Podcasting Listeners Are Paying Attention

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 am presenting here the results of two studies, one by Arbitron/Edison Research and one by PodTrac.

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.

Here's the takeaway from the lead analyst, Tom Webster

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.

You can download the full PDF here from Edison Research. (PDF)

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

How is this possible? PodTrac CEO Mark McCrery summarizes it this way:

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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)
4. 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.

Are You Addicted to Big Numbers?

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"?

I have a couple of examples for you.

iPhone Users and Web Software
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal wrote about a new iPhone software:

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.

Targeted, Downloadable Video Commands Highest Value

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.

SHOW/SITE	RATES	PAST ADVERTISERS
blip.tv	$10-$100+	Unilever, Dewars, Comedy Central, HBO, GoDaddy, Adobe
TV Guide	$25-$30	ATT/Cingular Wireless, Kraft
CNN	$25+	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.

Video Podcasting for Unconferenz 2008

Here is my talk at Unconferenz 2008 in Honolulu on Jan 12, 2008. I am using the social networking site for slide shows, SlideShare.net. It does not play the embedded video — for that you'll want to be live! UPDATE: Ryan Ozawa has posted this video compilation from the day's events.

Links from the talk
Hardware & Software
Elgato Turbo USB encoding device
Sanyo Xacti Digital Underwater Video Camera
Flip Digital Video Camera
The Poor Man's Steady Cam
Visual Hub Batch Encoding Software
Quicktime Pro

Video Clips Used in Presentation
The Clip Show - Jim Kirks' Video Podcast Reviews
Levelator Audio Software by Bruce Sharpe
Todd Cochrane of Raw Voice
Laura Athavale Fitton of Pistachio Consulting

Other Useful Links for Video Podcasting
Blip.tv - free and almost free hosting for serialized video content
TubeMogul - batch upload your files to multiple sites and get viewership stats
Show in a Box WordPress theme for Video
Freevlog - Tutorials on Video Blogging

Our Internet TV Show
Beach Walks with Rox

Why the new Facebook “Endorse” Model Works for Me

Today Facebook announced that it will allow companies to create profiles inside the social networking web site. Individual users can then endorse or be "fan" of said company. Just like Facebook, independent media producers can serve as a very valuable filter for their audiences when it comes to products and services. In more crass terms, stop being ashamed of having corporate sponsorship, and duh, don't take on any sponsors whom you do not trust or support yourself. Business ethics 101. People like Chris Brogan are happy to call you out when you use the tools effectively.

What we are really enabling now is a whole new self-sustaining system whereby people who make stuff (P-producers/plafroms) attract people who like that stuff (A-audience) and can be supported by companies who want to tell us about their stuff (S-sponsors/advertisers). I presented this Player's Triangle concept at the Podcast & New Media Expo this past September and I think it is an incredibly efficient way of connecting people and building businesses.

The independent producer - be it Facebook or Meredith Medland of Living Green Podcast - gets the party started. The platform/show both have natural filtering mechanisms built in. They are built of networks of people who have organized themselves based on shared interests not irrelevant data like geography or age.

Audiences are very tired of being sold to every waking moment, and I have written before how advertising is broken. Nonetheless, they still want to connect, to be entertained, to be informed. The platforms and the independent producers are doing that, while traditional media struggles to find a place in this new world. The internet has also trained people to want things for free. I think this is partly because that was how early internet companies competed against each other and because it is relatively cheap to built an internet business. Not so easy to sustain one though.

And that is where commercial sponsors come into play. They have the budget and the desire to reach new customers. They have been trained to think a 2M audience is better than a 20K one, but that was before targeted audiences. The Long Tail as Chris Anderson elucidated, is about this revolution where meaningful and profitable transactions are taking place directly, without the radio or TV station required.

How long will it take until we never have to get an un-targeted or mass-mailed advertisement again? Well, a few generations probably, but this is a start. Who wants to be the first company to stop using mass marketing tactics and instead commit to only targeted message delivery?

I think of it as an organic circle of commerce. We find each other by shared interests and not by accident in the thousands of messages blast at us daily. I can hear the quiet coming already. And I love how this supports people like us who are creating a first-class internet tv programs that our viewers want to be free.