Podcast Movement In Full Swing Tuesday

Tuesday

PODCAST MOVEMENT is underway in PHILADELPHIA with the first full day of sessions TUESDAY after an opening day of orientation and introductory events on MONDAY.

The day's sessions include panels on practically every aspect of podcasting, from the practical to revenue and measurement issues and afternoon keynote sessions including EDISON RESEARCH's presentation of a new study commissioned for PODCAST MOVEMENT, a talk with GOOGLE PODCASTS founding product manager ZACK RENEAU-WEDEEN, and a presentation by "SMART PASSIVE INCOME" podcast host and blogger PAT FLYNN.

The annual convention will run through THURSDAY (7/26) at the MARRIOTT PHILADELPHIA DOWNTOWN.

The Advertising Outlook

An early panel analyzed the recently-released IAB/PwC Podcast Revenue Study 2018 showing significant year-on-year growth for podcast advertising, expected to grow another 110% by 2020,  After the INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING BUREAU's JENNIFER LANE ran through a summary of the study's findings, WESTWOOD ONE's KELLI HURLEY, NATIONAL PUBLIC MEDIA's BRYAN MOFFET, TURNER's TYLER MOODY, and AUTHENTIC/PODTRAC's MARK MCCRERY addressed issues like the effect of increased audience size on rates for direct response ads as well as brand advertising (MOODY noted that for the latter, "there's still room to grow... there's stil a bit of a learning curve" for brand advertisers), growth prospects, creative approaches to brand advertising, local advertising (MOFFETT noted a "huge opportunity" on that front for creative marketing), branded content, dynamic ad insertion, CPM buys (MOFFETT said he thinks 2019 will be the year the industry moves from cost per thousand downloads to cost per thousand listens), and who -- advertiser or producer -- decides who will voice the ads. 

HURLEY said that she sees the opportunity for the industry in female-oriented programming, while MOFFETT said that the industry is moving away from the "leisure" phase -- weekly shows that are a "treat" for listeners -- to a "utility" phase, exemplified by the rise of morning daily news digest podcasts.

Growing an Audience

Radio "futurologist," PODNEWS.NET founder, and ALL ACCESS columnist JAMES CRIDLAND hosted a panel on a topic of great interest to the conventioneers, audience acquisition, with "UNDISCLOSED" and "THE 45TH" creator-host RABIA CHAUDRY, "DELIBERATIONS" writer/producer CHELSEA COX, SPOTIFY's DOSSIE MCCRAW, PACIFIC CONTENT's DAN MISENER, and AUDIOBOOM's ROB PETERSON   CRIDLAND asked MCCRAW about spending millions to attract AMY SCHUMER to do a podcast ("allegedly millions," MCCRAW responded) and what the importance is of having celebrities do shows, and MCCRAW contended that having a talent like SCHUMER will attract new listeners to the medium ("and the show's funny," he added).   MISENER pointed out that starting to listen to podcasts is "still way too hard... there's way too much friction," and counseled podcast industry people to consider what it's like for people to listen fot the first time. 

The panel considered issues like which link to use to promote a show, APPLE or another link (MISENER said that it depends who the target is, and how comfortable they are with the downloading and listening process) and offline marketing like billboards (PETERSON said that newspapers have been effective generating interest in their true-crime and news update podcasts and expects more offline marketing to be used for discovery; MISENER cited the "INSIDE TRADER JOE'S" branded content series' success, marketed with signs at the stores).  COX stressed the value of word of mouth, which, she said, is a critical element of marketing anything.

Where We Are, 2018 Edition

The annual "State of Podcasting" panel once again brought together some of the leading figures in the business, including SPREAKER/VXNEST's ROB GREENLEE, PR'X's KERRI HOFFMAN,BLUBRRY's TODD COCHRANE, LIBSYN's ROB WALCH, EDISON RESEARCH's TOM WEBSTER, and WONDERY's HERNAN LOPEZ.  

WALCH updated his statistics on how users access podcasts (APPLE and apps using APPLE sources remain on top, but SPOTIFY has jumped into a (still distant) second place, with most of that growth on Android) and mobile's dominance in podcast listening.  COCHRANE focused on "podfading," shows that stop producing new episodes, with statistics showing a relatively small percentage of shows producing new episodes in the past 90 days and shows giving up the ghost after fewer episodes (from 7 episodes in 2016 to 3 episodes in 2018).  He also urged shows to promote Android, which he said represent 12% of the audience, but he also noted that smart speakers still only represent a tiny amount of podcast listening.  GREENLEE listed top listening referrals for SPREAKER shows, with iHEARTRADIO leading and SPREAKER's own app, APPLE, and SPOTIFY next; CASTBOX has jumped 18% to land in 5th place.  Podcast listening averages 12 minutes, GREENLEE said.

HOFFMAN looked at the "stickiness factor," examining listening patterns for episodes over time.  Her company, she said, focuses on answers to the question, "What's the longest relationshop we can have with the listener?"  And WEBSTER offered statistics on the growth of smart speakers from the recently released NPR/EDISON Smart Audio Report, calling the low usage for podcasts on smaet speakers "a cry for help" and showing a need to create better skills for people to access podcasts via voice, especially as voice control becomes commonplace in the car.

The panel also considered the ideal of forming a professional podcasting association (WEBSTER supporting the idea and noting that the IAB is not really a podcasting association, and COCHRANE saying it would be a good idea if adequately staffed and funded; HOFFMAN said that an association would be a "protective move" to stop ad agencies from taking over the agenda), the IAB metrics standards certification, ad skipping in iOS 12, and more.

Growing the Audience

EDISON SVP TOM WEBSTER returned for a keynote presenting the company's new "Podcasting's Next Frontier: 100 Million Listeners" report.

Opening with podcast listenership statistics from the Infinite Dial study, WEBSTER noted that podcasting now reaches about 48 million listeners but the question is how it will get to 100 million, a number important for agency sales.  He played clips of people trying to define what a podcast is and offering their reasons not to be listeners, including time commitment and difficulty of figuring out how to get the shows.  The clips led into the online study of 1,000 respondents who were familiar with podcasts but have never listened.

In the study, 37% admitted to not knowing what a podcasts, and 48% said they don't know how to listen to a podcast, which WEBSTER characterized as "the real 'I don't know what a podcast is,'" because not knowing how to listen would be evidence of not knowing what a podcast is.  80% said they don't have a podcast app on their phone, despite most phones having either a dedicated app or another app like SPOTIFY that can download and play podcasts.  WEBSTER said the reason people might not know they have a podcast app is that they don't have a reason to look for one.

Also, 30% said that most podcasts are for educational purposes, 50% said podcasts are too long, and 33% said they would listen more if podcasts had music.  47% think podcasts cost money, and WEBSTER warned that the word "subscribe" might lead people to think that; 62% think they use too much data on their smartphone plans; and 78% said "podcasts aren't for me," but 61% said they WOULD listen if there were topics in which they were interested .  Meanwhile, 65% said there are so many podcasts that they don't know where to start, which WEBSTER said is not a discovery problem so much as it is a problem of not having one compelling hit show that draws them to listening.  He noted that podcasters, more than radio, knows how to "put on a show," and podcasts need to be able to say what "only we" can offer in a show and then market it (he suggested things like cinema pre-film ads and even urinal advertising ("Are you a Patriots fan?  Drop what you're doing....")).  He challenged the audience to "make something they want to hear."

Google's Plans For Podcasts

GOOGLE's plans for podcasting in Android were the topic for the final session of the day, with GOOGLE PODCASTS Product Manager ZACK RENEAU-WEDEEN interviewed by PINEAPPLE STREET MEDIA's JENNA WEISS-BERMAN.  RENEAU-WEDEEN explained some of the features of the new app, including syncing among devices and personalized recommendations.  "We really think it has the potential do double the number of people listening to podcasts," he said, demonstrating the app and how it can be activated via GOOGLE Assistant on Android phones or via a direct link generated for each podcast.

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