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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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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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. 

This week, the Strategy Institute held their Digital Media & Pricing Summit at the lovely Bridgewaters near the South Street Seaport in New York City. It was a gathering of digital agencies, ad networks, and anyone else involved with online advertising. At the last session of the last day (tell me about it :), I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel with fellow ADM members Bryan Moffett, David Herscott, and Chris MacDonald. We spoke on the podcasting landscape, advertising and sponsorship models, and where we saw this all going. Key learnings from our and other sessions:

•  Agencies are still taking a “wait and see” attitude with podcasting. About 11% are adding it into their advertising mix, but it’s still way near the bottom of their priority list.
• Many are buying into it as a “velue-add.” That means that they’ll take the podcasting advertising for free with a larger online banner buy. This isn’t desirable, but I remember that this is where banner buying was 12 years ago when I was selling for Entertainment Tonight’s Web site.
• Yes, podcasting is new and exciting, but there are half a dozen other technologies that are new and exciting that likewise want ad dollars. We have to show that podcasting stands above with them with its connection to the listeners/viewers. It’s the ADM’s job to prove that.
• A study my company, Porter Novelli, conducted on behalf of Dixie and the MommyCast proves the above point amazingly. I’m working on unlocking more of the proprietary findings, but the average MommyCast listener told 29.1 other people about Dixie products. That’s huge!
• Purveyors of virtual worlds are still holding onto the notion that Second Death, er uh, Second Life is alive and well. To their credit, the space isn’t dead, but Second Life and There are dying. Don’t count virtual worlds out. Some — done right — are thriving, like Club Penguin, Webkinz. If you want to learn more, check out Virtual Worlds 2008.
• Online CPMs are averaging around where they always have ~$25 - $30. Podcasting will be higher than that, but not without proof of effectiveness (aka join ADM).
• Long-form streaming video (primetime shows on abc.com, hulu, etc.) CPMs are on the rise. Agencies agree that the extreme increases are unwarranted, but the writers’ strike is keeping the available inventory desperately low.

Short story, downloadable media is maturing, but research, metrics, and proof of effectiveness will need to mature in kind. I urge you to join us in the revolution and make a difference. Get your slice of the pie!

Matthew Snodgrass, ADM Secretary, VP Porter Novelli 

A new super-thin Apple notebook computer was not the only sexy thing to come out of MacWorld. ADM held its all-member committee working group, and what could be more attractive than progress towards infusing our industry with copious ad purchases?

Thanks to Kiptronic and Porter Novelli for hosting the meeting in San Francisco and New York City respectively, and for Blog Talk Radio to connecting the dots through conference and chat. The hour was packed with reports and ideas. There was a lot worth covering, but I want to lay out the two biggest initiatives on our near-term plate.

Ad Units - (part of the Ad Standards Committee)

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From a recent letter from the AAAA’s to it’s members, copied to the ADM:

New Advertising Media Associations Formed

As more new and emerging media seek to become advertising-supported, relevant media trade associations are forming to standardize creative ad units and metrics and set other guidelines. AAAA works closely with many of these trade associations to develop industry-supported guidelines.

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Ahhh, the very beginning of the New Year, and I have a few download-relevant thoughts I’d like share with ADM members.

- Get green. With just about every company pursuing a green strategy, I resolve to pitch podcasting and digital media as the ultimate green publishing tool. No resources used except bandwidth. PS: Send your proposals electronically.

- Get mobile. With Apple, Google, Yahoo and many other big players getting into the mobile space, this may be the year mobile content starts to take off. I resolve to offer mobile solutions for marketing and communications to all my clients, complementing our podcasting solutions.

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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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