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That’s how the Chief Revenue Officer at Libsyn’s Advertisecast, Dave Hanley responded to Carman’s piece in The Verge. He says the whole thing is being overblown and the good old days are still here in many ways.
Hanley says don’t be fooled, “What is happening at major networks is not rampant across the entire podcast ecosystem. Not all podcast ad placements are more expensive, less organic and lack the magic that they used to have. There is still plenty of magic to go around…you just need to know where to look for it.”
Hanley writes that what many new to the podcasting industry don’t realize is that even though the lion’s share of podcast advertising revenue goes to the top 2,000 podcasts, the ecosystem is much more vast. “In fact, more than two thirds of podcast downloads can be attributed to shows outside of the top 2,000. Much of this content is not only untapped by advertisers, but those brands who do decide to partner with small and mid-sized podcasts often receive greater value, a larger share of voice and have the opportunity to engage directly with the creators to help craft a powerful message for the audience.”
And Hanley puts in a good word for smaller podcasters getting a piece of that direct response revenue. " My personal opinion on optimizing results in a direct response podcast campaign has always been that I would rather spend across 10 podcasts doing 10,000 downloads per episode than one show doing 100,000. Not only is there a portfolio diversification concept in play with this strategy, we have often found some of the most engaged podcast listening audiences in these smaller tiers of shows. Of course, employing this strategy is not without challenges. In an environment where those placing campaigns are very often compensated based on a percentage of media spend as opposed to effort exerted, the business case is difficult to make."
Hanley quotes one of podcastings biggest success story, Erica Mandy, who quite a high paying Television job to create her own news podcast. And, she created it the way she wanted to, with a positive tone. Now, Mandy is in a position to take advertisers on, also the way she wants to. “When I am considering whether or not to take on a brand partner, I view it through the lens of my audience,” she added, “if it’s a lesser-known product or service that I feel my audience would benefit from knowing about and having in their lives, these are always a definite yes for me.”
Read Hanleys column HERE.