I’ve been reading the intensive debate this last week in the Yahoo ADM group, and now it’s my turn to chime in.

Some 25 years ago, I was part of the birth of another new media industry — cable TV. I helped start two cable TV companies and then consulted to many of the giants here in Denver. I have applied alot of the lessons-learned to starting my own podcast business; it’s almost identical.

When cable started, consumers subscribed to cable not because of new
content but because of improved reception to local and network TV. Cable was the iPod of that generation — creating convenience for accessing their favorite progamming. The first cable-only networks to
launch were super-stations like WTBS and WGN and then later CNN and
ESPN that were “ad-supported.” To pay the freight of carriage, the
industry struggled to define standards so traditional TV advertisers
would be able to understand and buy niche cable channels more easily.
The NCTA and CTAM were born to help set technical (for insertions)
advertising standards and make it easier for agencies and marketers to
buy cable. Sound familiar?

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In a February 4 article touting new paid research, eMarketer paints a positive picture about the future of podcasting. eMarketer estimates that the total US podcast audience reached 18.5 million users in 2007, and should grow to 65 million by 2012.

Interestingly, they make a distinction between total audience and active audience. Total audience includes persons who have downloaded at least one podcast, while active audience only includes persons who download an average of one or more per week. The active audience projections are significantly smaller; a bit over one-third the total. That seems like an area where deeper definition and research would be useful.

eMarketer made a bold statement that the “majority” of podcast consumption still happens on desktop computers rather than MP3 players or mobile devices. I found that very surprising, and directly counter to NPR’s research, where roughly 70% of users consume podcasts on mobile devices detached from the computer.

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We are currently programming 4 sessions for ad:tech San Franscico. Three at our ADM meeting on the 16th of April and 1 in the ad:tech conference programming on the 17th of April.

We are seeking podcast advertising customers to share their wisdom on ad formats, audience metrics and case studies.

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Susan Bratton mentioned in yesterday’s post that ADM will have a strong presence at ad:tech this April in San Francisco. During the same time, the long-established National Association of Broadcasters conference is being held in Las Vegas.

ADM members will also be prominent at NAB, including Richard Burns of Culture Catch.

These conferences are great opportunities to meet other ADM members and for us members to reach out to podcasters and to the community at large. As a member of the Education and Outreach Committee, I can tell you we have several targets we want to reach. We’ll be more successful if we can have some people on the ground in as many venues as possible!

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The ADM is busily preparing to present our 1.0 version of Advertising and Sponsorship Standards and Guidelines for Traffic Measurement to get 30-day public feedback from the ADM members and greater industry at our upcoming event, 9 am - 11:45 am PST in San Francisco at the ad:tech Expo.

ad:tech is the leading conference for digital marketers and agencies who focus on emerging media. They are hosting a morning of ADM programming. In three sessions, we will present the latest numbers in podcasting/vidcasting and downloadable media, case studies of successful programs, new ad units around which our industry can standardize and guidelines for audience traffic measurement.

We currently seek panelists for these sessions. If you are an extraordinary speaker who can talk about numbers, case studies, ad standards and audience measurement, please send an email to susan at personal life media.

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I posted a few weeks ago about my views on the benefits to teachers found in podcasting and downloadable media. These benefits reach both the teachers and the students.

This week, I thought I would focus on the benefits specifically for teachers at all levels of education in using downloadable media. First, though, let’s go back in time to the old way of presenting multimedia lesson segments.

I’m probably dating myself but, do you remember watching filmstrips in school? The teacher would load the film strip into the projector and then play a cassette tape or vinyl record to provide audio content.

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IAB is the organization charged with promoting online advertising. Spending a few minutes on their website you notice no mentions of downloadable media or podcasting. Below are two glaring omissions on the IAB wesbite:

1. The Glossary of Interactive Terms, does not even contain the terms “download” or “podcasting” http://www.iab.net/media/file/Interactive%20Glossary.pdf.

2. Their “Emerging Interactive Platforms” section. There is no mention of Podcasting. Games Advertising, Digital Video and Mobile are called out. http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/1421/1488

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I’m not sure if any of you have ever grown a plant from a seed or not but when I was a little kid I tried it several times. Sometimes I was successful and other times I failed but every time I planted a new seed I always wondered if it was growing. If I was going to get something out of it. I would sit at my window and look out side where I planted those seeds and wondered if anything was happening underground. Last Fall many of us planted some seeds in the ADM. 150 of them came out of my pocket and some companies put in 1000 seeds each. Many of us have been wondering if anything was growing out of those seeds. Well let me assure you that you may not be able to see any growth above the surface yet but things have been growing and you will see things start to sprout in the next few months. The ADM is a newly formed organization. It takes some time to get everything up and running and there are several people working very hard to take things to the next level so that we can all benefit from the ADM.I joined the ADM so that I could help jump start a marketplace for Advertisers and Content Creators to connect and Buy and Sell Advertising in Online Video and Audio. In order to do that we have to create standards. TV and  Radio have standards, Newspapers and Magazines have standards but online audio and video don’t really have a list of standards and it’s the ADM task to put together a list of standards and get them approved by advertisers, agencies and content producers. You may not be able to see it yet but that is happening and soon you will have the chance to be involved.  That said, one of the things I have been asked to put together for the ADM are Member Tools. I need to assemble things like Media Kits, Sales Presentation and any other tools that might be helpful to the ADM membership. Soooooo, if you have any tools you would like to share with the ADM membership or any Tools you would like to request from the ADM membership now is the time to speak up.  Just shoot me an email at 1timstreet at gmail dot com and let me know what you have to offer or what you would like to see. I will do my best to turn these around and see if we can get an area set up on the website to share these tools. And if you feel like your not getting anything out of the ADM yet just give your seeds a little more time. I think you will be very happy with the growth.