Back to the Future: Marketing with Downloadable Media
Not so much a panel discussion, the session was more of a group presentation. The moderator and panelists each had about ten minutes of charts that sometimes reached into fifteen. Not that the material was not interesting, but I was hoping for more back and forth between the panel and a moderator who guided the discussion. They did a good job of following the description for the panel, which means the audience got the fill of definitions, case studies, best practices, and more for both the marketers and the people who might want to try their hand at creating a podcast or vidcast.
Chris MacDonald, Executive VP of LibSynPRO started off with some data from Edison Media and history of the Association for Downloadable Media (ADM), which was only just formed in 2007. Jim Louderback, CEO of Revision3 talked about the standards that are out there. Instead of the Wild West that we had in the early days of the Web, the ADM has standards for how long the ads should be, the technology formats that will be used, and even the maximum frequency that ads should be inserted in the casts. It’s two per five minutes, in case you wanted to know that one. In describing the optimal types of ads, he took us back to the first days of television where the shows were sponsored and even the hosts would do the promotion. Think of the original “soap” operas, Ed Sullivan, Mutual of Omaha, and even this gem from Bonanza (link).
Jim talked how effective the model is to underwrite shows, have scripted endorsements, advertorial, product placement, and even special episodes. He showed an example of a dream sequence in a Diggnation vidcast where they had a clear separation between the actual show and the advertisement, but made the sequence entertaining enough to retain the viewers and integrate three sponsors products with memorable use and mentions. You wouldn’t think BBQ smeared faces would mix with lingerie, but they pulled it off.
With standards, it is effective and easy to buy ads on downloadable media. Impressions can be measured as well. While not the same as we are used to with the Web, streams can be measured through server logs, flash players tell you how much of a show was seen, and even iTunes will stop automatically downloading shows if they are not watched after a time. Key metrics allow consistent measurement. As Jim put it, “ultimately it is about whether the ad was seen.” http://www.downloadablemedia.org
Kin Robles, President of National Podcasting System gave a quick primer on how to roll your own show. Basically, you need to 1) commit in the pre-pre-production phase, 2) set up your road map in pre-production, 3) have the best production value possible for your budget, 4) use editing and graphics in post production to make a product, and 5) Make the delivery rock solid.
Mark McCrery, CEO of Podtrac had a few charts on case studies and statistics. He noted that 75% of the audience comes through iTunes, and the top 100 shows get 100K to 200K downloads each. Clip Web sites (such as YouTube) are often outlets for episodic content like French Maid TV or Ask the Ninja, which see 100K to 3 million views per episode. Finally, the actual show Web site might see thousand to millions of uniques per month where the audience is more involved through interactivity available on the site. His case studies included Netflix, where they got the hosts of six shows to talk about lists of movies (top 5 John Cusack films) that they would rent from Netflix. The research shows that unaided recall of brands from ads in podcasts and online shows is much higher - 68% compared to 10% for TV and 21% for traditional online video.
Roxanne Darling, host of the video show “Beach Walks with Rox” had the misfortune of being the last one to have a chance to talk. She had to rush through as the session time had expired before she had the chance to even start. She said that “the gem of podcasting is that it comes from the heart. At the end of the day, people love to buy but hate to be sold.” She talked about how the host is creating a show on a subject they are passionate about and people will come because they want authentic content. She used Gary Vaynerchick as an example, saying “Gary has already built your audience for you.”
