The results of this groundbreaking look at the attitudes and behaviors of these active podcast consumers, presented by Tom Webster of Edison Research, will include:

• A comparison of the effectiveness of advertising approaches across various new and traditional media channels.

• An examination of post-exposure purchase and trial behaviors for consumers exposed to podcast advertising.

• A quantification of the “halo” effect of podcast advertising for prospective brands and sponsors.

• A look at the rapid adoption of mobile audio and video consumption.

• The effectiveness of pre-recorded advertisements, sponsorships and host-read messaging in podcasts.

The online study was conducted in November of 2009 among listeners and viewers of podcasts from many of the largest aggregators of downloadable media.

Please be sure to share this news and then join us on January 28th.

I was reminded of this crucial distinction when I perused the results of RAJAR’s latest MIDAS research. RAJAR, the UK’s radio measurement entity, publishes a semiannual look at British consumption of Internet-delivered audio that examines trends in digital radio, streaming and podcasting akin to our own Internet and Multimedia Research Series here in the States, and I am always interested to see how the behavior of UK digital consumers agrees and differs from our own here in the US.

I’ll have more to say about the podcasting statistics in a later post (they show continued growth in uptake, from 7.2 million podcast consumers in October 2008 to 7.8 million today,) but for now I wanted to focus on this telling statistic: while 4.2 million say they listen to podcasts at least once a week, only 28% find time to listen to all the podcasts they download (the typical user reported subscribing to 5.2 podcasts per week.)

I freely admit that I rarely listen to everything in my queue, and often weeks will go by before I will listen to an episode. Some subscriptions I have never caught up with, and others remain weekly staples. The vast stew of unlistened-to podcast episodes in my iTunes folder is very reminiscent of my TiVo “Now Playing” page, which also contains dozens of shows (and one entire series) that I’ve never watched. I suspect, if you own a DVR, that you have had a similar experience.

It’s easy to subscribe to episodic content–less so to find time to fit it all in. If you are a podcaster with a program centered on information or news content in a given niche, you know that listeners have multiple ways to get the content you offer (after all, you also got it somewhere.) What keeps listeners coming back, week after week, is you–character development, roles, trust, and your story. Even the most compelling podcasts, however, can pile up in someone’s feed reader amidst the plethora of audio and video available on the Internet.

That’s where scarcity can be your friend. If you are a terrestrial broadcaster thinking about podcasting your morning show, think hard about how often you want to seed content to your feed–sure, a quick, daily 2-minute joke or benchmark is an easy thing to snack on, but think long and hard before you attempt something long-form on a daily basis. More frequent podcasts may work if you are Dawn and Drew, because they aren’t repurposing broadcast content. But the more unlistened-to or unwatched shows I have piled up for a given program, the more daunting it is to tackle them–and the more likely I am to just choose a nuclear option.

All of which brings me to online video maven Tim Street, and how he handles the production of his wildly popular French Maid TV series. Tim’s very clever idea was to film a “how-to” series for men, with the subject of each video demonstrated by women dressed as French Maids. Some of the topics he has covered include how to change your oil, how to register a domain and (of course!) how to podcast. What makes Tim a very smart guy is that these topics are ripe for sponsorship–and he doesn’t shoot an episode until a sponsor pays for it. This means that he is able to monetize his show–and design it around a sponsor–from day one, and it also has the beneficial side effect of making new episodes scarce–i.e., valuable. Viewers know that a new French Maid TV episode is an event, so they make the time to watch it. Sponsors know this as well, which means that they have a little control over when the campaign is viewed (I’ve discussed podcasting’s problem with variable campaign length and asynchronous consumption before) and they also know that because Tim isn’t littering YouTube with hundreds of French Maid TV episodes a year, that they are sponsoring an actual, special event.

Now, this isn’t the prescription for everyone. But it may be that the best thing you could do with your podcast content is to make less of it, not more.

(Reposted from The Infinite Dial)

These projects directly reflect the focus of two main initiative of the ADM in the last six months: Provide value to our membership and build awareness.

Clearly, any member organization must provide value to those who, through their membership, show belief in the mission and provide funding to advance that mission. It’s our goal to provide real tools and resources to help those who produce and distribute downloadable content to monetize that content.

To that end, I’m happy to say that we’re just weeks away from launching an ADM Member Directory. This directory is designed to be a point of direct access for advertisers and media buyers to the offerings of our membership. ADM members will be able to post information about their shows, the audience they reach, and the various types and amount of inventory they offer, as well as the all important contact information that will allow buyers and advertisers to reach these providers.

As far as I know, no directory currently exists that allows those with marketing and advertising money to spend  such easy access to a wide range of outlets and the audience they provide in such a fast growing medium. ADM Committee members Dave Hamilton and Matt Snodgrass are currently tweaking the current beta version of the Directory, so look for information on the member release soon.

Another exciting project that’s in the works is a comprehensive research study that will, as project manager Jeff Karnes describes it, “explore consumers’ attitudes towards advertising within podcasting to provide media buyers and marketers with information about those attitudes, as well as insights into the best advertising opportunities.” Simply put, we’ll be providing data that will not only show who uses downloadable media, but how they use it, what they want from it, what they expect from it, and the best way advertisers can use it to their advantage. Make no mistake, we aren’t out to prove to the world that podcasting reaches millions of people and is growing…we already know that. We’re going to show advertisers how best to reach their audience and that modifying their ad budget to include more downloadable media will help them become more successful.

The ADM, in conjunction with Tom Webster and Edison Research, is currently crafting and vetting all aspects of the project and working toward a presentation date of sometime in September. Look for more info as we field this unprecedented study.

As I noted earlier it’s vital to let the industries we serve and represent know about the mission and purpose of the Association for Downloadable Media as well as tactics and tools we use to accomplish them. So we will continue to improve our ongoing communication to the industry and it’s constituency. In fact, the upgrade of this site, increasing our Twitter presence, and other social media initiatives are all steps toward raising our profile. We’ll continue to reach out and inform not only the content providers but, through our Advertising Council and other outlets,  those ad buyers and agencies that offer us that monetization we seek to build for downloadable media.

So, as you can see, for a member funded, volunteer based,  non-profit group, we’re quite busy…and I would be remiss if I didn’t take this chance to say thanks for the support of our current members. And members…please  make sure your membership is current so you don’t miss out on reaping the rewards of this hard work.

I’d also like to invite you, if you aren’t a member to join us! I’m confident that we’ll provide you with the tools and support to get your downloadable business noticed and, on the way, I hope more profitable.

I helped ADM standardize the measurement specs around downloads, and the process was contentious around the metrics question, “download requests” or “completed downloads”?  The most final of all metrics , “plays”, was not considered because it simply was not feasible. During the current economic downturn, the need for the best metrics has become even more important for publishers and advertisers.

Over a year ago our engineers decided to resolve this issue in the most practical way we could – connecting iTunes to Google Analytics. We are announcing this product today. Before I go into the specifics, I would like to emphasize one important point – this free service does not require any relationship, contractual or otherwise, with VoloMedia.

VoloMedia’s Bridge-to-Google Analytics is a plug-in to the iTunes Media player, now installed with over 100 thousand iTunes consumers in the US – precisely 94,296 iTunes plug-ins were active over the last 5 days. Publishers are free to use this free service if it meets their needs, i.e. collect annonymous usage statistics regarding usage of their content on iTunes and to analyze them using Google Analyics: a free and robust industry-standard platform. If you have ever used Google Analytics, then you are familiar with “GA_ID – Google Analytics ID”. With a simple modification of the RSS feed to incorporate the GA-ID the publisher can start flowing aggregated play and download data to their Google Analytics account.  More information is on our website: http://www.volomedia.com

I hope this initiative is seen as one that is beneficial to the entire podcasting community, one more step forward to making podcasting a dynamic and vibrant medium for consumers, publishers and advertisers.

Those that attended got a firsthand look at who uses podcasts and how they use them. Some key points, as highlighted on Twitter at #poddata inlcuded:

• 1 in 5 Americans (22%) have listened to a podcast.
• 59% men 41% women, 18-44 demo = 60% of podcast users.
• Most downloadable media is consumed via desktop, mobile growing.
• Podcast users are very active on social networks – mainly Myspace and Facebook
• 24% of podcast consumers feel “emotional connection” with their favorite podcasts.
• Podcast consumers are more receptive to advertisers heard in podcast vs heard via internet radi.
• Producers need to do a better job of selling the portable aspects.

…and so many more.

If you missed the webcast never fear. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

The Podcast Consumer Revealed 2009

Download the slides.

Thanks very much to all who made this possible, especially Tom Webster of Edison Research. Thanks also to Arbitron and Chris MacDonlad of the ADM.

In this public webcast, ADM Member Tom Webster from Edison Research will  present the fourth iteration of this widely-cited, authoritative look at the growing audience for audio and video podcasts. The event will be free and requires pre-registration at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/502857363.

In the recently published Edison Research/ Arbitron 2009 update to their “Infinite Dial” study, results offered up hints of good news for podcasters. With awareness of podcasting increasing from 37% to 43%, and the percentage of Americans who have ever listened to an audio podcast growing to 22%, podcast consumption appears ready to break into the mainstream. According to Edison Research’s Tom Webster, “If you are in the business of creating downloadable media, this is key, significant research that you won’t want to miss.” He goes on to say, “This report and webcast will look at demographics and usage, key audience behaviors, content preferences, and attitudes towards advertising and sponsorships.”

The webcast will last one hour and will include time for your questions. Participants will also be able to download the presentation prior to its wider public release.

Please join us for this ADM event.

ABOUT EDISON

Edison Research is a global leader in market and consumer research for businesses and media organizations worldwide, and has been the sole provider of exit poll information to the six major news organizations
–ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC and the Associated Press–since 2003. As part of this effort, Edison has conducted exit polls and collected precinct vote returns to project and analyze results for every major primary and the general elections in 2004, 2006 and 2008.  Edison provides companies with custom research solutions to measure audience, effectiveness and other key metrics of marketing and advertising campaigns. They are, along with Arbitron, the co-authors of the widely-quoted Internet and Multimedia Research Series, now in its 17th iteration.

Usually this is called advertising insertion, because the primary intended use is to embed advertising campaigns within network content, so as to optimize monetization.  This has many benefits, including the ability to assemble and dis-assemble campaigns without laborious and expensive editing.  This post is not about the merits and distinctions between available insertion technologies; while many providers go about this process differently, the end result is generally the same:  ads are placed and at end of campaign they are taken out of future downloads.

As you might imagine,  we tend to use the metaphors associated with advertising to describe the system. For example, you click the “advertising” section of a web-service, run a “campaign,” select an “advertiser,” upload then schedule an “ad.” All this makes perfect sense if you use the service to execute ads within your network.

But we have realized that as with most descriptions, they have their limits, and many customers use the insertion system for reasons that extend far beyond advertising. While the language we use to describe the service might not jibe with these uses, they are both possible and very effective. Here are a few examples of uses that publishers have employed:

“Bumper” Insertion
Audio and video episodes often include bumpers at the front and back of shows. They are standard introductions and ending segments that signal the beginning or end of an episode. They tend to be consistent across all episodes. Organizations are using the insertion feature to publish these bumpers automatically. Why? It allows an organization to switch out bumpers at any point in time, without the hassle of re-editing legacy content. So if your content is “evergreen,” or relevant to the audience regardless of it’s age, you can freshen-up old content to feel current and lively.

Special Messaging
Not all organizations can or want to advertise within their network. Perhaps you are a non-profit organization with commercial limitations, or an educational system. You still could use the insertion technology for valuable, cross-network communication. Imagine having the power to alert your audience on any key points. Within a short period of time you can run a campaign to infuse your content with important information, regardless of whether your audience is accessing episodes that are current or in your archives.

Alerts
The quickest way to get an urgent message to your audience is by placing it in locations they are sure not to miss. You can run limited duration special alerts that are embedded in downloaded content. When you feel you have adequate coverage, just close-out the campaign, and no further messages will insert.

These are just a few examples of alternative insertion use cases.  Do you have more to share?  Comment here.

This year, our third annual Podcast Consumer Revealed report (derived from the 2008 Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet and Multimedia study) details significant gains in both audio and video podcast consumption. The audience for downloadable media is not only growing, but also represents a very attractive target for advertising. Our national data shows that more than one in five Americans have ever downloaded and watched/listened to a podcast, which breaks down further to 18% of Americans having ever listened to an audio podcast, and 16% having ever watched a video podcast. Those numbers are up sharply from last year’s figures, which were 13% and 11%, respectively. Nine percent of Americans 12+ have listened to an audio podcast in the past month, and those 23 million Americans are affluent, spend lots of time (and money!) online, and are increasingly more difficult to target with interruption advertising.

All of this represents good news for Podcast producers, and I encourage you to download the study and use it wherever you deem helpful. As a part of this release, I listed some implications/recommendations for podcast producers to consider, which I won’t recapitulate here. I will, however, touch on one of the findings of this study, and flip it on its head for a moment. I was unsurprised to see that many podcast consumers were also users of various social networking sites. For instance, about a quarter of Americans who have ever watched or listened to a podcast maintain their own profile page at Myspace. You may also find this data to be unremarkable, especially if you, too, are a relentless “profile-pruner” like I am. One can no doubt conclude from this that social networking sites and services may be an effective means to promote your podcast, especially when everyone “seems” to be on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Change occurs at the margin, and it would be unwise to ignore the increasing popularity and utility of the various social networking sites. However, as a researcher of that big ole’ middle of the bell curve, I am compelled to add here that this means that the vast majority of podcast users–and of Americans, period–do not maintain social networking profiles. This means that if you confine your marketing and promotional efforts to getting the word out on social networking sites, you are depriving your podcast of a potentially much greater audience. If you produce a podcast on restoring and customizing automobiles, for instance, the number of auto aficionados on Twitter is a rounding error compared to the vast size of this potential affinity group. If you are creating well-written, well-produced quality content on a topic or subject, you have as much right to the big fat middle of the tail as you do the long part, so think big–and market your content accordingly. I would love to see more and more partnerships between mass media broadcasters and independent content producers. You need each other. The ADM’s recent announcements on standards provide a common nomenclature for traditional and new media content providers alike to communicate with each other and with advertisers, so I encourage you to review them and get involved.

We at Edison are very proud of this research series (the main Arbitron/Edison study from which it is derived is now in its 16th iteration) and we hope it helps you in your quest to grab whatever part of that tail you are reaching for. I am happy to answer questions–grab me in Brooklyn (before I slink off to Peter Luger, that is!), contact me at our website, or follow me on Twitter (@webby2001). Good luck!

Tom Webster, VP Strategy and Marketing, Edison Media Research

Becky Hogge from the Open Rights Group lead a meaningful session on how TV regulation threatens to spill over to internet. Dean Whitbread from UKPA moderated a panel on music rights in which speakers from the MCPS-PRS (the UK performing rights organisation representing writers and publishers) and the head of digital for the Association of Independent Music laid out the now more affordable and less rigid schemes designed to give podcasters access to their extensive repertoire of music.

Read more here on UK Podcasters Association website.

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.

The narrator would speak and then a chime or beep would sound that signaled the person running the projector to advance the filmstrip one frame. Then came the video tape, DVD, powerpoint, etc. You get the picture.

The thing is, I’m sure that there were technophobes back in the day who didn’t like that filmstrip thing. They said that the students didn’t need it, that if the old method of lecture, repetition, and rote memory were sufficient.

>> fast forward to 2008 >>

Today, teaching the classic “Three R’s” just isn’t enough. One of those wise old sayings (cliches) I’ve heard bantered about is, “There are no bad students, just bad teachers.”

Today, students (young and old) need to use a variety of technology tools to complete their course work. Effective teachers are passing along huge amounts of broad based information via any method within their power.

Does this mean that teachers who don’t use downloadable content to supplement their teaching styles are bad teachers? Of course not. My sister, mother, two grandparents and a couple of aunts are all teachers. Believe me when I say I know that teachers are the hardest working, poorest paid, and least appreciated profession.

What I am saying is that I want all teachers to have at their fingertips all of the tools to help them in their difficult jobs. Video and audio downloadable media is right there to fill that void. It can be that all important “other side of the picture.”

You know what I mean. You can sit all day in a classroom and at the end of the day, sit there and scratch your head because you just don’t get it. Later, you ask another instructor or classmate to explain it to you and <bing!> the light bulb comes on.

Why?

Because a different person explained the concepts to you in a different way. The first teacher wasn’t wrong or a bad instructor but their explanation didn’t mesh well with your experiences and understanding. Bring that explanation in from a different direction and it’s a completely different story.

This is the real value of the gigabytes of high quality educational content available in downloadable form. Look over the sites beforehand for appropriateness. Point the students to the other content audio and video and let them get that “other viewpoint.”

Downloadable media is the ultimate educational “win – win.” Students get all of the extra instruction they need to succeed while teachers become the great educators they were destined to become when they first decided to become — TEACHER.