Actually, You Proved That Podcast Advertising DOES Work
Garrick Van Buren had an interesting post yesterday about a sponsorship he remembered from a 17-month-old episode of Evil Genius Chronicles, a podcast that we represent.
Though Garrick’s words say that podcast advertising doesn’t work, his very post proves the opposite. After all, how many other mediums can claim an 18-month retention on *anything*? Sure, Garrick forgot the name of the sponsor, but he remembered what they did and what show he heard it on. After nearly 18 months, that’s HUGE, if you ask me. If it were within the last 6 months, I can bet you he would have remembered that it was iPodJuice who sponsored the show.
The best part is because he blogged about it, Dave Slusher (the host) responded, and now the sponsor is getting even more traction from an ad that was written off on *last* year’s taxes.
In this case, the only potential mistake was that iPodJuice stopped sponsoring the show. For every Garrick Van Buren that *nearly* remembered everything and blogged to get the rest, there are likely 100 other listeners who moved on to something else. If iPodJuice were a regular sponsor here, I bet their bottom line would show it.
Technorati Tags: advertising, evil genius chronicles, podcasting
August 24th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Dave,
Exactly why I think there’s a good conversation here. Podcasting is asynchronous – potentially well beyond the timespan of an individual campaign. While my retention and intention is good, I wasn’t able to act on it as easily as I (or anyone else involved) would like.
August 24th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Dave,
Exactly why I think there’s a good conversation here. Podcasting is asynchronous – potentially well beyond the timespan of an individual campaign. While my retention and intention is good, I wasn’t able to act on it as easily as I (or anyone else involved) would like.
August 24th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Yep. This is something we’ve been working very hard at teaching to potential (and actual) sponsors of this medium.
With our ‘talking points’ model of having the host deliver the sponsorship, the sponsor’s message/brand is burned very deeply into the brains of the listeners. Look at the dial-a-mattress/Howard Stern success. Commit to sponsoring a show for a year (or more) and you’ll have a very robust presence in the mindshare of the audience. On the flip-side, doing one spot and then looking for results the next week just doesn’t translate to this medium.
The good news is that we already have stables of sponsors who get this, and we are obviously hard at work every day teaching the rest of the world what it all means. Hoping that the newly-formed Association for Downloadable Media can act as a big megaphone in this regard, too.
August 24th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
Yep. This is something we’ve been working very hard at teaching to potential (and actual) sponsors of this medium.
With our ‘talking points’ model of having the host deliver the sponsorship, the sponsor’s message/brand is burned very deeply into the brains of the listeners. Look at the dial-a-mattress/Howard Stern success. Commit to sponsoring a show for a year (or more) and you’ll have a very robust presence in the mindshare of the audience. On the flip-side, doing one spot and then looking for results the next week just doesn’t translate to this medium.
The good news is that we already have stables of sponsors who get this, and we are obviously hard at work every day teaching the rest of the world what it all means. Hoping that the newly-formed Association for Downloadable Media can act as a big megaphone in this regard, too.
August 24th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
[…] Dave Hamilton (aka my pimp) weighs in on the subject. He points out that Garrick remembered that such and ad existed and where 18 months after it ran […]
August 24th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
[…] Dave Hamilton (aka my pimp) weighs in on the subject. He points out that Garrick remembered that such and ad existed and where 18 months after it ran […]
August 24th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Great discussion.
As the owner of ipodjuice.com, I thought I would throw in my two cents. Whenever we receive a phone call from a customer wanting to place an order with us, we ask how they came across our site. Almost always the answer is Google, Yahoo!, or MSN.
When we ran podcast ads with BackBeat Media, for a few weeks during and after, the answer was sometimes ‘Evil Genius’ or ‘Coverville’ – which was great!
Months later, we would still get occassionally get orders from customers using the show-specific coupon codes that each podcast host included in their announcement. However, as time passed, I personally began to wonder how many of those orders using the codes were from actual listeners or simply from customers who FIRST came into the site from a PPC ad and then, at the last second during the checkout process, decided to do a secondary search for ‘ipodjuice coupon code’ or some other variation and found the Evil Genius and Coverville show notes that displayed the discount code we offered at that time.
Erring on the side of caution, we always honored the discount when customers who used this coupon code also added a comment saying that they first heard about us from the actual podcast.
I think the jury is still out on how “indelible” podcasts ads. However, as Garricks’ original query demonstrates, they may be more memorable than traditional advertising outlets.
P.S. Garrick: please use the coupon code ‘garrick’ for that $4 off shipping when you are ready to place your order from us! This is a one-time use coupon code and will only be active for the next two weeks.
August 24th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Great discussion.
As the owner of ipodjuice.com, I thought I would throw in my two cents. Whenever we receive a phone call from a customer wanting to place an order with us, we ask how they came across our site. Almost always the answer is Google, Yahoo!, or MSN.
When we ran podcast ads with BackBeat Media, for a few weeks during and after, the answer was sometimes ‘Evil Genius’ or ‘Coverville’ – which was great!
Months later, we would still get occassionally get orders from customers using the show-specific coupon codes that each podcast host included in their announcement. However, as time passed, I personally began to wonder how many of those orders using the codes were from actual listeners or simply from customers who FIRST came into the site from a PPC ad and then, at the last second during the checkout process, decided to do a secondary search for ‘ipodjuice coupon code’ or some other variation and found the Evil Genius and Coverville show notes that displayed the discount code we offered at that time.
Erring on the side of caution, we always honored the discount when customers who used this coupon code also added a comment saying that they first heard about us from the actual podcast.
I think the jury is still out on how “indelible” podcasts ads. However, as Garricks’ original query demonstrates, they may be more memorable than traditional advertising outlets.
P.S. Garrick: please use the coupon code ‘garrick’ for that $4 off shipping when you are ready to place your order from us! This is a one-time use coupon code and will only be active for the next two weeks.
August 24th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
What you are proving here is that tire ads need to run everyday. Nobody gives a rip about them until they need tires and then it’s the only thing that matters. Substitute IPod battery or any consumable for that matter.
August 24th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
What you are proving here is that tire ads need to run everyday. Nobody gives a rip about them until they need tires and then it’s the only thing that matters. Substitute IPod battery or any consumable for that matter.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Mark — your point is exactly right, though you gloss over a very important issue. If you need tires today and you hear about the Acme tire company today for the *first* time, chances are you won’t buy from them because you have no reason to trust them. If, however, you have been hearing about the Acme tire company every day for the last year and finally need tires today, you will be much more likely to buy from them because you’ve heard about them for a while. Human nature plays a huge role here, as always, and it’s important not to discount that in this discussion.
August 25th, 2007 at 2:00 am
Mark — your point is exactly right, though you gloss over a very important issue. If you need tires today and you hear about the Acme tire company today for the *first* time, chances are you won’t buy from them because you have no reason to trust them. If, however, you have been hearing about the Acme tire company every day for the last year and finally need tires today, you will be much more likely to buy from them because you’ve heard about them for a while. Human nature plays a huge role here, as always, and it’s important not to discount that in this discussion.