly targeted audiences, appropriate ad formats, content relevance, and show host involvement are some of the factors which come together to produce highly effective ads in online shows and podcasts.
I would describe it as Rox's Four L's of Podcast Success:
Love: Podcast producers deliver authentic, topic-specific content and do the heavy lifting for attracting a unique, targeted, and interested audience. People who love Hawaii watch Beach Walks with Rox.
Loyalty: Podcast hosts, who by virtue of sharing their expertise and some personal details, create very loyal audiences. Over 60% of Beach Walks viewers tune in every day.
Location: Podcast audiences largely consume the content at the physical (not geographic) location of their computer (60-70% on average) and can take immediate action when presented with offers from show sponsors. When listening to traditional radio or TV, they are not in a physical location to be able to respond on impulse. (Being able to take podcasts on the go is an added bonus of podcasts—not available to radio or TV. We show Beach Walks episodes to our seat mates on the plane coming back home to Hawaii, and that combined with a good old-fashioned postcard generates new viewers and gives travelers a personal connection to the vacation of their dreams)
Leadership: Podcast hosts serve as a filter for their audiences, as most will not accept sponsors for products and services they do not support. This is the best of leveraging word-of-mouth advertising with scale.
I didn't include it, but another L could be the Luxury market. Podcast users are far more likely to have attained at least a college degree, are more likely to live in households earning in excess of $75,000 per year, more likely to buy online, and more likely to use pop-up blockers. But heh, it doesn't always have to be about the Benjamin's!
What do you think about podcasting? I'd love your feedback.
I spoke this past weekend at "Podcamp NYC" to a standing-room-only crowd. I promised to post a summary and also provide the links, especially for those peeps who watched from the hallway!
There is a direct correlation between the difficulty of producing your show and the frequency by which you publish. The easier the format, the more often you can realistically deliver an episode.
The more often you release new content, the more often you show up on the top of the page of the various web video aggregation sites.
It better be something you love in order to sustain the amount of work it takes to deliver well and deliver consistently.
A typical 3-4 minute episode of Beach Walks with Rox, which uses a very simple formula (8 second title sequence, 3-minute one-shot main clip, and 20-second credit roll) and is unscripted, takes about 2.5 - 3 hrs to produce from start to finish.
Naming Conventions (for you & your subscribers)
Creating a naming convention makes it easy to file and search your content.
It makes things line up nicely when displayed on other people's directories such as iTunes.
For correct date sorting, use YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD, regular English will not work.
Project Template (reusable parts)
Create a master template folder (using your naming convention).
Have your main project file built in the software of your choice, and embed all of the reusable clips, such as your theme music bed, your show name and URL, and your version of copyright licensing.
Do the same for your episode thumbnail graphic. (You can use one main show graphic or you can use a unique graphic for each episode. I recommend using an episode graphic if you have visual content that changes from day to day - it helps people find an episode when viewing in iTunes, for example.)
Duplicate the template folder and rename accordingly for each new episode.
Assemble any additional bits and pieces of content in there belonging to that episode.
Look & Feel (easier editing & brand consistency)
Take some time when first creating your show to develop a look and feel.
Experiment with a few transition and titling styles, then stick with them. (Saves you time by being able to ignore all the other choices!)
Be sure to build in your show name, your web site address, and your copyright license. Some people also plan ahead for ad insertions, contact information, or other custom items.
Encoding & Uploading Tips
Flash format will play for most users. Several hosting sites will encode your Quicktime or Windows Media files into Flash for you.
You must also supply a downloadable format to enable RSS subscriptions. Your best option is a Quicktime-compatible format.
Be sure to add the META data to each episode. You can do this easily by bringing the encoded file into iTunes, and editing the info and adding your artwork.
Encoding times can vary considerably depending on the length, size, and output quality of each episode, as well as the speed of your computer. The Visual Hub software (below) does a remarkably good job in dramatically faster times. (Almost in real time whereas other programs can take 3-10 X real time.)
Uploading video files can be very time-consuming, and naturally will vary depending on your internet connection speed.
Links Mentioned Visual Hub - Encodes in multiple formats; $23.32 USD Viddler for free hosting, comments, & social features Blip.tv for free hosting and built-in blog; geared to episodic shows Tube Mogul for batch distribution across the web & stats tracking Creative Commons for licensing your work if you want something other than full copyright. Ioda PromoNet for royalty-free music for non-commercial use
Update! Going through my acquired business cards, these folks work in the space.
A Few More People I Met Ariel Publicity - Ariel reps independent bands who want to promote their music on other people's shows Filmosity - Chris Cavallari can help you with shooting, editing, on location work for hire, etc Carrot Creative - Creative shop to help you with the web site and embrace new media Truffle Media - They can help you with turn-key business podcasting Vivid Screen Designs - Jane Gussin does motion graphics and video production Cheil Worldwide - Ann Marie Mathis and Howard Levenson grok new media & social web campaigns
There was a job posting over on a message list I follow, and it got me to thinking. It seems that lots of companies feel safer and more comfortable about investing in a lot of high end equipment, but then want to find people to work on spec or for very little pay or for fame. As a creator though, I have some different opinions, so I posed the question to a group of colleagues at ad:tech last week. You can listen to their opinions, then make up your own mind - and please tell me what you think!
Here's the original posting for context:
[Company X] is looking for a video engineer to manage, enhance and
operate our state-of-the-art HD multi-camera streaming video studio.
We're switched, have about 3,000 square feet of shooting space, a green
screen, etc. We need someone who wants to chart the course of what a
videoblogging/streaming studio should look be, on a beer budget.
In all fairness, beer is part of the company's culture, so you could take that last comment a couple of different ways. Feel free to leave a comment right in the video as well - you'll just have to create a quick account over at viddler.
I love math. It has an uncanny way of teasing apart the truth, but alas, it can also just as easily be used selectively to manipulate or create false impressions. And if we get addicted to a certain type of math - tracking eyeballs and households for example - then we can be inadvertently wasting time and money on our way to building brands and selling stuff.
In the old days of business, it was not possible in most cases to communicate with just the people who were a good fit for your products and services. So your agency developed campaigns for you that involved sending out millions of mailers or commercials broadcast to hundreds of thousands of households.
Typical rates of return? Less than one percent. We all know that. But those big campaign numbers are still so addicting. "I need the big numbers in order to get the rates of return to justify this expense." Well, you only want the actual end result numbers.
The point is that now with technology, new media aka podcasting or downloadable media and social networks, you can actually reach the precise people who are most likely to buy from you, on the first round. You don't have to bother interrupting or shouting at gazillions watching a mainstream TV show knowing that in there a few customers (who are probably fast-forwarding the commercials anyway...) You have other more powerful ways of having "private" conversations with your target audience instead of hoping your target finds you in the midst of all that noise.
I call it the phenomenon of having people actually self-enrolling themselves and it's one step faster and juicier than "targeting." Though there were dozens of companies here at ad:tech promising better and better targeting of audiences, wouldn't you rather be able to just show up with your stuff knowing that people had already organized themselves around a related "something"?
Earlier today, we wrote about new software that lets businesses customize Web sites for visitors with iPhones. Our take: Businesses that sell to other businesses shouldn’t rush out and buy this software because iPhones only account for 0.18% of Internet traffic...
That's a really small number. 0.18%. Who wants to bother with such a small, even microscopic group of people? Well what if you knew that iPhone users as a group are high income and highly educated phone users, and as early adopters they are also trend-sensors as well as trend setters? They are the people who have the money and the intellect to detect smart moves in the marketplace and tend to have others who follow them.
Now, not every company wants to meet the smart, rich, trendy, 24-7 movers and shakers, but if you do, iPhone users have already identified themselves as such, and making your web site i-Phone-compatible is an incredibly easy way to say to them: hey you! over here. My company wants to make it easy for you to play with us.
Mainstream Media Placement or Podcast Placement? There's a local girl band here in Hawaii, MighTyJ. During the production of their album, they set up a blog and filmed a vidcast aka video podcast with their recording engineer, Doctor Trey. When it was time to start promoting themselves, they used a combination of approaches. For one they got booked on the CBS-affiliate morning show (about 25,000 households). After that appearance, there was zero uptick on their web site traffic and no increase in downloads or subscribers to their vidcast.
Then they made an appearance on our daily Internet TV show, Beach Walks with Rox, average daily download of about 2500 or one-tenth the reported size of morning network TV. Their site traffic jumped enormously and they doubled the number of subscribers to their podcast.
So do you want to waste your time contacting 25,000 and get no response or contact 2,500 and get an enormous response?
Welcome to the new new math people. Fall in love with small numbers. Be willing to pay a higher CPM/CPA because other things (technology) and other people (podcast creators) are doing the heavy lifting for you.
From this recent post over at Web Video Report 080327, it's clear to see that having targeted audiences and offering downloadable media both command higher rates than general audience and embedded media - a direct reflection of their higher value to both consumers of the content as well as to show sponsors.
Most of these companies reported CPM rates for a wide range of pre/mid/post roll video, host shout outs, overlays, etc. Goodnight Burbank's numbers are for product placement per episode.
What was not discussed is the relationship to an online community, aka social network associated with each show. These user communities only increase the value, as they don't just consume the media, they keep talking about it over in the community - which presents added opportunities for banner advertising and special offers.
Orbitz, Lending Tree, Chrysler, Apple, Chevrolet, Netflix, Sears, Toyota
Goodnight Burbank
$3K-$8K
HBO
Mania TV
$10-$30
GM, Honda, Toyota, Verizon, AT&T, NBC, ABC, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Old Spice, L'Oreal, Sony, Nike, Coke, Citibank, XBox, Best Buy, HBO, Victoria Secret, WWE
Revision3 / Diggnation
$60-$80
Virgin Atlantic, Adagio Teas, Body by Venus, Sony, Microsoft, FX Networks, Adobe
For Your Imagination
$20-$60
Graco, BabyBjorn, TJMaxx
CNN and TV Guide feature general audiences and embeddded video. The other sites feature targeted shows and allow users to subscribe to their shows for viewing on the device of their choice, at the time of their choice. Many of the independently produced shows also have social networks or websites that encourage ongoing group discussion.
I am posting a short video below that I took over dinner at Truluck's in Austin with Dave Evans' version of the Metrics Panel at SXSW. Apparently, the panel members were taking a little too long to get to the point for many audience members, who were communicating via Twitter. Read some actual quotes from the back channel audience conversations.
It's graphic evidence of how fast and dramatically the balance of power is being re-weighted in favor of the recipients of information as compared to the disseminators. Heck, we are all busy; it's not hard to understand the "just get to the facts" attitude that is prevalent at least at tech conferences.
Yesterday I wrote about customers being messy, and that it is our job to work with, rather than expect them to use our products and services only as the engineers intended.
For me, it's a great opportunity to take some notes to serve as reminders for events in the future. Jeff Jarvis has some examples. I've condensed the collective ideas into a pocket-handy bullet list.
The larger the audience, the more it makes sense to plan for contingencies. Once you are in process, the titanic effect kicks in and it is not easy to know if things are going south, and then be able to act on it.
Event organizer should prep the speakers and remind them to repeat questions from audience if not captured by the microphone, for the recording and more importantly to keep all in the audience part of the conversation.
Have chairs that are comfortable and complementary to the speakers. Do everything you can to help them be at ease and look good so their knowledge can shine through. The chairs were too low to the floor at this keynote, which may have contributed to Sarah Lacy's body language problems and also made it harder to see them on stage.
The interviewer's job is to shine a light on the featured guest. It is not to draw attention to oneself.
The specific venue will dictate how much of your flashlight has the inquisitive and honoring bulb (the Lannan interviews are superb when people come to hear insights from someone they love) or the probing and investigative bulb (as the Columbia University event with Iran's President Ahmadinejad).
If there are pre-arranged questions, and you have been honored with a scoop, don't blow it! (Sarah announced that Facebook was launching a French version and stole the thunder away from Mark Zuckerberg.)
Engage your audience in advance to find out what they want to know from this person who is so private and inaccessible.
Being casual does not equal being flip or disrespectful. I thought the comment about his dripping wet t-shirt (from nervousness on a previous interview) was out of place.
Bring the audience in to your past experiences with the guest, don't use them to exclude people. This translated as unpleasantly coy, superior, and lacking the highly valued transparency of 2.0.
Listen to your customers. When things are not going well, own up to it (don't blame the audience) and take a minute to re-adjust. Ask for help. Apologize. There are numerous 2.0 behaviors that can have haters turn into fan boys if you know about and are willing to use them. I'm not saying this is easy because it isn't. But opportunity exists to help us all become stronger, clearer, and more competent.
Things happen and Sarah, to her credit, is holding up against the barrage of criticism Here's her point of view. Learn, laugh, and move on.
I am at the SXSW Interactive conference listening to Forrester analyst Charlene Li talking about Social Revolutionaries. She just described how some companies act like they have the perfect customer as a porcelain figurine in the sales and marketing department. They want to sell to this "ideal person" and psychologically resist or ignore real customer data and experiences.
It reminds me of my first business 20 years ago when I owned an exercise club and traveled the world training instructors and setting up health and fitness programs. Most people wanted to teach the most fun classes, to have the most advanced equipment, to work out really hard - because those were the things that drew them into the business.
But there are relatively few people who share that level of interest in health or fitness ability.
To have more customers (and a stronger bottom line as well as bottom) meant to open your arms and embrace the less than perfect bodies. My default message was:
Bring me your bad backs, your bulging bellies, your weak knees, your aching feet, your stressed out minds, and your defeated spirits. I will walk with you side by side and help you rebuild your energy, enjoy your body, and enliven your mind.
This meant I could not do some of my favorite moves: why should I impose that on my customers? It meant having unglamorous people in my club - but these people were far more loyal because I paid attention to them.
Way back then Reebok was ripping a new shoe line "aerobic shoes" and growing enormously, while the Nike board had the following discussion:
Board Member 1:Reebok is selling these aerobic shoes like mad. Should we get into that business?
Board Member 2:What the hell do we want to have anything to do with a bunch of fat women kicking their legs in the air?
Two years later Nike could no longer resist the urge to make money off these fat women and men. They realized there was room to support elite runners and Michael Jordan's along with the masses of people wanting to be healthier and wear a functional shoe as well..
The fact that your customers are making mashup videos about you on YouTube, talking about you on their blogs, and using your products in strange ways, IS THE GOOD NEWS. There is magic and millions in those messes, if you are willing to set aside your own prejudices about who should be using your stuff.
UPDATE: Here is the slideshow from Charlene's talk:
Bare Feet Studios LLC is a small, curious, tech-savvy company based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, owned by Roxanne Darling and Shane Robinson. We participate in and advise on New Media and the Social Web to connect people and solve problems. Let us be your guide to social networking, podcasting, twitter, online marketing, and personal branding. (And we'll be happy to start by explaining all those buzz words! Your business can grow with them.)
Subscribe
Yesterday I wrote about 
I am at the SXSW Interactive conference listening to Forrester analyst 
You can follow and connect with Roxanne on 
You can follow and connect with Shane on 
