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Pondering Possibilities
in Podvertising
 By
Steve
Rubel
You can't walk 50 feet in a major city without seeing them. You can spot them
a mile away by the dual white wires that dangle from their ears. They're young,
technically savvy, loyal, enthusiastic card-carrying members of the burgeoning
iPod Nation.
Savvy online marketers have a whole new medium to exploit: It's called "podcasting."
Could this be the next BMWFilms.com? Discuss at WebProWorld.
They represent an attractive demographic of early adopter influencers that marketers
covet. And, thanks to an emerging revolution in online audio content called podcasting,
there are all kinds of new and exciting ways to reach them through "podvertising." |
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information with factual research to back it up but some of it's just pure rubbish.
Which
pronoun -- "I" or "we"?
The internet has been an invaluable opportunity as a level playing field for both
large companies and self-starters. Many freelancers and entrepreneurs have taken
to the web for their marketing.
Blogs
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For a few days now, the latest Internet goof-up being linked by news sites and
IM’ers alike has been focused on Target.com. Since early last week, people have
been finding questionable products featured on Target’s website.
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The iPod is white hot this holiday season. Apple shipped more than two million
of the portable audio players in the most recent quarter ending in September.
Analysts now estimate that the Cupertino, California-based company will sell another
four million devices this quarter alone. A recent Merrill Lynch report even
noted that iPod adoption is out pacing the Sony Walkman's rapid rise during the
1980s.
As the iPod Nation swells, it is spawning a completely new online content medium
called podcasting -- a play
on the words broadcasting and Web-casting. A podcast is a time-shifted audio program
that can be created using a simple microphone-equipped PC. It is distributed
to subscribers via RSS. Users who subscribe to a program's feed receive new episodes
on their Mac or PC as they are released. The audio file is then subsequently automatically
synched to an iPod or equivalent MP3 digital music player, allowing the subscriber
to listen to the time-shifted program at their convenience.
 Podcasting
was hatched last summer by former MTV VJ-turned-entrepreneur Adam
Curry. Since then it has been widely evangelized and adopted by the blogging
community. In just two months the number of Google results for the term "podcasting"
jumped nearly 1,000 percent, from 5,950 pages in early October to more
than 500,000 pages this month. Surprisingly Google still doesn't even recognize
the term (it asks if you mean "broadcasting"), but don't take that lack of recognition
to mean that the content and audiences aren't there yet.
The number of podcast programs is rising rapidly. Podcast
Alley, an online directory, currently lists 500 distinct programs. While many
of the more popular programs -- such as the hilarious Dawn and Drew husband and
wife show -- are homespun creations, the mainstream media is getting into the
act as well. Seattle's KOMO
radio, the BBC
Radio and Minnesota
Public Radio have all started to make some of their programming available
in podcast form.
Early evidence also suggests that programs are attracting listeners in droves.
The Engadget weblog's popular podcast
edition receives 55,000 downloads per episode, according to the show's producer,
Phillip Torrone. Newsweek.com recently reported
that Curry's own show, "Daily Source Code," has 10,000 subscribers.
So now that podcasting is here to stay and the medium has been validated by emerging
and large players alike, it's time for forward-thinking marketers to start looking
at podvertising. According to Torrone, Engadget has lined up two soon-to-be-named
sponsors for its regular podcast. Why not you?
Here are some podvertising possibilities worth pondering. If there's one fundamental
that permeates all of these potential models, it's this -- make sure your marketing
is targeted and offers high value so the audience doesn't skip over your ad:
* Audio Spots -- One of the earliest forms of podcasting that will emerge
will be brief inserted audio spots. Doug Kaye, who hosts the very popular IT
Conversations podcast, recently said
he is testing technology to insert spots and promos on-the-fly. While this is
a natural evolution of a time-tested classic radio advertising model, it has possible
downside in the podcast world. Users who find these ads obtrusive can easily skip
over them on their iPods.
* Sponsorships -- A more viable approach, one that is more sustainable,
is underwriting an entire podcast. If this sounds familiar, it's because this
is a throwback to the Golden Age of Radio when a single company would sponsor
an entire hour of variety programming. Such sponsorships might closely resemble
TV product placements where the ads become part of the content in some meaningful
way. For example, it's possible a podcast sponsor might be able to embed a full
audio news release right into a program, provided it is consistent with the show's
content.
 *
Promotions -- Promotions and giveaways, akin to those that dot the radio dial,
also transcend nicely to the podcast world. For example, advertisers and podcasters
could team to offer special discounts to listeners. This will make it less likely
that the consumer will skip over an ad.
* RSS Ads -- Right now, anecdotal evidence shows that most podcast listeners
are using a dedicated application like Curry's iPodder
to subscribe to program feeds. However, this may change over time as the more
popular RSS aggregators that have an installed base -- including FeedDemon
and Bloglines -- all add support for podcasting.
As this happens, you can bet that marketers and audio publishers will start running
short interstitial text ads in the podcast's RSS feed, just as they are beginning
to do with blog feeds.
* Roll Your Own -- Last but not least, marketers should also start looking
at rolling their own podcasts. This could embody everything from audio infomercials
to entire specialized programs that build loyalty among select customers. Earningscast,
for example, has already started publishing select quarterly company investor
conference calls in podcast form.
This list is by no means exhaustive. Just as BMWFilms.com
revolutionized online advertising, savvy online marketers will find outside-the-box
ways to dabble in podcasting. Some will be successful, others won't. The key thing
is to start investigating and experimenting because podcasting is here to stay.
This article appears in my December column for iMediaConnection,
which was recently
published. I have added links for further context.
Comment on this article
in WebProWorld.
Steve
Rubel
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| Articles:
13,365 |
Contributing
Authors: 2,344 |
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PageRank
- The Game Keeps Changing
By Jordan Glogau
Chris Richardson wrote last Friday that the feathers of the SEO community were
ruffled when a Google's representative said that the PageRank bar in the Google
Toolbar was for "entertainment purposes only" This was quickly countered by Google
Guy, who is the regular but anonymous, go-between Google and the SEO community.
Frankly I think the cat is out of the bag and it's about time. The use of linking
to rate web pages has distorted search engine results in a number of manners:
1. Preoccupied people with SEO tricks instead of the content of their site.
2. Created an artificial market for the exchange and/or sale of links.
3. Blinded people to the fact that link building's main purpose is to build
traffic from related sites. One link at a time.
 Read
the Full Article
About the Author:
Jordan Glogau has been involved with marketing and sales on the Internet since
1995. Jordan is presently doing Search Engine and Internet Marketing and can be
contacted at jglogau@phr400.com or 845-426-6864. |
What's the difference?
Today's post comes from pdstein.
They don't use Yahoo often so they are unfamiliar
with Yahoo's search and directory. They want to know if there is a way to distinguish
between visitors that come from Yahoo's search and Yahoo's directory. If there
is a difference between the two they also want to know if there is a way to track
them separately. Maybe a few of you out there already have the answers. If
so help out a fellow member, and shed light on this subject.
Think you can help pdstien out, and solve his Yahoo problem?
Tell us your thoughts
at WebProWorld.
|| Rafael||
Y!
search vs Y! directory
By pdstein
 It
seems to me Yahoo's search has become more prominent than it's directory. When
Yahoo started it was just a directory, after they came out with their search index
the directory was still featured prominently on their site (wasn't it), now you
have to really look for the directory to use it.
First, I'm wondering is there a way to distinquish between visitors that come
from Yahoo search as opposed to Yahoo directory?
Second, if so for those of you tracking this what's the ratio of visitors from
the search vs the directory?
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