"About That" with Carl Mayer: Episode 1

About Tess EricksonTess Erickson is a research professional dedicated to understanding what drives consumer behavior from the first spark of interest to the final purchase and beyond As Director of Strategy and Research at Involved Media Tess conducts proprietary research focused on filling in the knowledge gaps about the modern media consumer as well as creating and reevaluating media strategies for new and existing clients Prior to focusing on media Tess worked in market research at Ipsos and previously attended NYU concentrating in the biological basis of economic decisionmaking amp8239Carl Mayer Welcome to About That Iamp8217m Carl Mayer here in the offices of Involved Media Joining me this afternoon is Tess Erickson HelloTess Erickson Thank you for having meMayer And Tess you are the director of strategy and research at Involved I just did a great webinar your second in a series about connected audiences This one was all about audio And if youamp8217d like to check it out thereamp8217s a link at the bottom of this video And I encourage you to watch and maybe just shut this off watch it and come back because weamp8217re going to talk a little more deeply into that starting with podcasts as they continue to grow and evolve very rapidly Theyamp8217ve taken on video as a component and not just as a component but a real integral part of the podcast with lights and sets and multi cameras to the point where somebody watching it might not even realize theyamp8217re watching a podcast Itamp8217s just a show When your research is based on respondentsamp8217 answers about what theyamp8217re watching how does that impact the resultsErickson Yeah that certainly is the biggest challenge that we face when weamp8217re designing a study like this trying to make sure that the questions we ask reflect the way people are thinking about the media they watch So as you said video has become so overwhelmingly popular in the podcast space but that makes it so much harder for consumers to differentiate podcasts from other media and even from people like us who have a very clear sense of podcast It can still be different difficult to differentiate For instance a show like The Daily Show has an audio only version of their programme that is a podcast but that doesnamp8217t mean watching The Daily Show is watching a podcast So trying to separate that type of listening and viewership is definitely the biggest challenge we had here especially when it comes to these videos being clipped up and put on short form So the choice we had to make was to focus on people who are knowingly listening to podcasts who are seeking podcasts out and regularly listening to podcasts and trying not to capture as much of those marginal podcast listeners who may not even be seeking podcasts out who may have had podcasts passively served to themMayer And as podcasts mature and take out all these other audio visual traits theyamp8217re also becoming much more of a force in the advertising market Itamp8217s no longer just mail order mattresses and meal prep kits Whatamp8217s going on in the in the ad industry for podcastsErickson Yeah we find podcast ads are especially valuable We mentioned in the webinar but especially compared to ad supported streaming audio of other types podcasts have a really highincome audience and specifically an audience that is likely to pay to avoid ads in other places So podcast ads can be the only way to reach certain audiences that are more ad phobic in general The other piece that makes podcast advertising so valuable going into this coming election is that the most common listen to genre of podcast is news and politics So that means that you are getting access to that news conscious politically conscious consumer that that advertisers may have been formally list reaching through news on TV or video So those video platforms the inventory has gotten really tight or will continue to get tighter as political advertisers by those spots up So for those advertisers who are now unable to place media on those valuable placements in video news having these opportunities to place ads that reach that news conscious consumer in podcasts is invaluableMayer And so you know going from the cutting edge of podcast to the old school traditional terrestrial radio a lot of people certainly I always assumed that the traditional AM drive PM drive being the two spikes of listenership still held true Turns out thatamp8217s not the caseErickson Yeah well there are a few things happening there We do see that radio still has a solid place in peopleamp8217s morning commutes People are still turning it on as they maybe drop their kids off as they get themselves to work Theyamp8217re checking in on the weather on the traffic But that evening drive home has been coopted by streaming audio and other opportunities It may be that people are turning on a podcast at work then listening to continuing to listen to them in the car Itamp8217s also that they may have more time to select the music that theyamp8217re they want to hear on their ride home So we do see that again radio is still a major part of peopleamp8217s mornings But in that in that evening drive home we do see a lot more streaming audio taking up that spaceMayer And as you went through the research and put together the webinar was there anything you came upon that just confounded your expectation and really surprised youErickson Yeah absolutely One of the things that I found surprising was even though we know thereamp8217s been an increase in record sales we still are seeing that only 20 of people say that they watched the OR they listened to media that they owned in the last 30 days So only 20 of people are listening to the music they own or listening to the audiobook they bought Instead they are going to these huge streaming libraries to get anything they want to listen to So I was surprised to see that that vinyl purchasing that weamp8217ve seen in the music industry didnamp8217t necessarily translate to more people actually listening to those vinyls They maybe are instead keeping them in the original packaging is more of a collectors item than a functional piece of mediaMayer And as we look to the future and whatamp8217s next for your webinars and your studies Whatamp8217s the next topic youamp8217re going to be focusing onErickson Thanks for asking As we mentioned earlier short form has become a huge part of the podcast industry that people are that there are lots of podcasts that I would venture to say have had way more people engage with them on a short form platform than the original platform they were posted to And so short form video is what we will be focusing on in our next study We also will be expanding past the US and Canada into Australia So itamp8217ll be exciting to see both the results of how short form is taking over different areas of peopleamp8217s media consumption but also how a new market in Australia compares to what weamp8217ve seen in North AmericaMayer I definitely look forward to checking that out and perhaps talking about it here on a future episode of About That Tess Erickson thank you for joining me todayErickson Thank you for having meMayer And weamp8217ll see you next time on About That Iamp8217m Carl Mayer Thatamp8217s Tess EricksonPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

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"About That" with Carl Mayer: Episode 1

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