Here is a great post by  Patrysha Korchinski outlining multiple ways an advertiser can create their ad to insert into podcasts.  This is written for audio podcasts, but since many shows are audio only, this is helpful advice.

As an association and an industry, we need to remove the barriers to entry. This includes “creative” production.  If you sell audio ads in your show(s), I suggest incorporating something like this into your media kit to outline how easy it can be to create an ad in your show.

I recently attended the “Podcast and New Media Expo” in California and the issue of using the name “Podcasting” was up for discussion again, however, this year some speakers went to the length of declaring “Podcasting is Dead”. Perhaps supported by the fact that for next years Expo, the term “Podcast” has been dropped from the show title - it’s just the “New Media Expo”.

Now this is nothing new as the topic of “Podcasting” terminology was actually brought up in Leo Laporte’s keynote from last year, when he suggested that the name “Podcasting” was bad for the industry.

Since then, negative connotations with “user generated content”, the detrimental effect of not having Microsoft fully supporting podcasts (although this seems now to be resolved at least for the Zune 2) and the general misunderstanding that podcasting was only available on iPods, all seem to have validated Leos suggestion on calling for a terminology change.

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Today the Internet Advertising Bureau announced guidelines for rich media advertising. This industry association has a tremendous amount of credibility with the press and the market place - both buyers and sellers. The involvement of the industry is strong, too, so though it’s difficult to create standards that make everyone “happy,” the standards are instituted by all when they are ratified.

This quote, from a MediaPost article, by Jeff Lanctot perfectly expresses the value of ad standards:

Jeff Lanctot, senior vice president for global media at Avenue A | Razorfish, said the guidelines were an important step for the industry. “The more closely aligned publishers and ad servers are on operational standards, the more efficient digital channels will become for advertisers,” he said.

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I had a friend return from Phoenix yesterday very upset with her investor and his total disregard for their partnership agreement. In fact, she’d tried to get him to sign the agreement before production commenced on her video podcast. But the lure of private jet travel to an exotic location to film several episodes of her new show got in the way of finalizing her deal.

It seems she’d found someone to bankroll her podcast and before she could complete production on all of her shows, he pulled the plug. Beyond having an understanding of how they would  monetize said content in the digital domain, they had a huge disagreement on the rights and who owned them in this new digital domain. (He might even continue the show - her idea - with another host for all she knows.) Moreover, to make her deal even more complex her show was going to be marketed and potentially sold in television syndication, too. So perhaps that should have been a separate deal altogether, or should it have been?

That raises another interesting question. Who ultimately owns the rights to your show if a Network or Cable outfit wants to migrate your content from the Web to television? (As my partner Richard wrote about in his posting below, it may all be moot once Apple TV converges all content to one programming module.) But it is absolutely essential that if you have partners, that ownership is very clear from the get-go. It’s easy to understand the migration from TV or film to podcasting, but even then I’m sure we’ll start to see messy lawsuits once podcasts become more and more monetized by sponsors and/or ad sales.

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Last year was a really exciting time during MacWorld in January.  The anticipation for Apple to enter the cell phone market had reached a boiling point.  Steve Job’s presentation was perhaps his best.  The phone or as I like to call it, a palm laptop with a phone, is an incredible piece of technology.  A product that is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

The iPhone has been a valuable device in meetings with potential sponsors that haven’t downloaded Culture Catch’s vidcasting show.  As a digital assistant, the iPhone has been a homerun for me.  Apple really delivered another great digital device.

January is upon us again. What does Steve have up his sleeve this year? I don’t know.  Those who say they know, don’t.

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Here is a reprint from an email from ad:tech’s Content Director, Warren Pickett, about speaker submission deadlines for Miami and San Francisco events in 2008.

If you want to speak, please submit yourself on their site.

We are talking to them about doing another podcasting session at the SF show.  But please submit yourself if you feel you have some good content to offer.

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From the NY Times

Eva Persson for The New York Times

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I’ve just wrapped up a project that had me working alongside some great folks. One of which I’ve now…gulp…convinced to start podcasting. This guy is a nut and really needs an outlet for all the creativity. Whether the content of what he and a friend create will attract an audience is obviously yet to be seen. But that’s not really the point.

For years I’ve been asked what it takes to “be on the radio.” For those same years I’ve always given one of two answers (Three, if you count the “What are you nuts?” answer.); go to college and get a broadcast degree with an eye toward being a more well-rounded person and to have a fall-back or hang out at a local radio station and get to know the people. Radio folks are pretty open to teaching and love to help people “pay their dues.” Both answers always came along with the “work hard, it’s not for everybody and prepare to eat a lot of mac and cheese” warnings. It also had to sound just a bit harder than it was. C’mon, I had to justify the fact that it’s a blast getting paid for never really growing up.

So, when Jerome asked me, all I needed to say was, “Do you have a computer?” Okay, technically, podcasting isn’t broadcasting, it’s more narrow-casting. But, you can develop the same skills and have the same fun with a whole lot less effort. What followed were many more questions that I was happy to say I had the answers for, thanks in part to fellow members at the Association for Downloadable Media.

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I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the ADM members for electing me Chair of the Measurement Committee. I am ready to lead the charge to achieve the goals and objectives of the Measurement Committee.

I believe participation is key. I would like to take this opportunity to invite interested ADM members to participate in the Measurement Committee by sending me a note via my E-mail: measurement [at] downloadablemedia [.] org.

The Measurement Committee will require a lot of research, analytical analysis and technical knowledge regarding the challenges of measuring media downloads. Even though I am eager to get as many ADM members involved in the process as possible, it is key that appointed committee members have the necessary skills and knowledge to achieve the Committee’s objectives. Once I receive the Charge of the Committee, the number of members and necessary skills will help me determine which ADM members will best serve on the committee. Following the ADM’s kick-off meeting on Monday, I will start a dialog with those who wish to participate to determine which members to appoint. I was just notified there will be no limit to the number of members on a committee. To allow for maximum participation, any ADM member may join the Measurement Committee.

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Being in the online advertising market for over 10 years, it is evident that there are a big changes happening. Last month at the most recent ad:tech in New York all the talk was around the need for ‘new’ online advertising products. Video on the web took center stage. In fact, the biggest elephant in the room was the horrid nature of pre-roll video in today’s web video content market. Everyone was just shrugging their shoulders, “Yeah we know it (pre-roll video) is ineffective and produces a poor user experience, but there is nothing else available”. This was the general sentiment among top advertisers and online media vendors such as Ogilvy, GM/Planworks, Fox, P&G, YouTube, NBC, etc.

New Models Coming

The public secret today in online advertising is that PPC based advertising is saturated. Banners are sliding into the land of irrelevance. As more and more online advertising dollars flood into the online sector, new advertising media will capture most of the revenue. What will the new advertising media be? It will be in the form of “Vertical Media” and “Social Media”. We are already seeing a flourish of vertical ad networks developing. Social networks are where the most exciting and relevant digital advertising solutions are developing. Social networks have unique micro-targeting capability and amazing behavioral measurement capability. The big question is, “What is the ad unit?” It’s targeted Microcontent. The growth in microtargeting networks is outpacing the inventory of Microcontent. There isn’t enough inventory of Microcontent ads. This is causing huge dissatisfaction among microtargeted community users who are jammed with irrelevant video ads.

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