Teaching Radio Broadcasters the New Tricks of Podcasting

Rob McCracken Director in the Digital Solutions Group for the EW Scripps Company which owns podcast content network Midroll Media and listening platform Stitcher bluntly advised the broadcasters quotYou39ve got to realize your listeners are going to go to ondemandamp160 You should be the one to walk them thereamp160 You39ve got to be committed to it package them not with CPMs but with promos and onair elements like 39If you missed this radio show catch it on demand39 with a sponsored 39brought to you by39 tagquotOn air promotions of podcasts have not been that big a driver for NPR according to moderator Bryan Moffett Chief Operating Officer of National Public Media NPM a subsidiary of NPR but McCracken said ScrippsMidroll quotpackages everything with onair as well digitalamp160 We39re doing that with television as well like with Alexa Flash Briefings there are TV ads for sponsors that are preroll and postroll because we know just like with most podcasts we just don39t have the scale yet and to start monetizing thisamp160 The value is still in onairquotamp160 With that they also see more people going to podcasts as a resultJohn Rosso President of Market Development at Triton Digital is more cautiously optimistic about podcasting but described the current state of radio39s uptake of the platform this way quotI think what we39re experiencing now with podcasting is like when stations had streams but didn39t know how to monetize themamp160 Their first question is 39can you help me fill this inventory39amp160 That39s great for remnant but you have to harness your sales team and figure out how to sell podcastsquotSarah Van Mosel Chief Podcast Sales and Strategy Officer Market Enginuity also encouraged broadcasters to embrace education and training as a way to court the ad buying communityamp160 quotAt WNYC in 2010 RadioLab had about 3 million downloads a monthquot she explained from her storied history at New York Public Radioamp160 Forty percent of new listener traffic though was to the back catalogue of evergreen contentamp160 quotWe didn39t know how to get the ads onto it to take advantage of that longtailquot she saidamp160 quotThe first thing we had to do was figure how to take advantage of thatquotamp160 She described the network39s learning curve in monetizing itamp160 That understanding has to be shared with deep sales training on podcastingamp160 quotYour sellers can39t educate buyers if they39re not educatedquot she saidamp160 quotPeople have a lot of confusion the way podcast metrics work the way tags work quot and sellers need to provide the clarityRosso continued a cautionary tale with quotNo one should be going out the door with a CPM strategy to sell podcastsamp160 Don39t try to overly digitize the mediumamp160 Network radio sells on audience estimates don39t let that creep into the podcast businessamp160 We all already know podcasting works very wellquotquotYou39re never going to establish value the cost of a podcast if you39re selling on a CPMquot McCracken addedamp160 quotMidroll sells on 39share of voice39quotquotI39ve experienced scale and no scalequot a more measured Van Mosel counteredamp160 quotI39d disagree on the no CPM basis or create scale of a different sortamp160 At aCast we had 800 shows and we39d group them together to create that scale in verticals eg group all women39s showsquotamp160 Now she has 16 teams doing local sales of local radio and network podcastsamp160 But it still requires an educated sales force that can explain what geotargeting isWhile the perception is that any spot rate measures put podcasting at a premium the engagement as Moffett reiterated from recent surveys the purchase influence of podcasters is exponentially greateramp160 McCracken noted and Moffett agreed that budgets can be balanced with a hybrid flight live or host reads in the beginning of the flight at premium rates can be balanced with lower cost dynamic inserted ads in the back catalogueRosso reminded the attendees that some think dynamic insertion means quotyou39re going to start hearing that Geico adamp160 It doesn39t have to be that prerecorded radio adquot he explainedamp160 A hostread spot can still be dropped in dynamicallyThere was also a caution flag thrown on programmatic for podcastingamp160 quotThe value of programmatic is real or near timequot Rosso continuedamp160 quotIn podcasting because you39re not using a browserbased player most times you don39t know if ad ranamp160 So it39s not a great fit for a podcast buyer sitting at a trading deskquot Then there is also the battle of pricing perceptionamp160 Digital buyers are quotconstantly being trained to price lower and lower and lowerquot said Rossoamp160All agreed on the need to have empathy for ad agencies as wellamp160 Rob Walch Vice President of Podcaster Relations for hosting giant Libsyn reminded broadcasters that buying podcasting quotis more work and buyers are already stressedquotamp160 Sellers are faced with convincing buyers quotto do more work on a smaller mediumquotBut as Van Mosel pointed out agencies are quotwilling to go thereamp160 They still buy it because whyamp160 Because it39s so effectiveamp160 39I want to be a good agency and do right for my client39amp160 It39s a leap of faithquotamp160 Among the many benefits to podcast advertising are its comparatively quotlow ad loads and no one39s ruined it yet for the most partquot she joked sort ofClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Teaching Radio Broadcasters the New Tricks of Podcasting

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