No, I’m not going to discuss the philosophy of existence. But I am going to draw an analogy.
How many times have you heard the question “Yes, the podcast has been downloaded, but how do you know if anyone listened to it?” If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been asked that question…
But enough with the platitudes.
I am often asked by clients, “What is a podcast?” I used to explain the push of RSS and the pull of podcatchers, but now I like to take this approach: podcasting isn’t a medium or a technology, it’s a paradigm shift in the way people consume their media. Consumers now want their media anytime, anywhere and on any device.
Content has become untethered from the restraints of distribution channels, time and space. Since everyone and anyone can create and launch content, consuming the media – the very act of downloading the media to an iPod, desktop, laptop, phone or portable player – has become the distribution.
Content and distribution become one. Who knows the magic we can create with untethered media.
There are two excellent candidates for the Chairman of the ADM, Chris MacDonald, founder of IndieFeed and EVP of LibsynPRO and John Furrier, founder of the PodTech Network.
It’s a tough choice so I asked them both to answer 5 questions for us and they are posted to my blog. (we did it before this excellent blog was built by our amazing member Jason Van Orden)
Marshall McLuhan high priest of pop culture, talked about the “medium” being the message in regards to TV and other forms of PR/mass messaging. I’m a big MM fan, so I respectfully posit that nowadays the Media is the message. No matter what your content, how are you getting it out to the public? Are they able to consume your message in whatever format they want, be it live (streaming online), recorded (on your site via mp3, mov, avi, etc.) or via RSS/podcast (so they can subscribe)? Remember that how people like to consume media does not reflect on your content; it’s just a question of their preference as to when/where they like to listen/watch their podcasts/videos.
To that end, the Association of Downloadble Media is working to protect, enliven, and extend the power of online media so media creators, networks, advertisers, and consumers will all be able to benefit from great content for years to come. By establishing common metrics that define the value proposition across the whole spectrum of online content, we hope to clarify the best ways for content to be consumed so that engaging in the material you want is as seamless as possible. If you’re a content creator, having specific metrics and standards for your material means you can demonstrate to your audience who listens to your shows more accurately, whether or not you want to monetize.
Podcasters and vloggers work very hard to listen to and communicate effectively to their audience, and having uniform standards across all platforms online means they’ll be able to speak more accurately to their audience. For advertisers, having these standards means they can approach content creators with CPM’s/advertising deals while speaking a common language with content creators. If a podcaster, for instance, posts a link to their (hypothetical and potential) ADM badge that lists how many listeners they have, general demographics, and their media kit, an advertiser will know if that podcaster/show is someone they’d like to work with right away. In this regard, having a common metric/set of standards will expedite the process of people working together to monetize and distribute content online. Think of it as speed networking online where everyone speaks the same language right away, and people can say what they’re hoping from a relationship to help speed the process of people potentially working together. Read more »
Like many of you I was altered to IBM’s recent report by the team over at TechCrunch. On November 8th, IBM released “The End of Advertising as We Know It,” which predicts a world in which the advertising industry will undergo exponentially increasing changes to traditional advertising models. Initial responses to the report are eloquently framed by pundits reverting back to their high school days: “Duh.” I will spare the report synopsis (I encourage you to read), except to say that if you have been half awake during the last five years, there is a good chance you would have arrived at the same conclusions (startling, but it turns out that traditional 30 second ads don’t work as well in new communication mediums, including short-form downloadable media).
So why is a report that states the apparently obvious, so important to the conversation? In part because it is primary research from a reliable source. 2,400 survey respondents represent a statistically significant sampling of consumers. And 80 advertising executives provide at least a view into the industry awareness that consumers are tired of interruptive ads, and more willing to explore digital media as a primary source of information, community and entertainment. We could use more of these reports. They don’t have to unearth new insight so much as continue to underscore the same patterns of communication dysfunction.
If you are a new media publisher you probably have had the mixed blessing of fulfilling an ad buy that doesn’t exactly meet your optimal view of an effective message. Put another way, you may have taken the money and placed the ad even though you had reservations of the efficacy. You know your audience better than anyone else. But the advertiser may not necessarily agree with you. Possibly they just met you and your unique, hyper-loyal audience. The advertiser might have spent upwards to hundreds of thousands of dollars perfecting their message strategy. Now a new media upstart is attempting to influence a process chain that was never designed to include your valuable input. And herein lies the potential friction. If the deal is not easy to do it may never get done. Hence the rationalization to a compromised ad fulfillment.
Welcome to the new blog for the Association for Downloadable Media. Stay tuned for posts from the board and other association members.
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