This week's stories:

• ‘They are blatantly blocking news’: Confessions of a programmatic sales lead on brand safety filters’ impact on publishers’ direct-sold ads
• Pew Research publishes Podcasts as a Source of News and Information
• Americans Spend $48 per Month on Video Streaming Services — and Half of Those Surveyed Say That’s Too Much
• FTC Warns Almost 700 Marketing Companies That They Could Face Civil Penalties if They Can’t Back Up Their Product Claims

Quick hits:

• Podscribe is now IAB Tech Lab Certified. Announced this Monday, verification platform Podscribe announced they have officially received their IAB certification after a six month audit process. 
• Podcast hosting platform Ausha has announced the implementation of ChatGPT into their social media management system. 
• Netflix Earnings, Netflix’s Movie Strategy, Accretive Ads by Ben Thompson. This week’s Stratechery issue covers the recent Netflix earnings call, Thompson’s previous coverage of Netflix, and what could lie in Netflix’s future. 
• Veritonic has published a new guide titled 5 Things to Consider When Running a Brand Lift Study for Audio.

For full transcript and links to all articles mentioned, please visit SoundsProfitable.com/podcast

Did you know that April is Adopt-a-Podcast Listener Month? Now you do! Bryan Barletta speaks with Lauren Passell and Arielle Nissenblatt about Tink Media, this new initiative to grow the podcast/audio space, barriers they’ve uncovered for potential listeners, and how you can get involved.

Listen to learn about: 

• How to idea for this event came about
• Lauren and Arielle’s woman-on-the-street approach to ask people about their listening habits
• Best practices they’ve uncovered for recommending podcasts
• The pre, mid, and post-roll ad campaign you can participate in

Links:

• Lauren Passell
• Tink Media
• Adopt-a-Listener Month

Credits:

• Hosted by Bryan Barletta, Arielle Nissenblatt
• Produced by Spooler Media
• Hosted on Art19
• Recorded on SquadCast.fm 
• Edited by Gavin Gaddis

Discussed this week:

Ad Spend in the US will grow more than initially expected this year, per S&P. 

How brands can tailor their audio ads to target “co-listeners”

Why news outlets are putting their podcasts on YouTube

Quick Hits:

The 2023 Quill Podcast Awards nominations are now open. Public nominations will run until April 24th, with finalists announced on May 4th and winners announced on May 17th. Eligibility guidelines and categories can be found on Quill’s website. 

OxfordRoad has published a new study titled Solving Audio Ad Attribution. The white paper aims to teach marketers how to improve performance at scale and proposes vanity urls “no longer cut it.” 

A month after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the fallout is just beginning for the ad industry by Seb Joseph and Marty Swant for Digiday. A substantial breakdown of the aftershocks from the SVB collapse and what impacts it’ll have on advertising.

For full transcript and links to everything mentioned, please visit SoundsProfitable.com/Podcast

In this episode, Tom, Arielle, and Bryan recap their experiences at Radiodays Europe, which took place last month in Prague. They discuss the expo hall, the presentation they attended, trends they identified, and much more. 

Listen to learn about: 

• How Tom’s recent research was received by a primarily European audience
• Radio’s prevalence in Europe
• What podcasting can learn from radio
• Why Sounds Profitable feels it’s important to be at non-podcast-specific events
• The Podcast Summit at Radiodays

Links:

• Radiodays Europe
• Podcast Show London
• Data Decoded
• Adopt-a-Listener Month
• Sounds Profitable’s research

Credits:

• Hosted by Bryan Barletta, Arielle Nissenblatt, Tom Webster
• Produced by Spooler Media
• Hosted on Art19
• Recorded on SquadCast.fm 
• Edited by Gavin Gaddis

This week, Tom Webster spots a misapplication of podcast research that he felt strongly enough about to hopefully nip in the bud, wherever the bud may be found.

Contact for information about Business Leader Summit in London.

Bumper

Credits:

• Written by Tom Webster
• Edited by Bryan Barletta.
• Assembled with Spooler.fm
• Hosted by ART19
• Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron

Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.

This week on The Download:

• AMERICA bill aims to regulate big ad tech
• Publishers find Q1 numbers not as bad as forecasted
• A deep dive into podcasting in South Korea

Quick Hits:

• Submissions for the Digiday Media and Technology awards are approaching their regular deadline of May 11th. If you’re interested in submitting a podcast to either category, use code soundsprofitable, all one word and lowercase, to take $100 off your submission fee. 
• Rococo Punch launches RP Labs, a vertical dedicated to continuing education audio experiences. Rococo RP Labs announcement
• Audio Insurgent author Eric Nuzum published the text of his seven minute Radiodays Europe speech on market saturation in audio. The speech makes a bold statement: market saturation doesn’t exist for podcasts created by genuinely motivated production teams. 
• Adthos launches self-service AI-generated audio ads for radio, podcast, and streaming. Starting Tuesday, users of the Adthos platform now have access to the ability to generate an audio ad creative from scratch entirely using AI tools, from the script to backing music. 
• TuneIn adds 120,000 audiobooks to premium service, by Matthew Keys. Audio streamer TuneIn has now added a sizeable library of audiobooks. Some classic titles will be available for free, while premium users will have access to the entire collection.

For all links and a full transcript of the episode, visit SoundsProfitable.com/Podcasts

Podcast advertising is in a weird phase. We’re caught between our ideals and our reality; the technical capabilities of the space and the business decisions of the company. That confusion is starting to cost us trust.

• Written by Bryan Barletta
• Edited by Tom Webster
• Assembled with Spooler.fm
• Hosted by ART19
• Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron

Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.

This week on The Download: Google Announces Ad Library, the maturing podcast ad industry attracts more mainstream brands, and Audiobooks could become new audio advertising frontier.

Quick Hits:

Gumball Expands Its Host-Read Podcast Advertising Marketplace Model to YouTube Integrations.

Podcast Company Audacy Shakes Up Its Leadership, Retains Cadence13 Studio by Ashley Carman.

For a full transcript of the episode, links, and other episodes, please visit SoundsProfitable.com/Podcast

Tom Webster recently wrote an article entitled, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Podcasts.” He posits that, while publishers may think they know a lot about their audiences, they don’t really know all that much. He outlines five questions that podcasters can ask of their audience in order to get a better grasp on who they are, what they want, and how the show can potentially appeal to more listeners like them. Arielle Nissenblatt and Tom discuss these five questions and share some more context on how to chat with your audience. Also in this episode, we discuss Sounds Profitable’s “The Medium Moves the Message” research study and Tink Media’s upcoming Adopt a Listener Month initiative.

Listen to learn about: 

• 5 questions you can and should ask your audience
• How to actually get responses from your audience
• Why it’s not enough to just ask “what do you like about my podcast?”
• Why you don’t need this to be a study or have thousands of responses for it to be effective
• What’s coming up at Sounds Profitable

Links:

• Article
• Arielle Nissenblatt
• Tom Webster
• Sounds Profitable’s research

Credits:

• Hosted by Bryan Barletta, Arielle Nissenblatt, Tom Webster
• Produced by Spooler Media
• Hosted on Art19
• Recorded on SquadCast.fm

From an undisclosed location in Prague, Tom Webster reflects on highlights from recent Sounds Profitable research and why it means radio should embrace podcasting.

Credits:

• Written by Tom Webster
• Edited by Gavin Gaddis
• Assembled with Spooler.fm
• Hosted by ART19
• Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron

Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.