A podcasting report released last week by eMarketer suggests advertising is limited but highly effective. Podcast ad revenue is $240 million this year, a 45.5 percent rise from last year, and will reach $435 million in 2012, with 8.8 percent growth.
The low numbers derive from the limited audience, with just over 14 percent of U.S. Internet users downloading podcasts in 2007 according to a Universal McCann report released this month. But that number jumped to 29.5 percent in 2008, which signals a growing audience.
The other good news for podcast publishers is the audience watches the ads. New data from Podtrac and TNS says that unaided awareness for podcast ads is 68 percent, compared with 21 percent for streaming video and 10 percent for TV. “Audiences pay close attention to show content and the embedded ads within them,” said Doug Keith, president of Future Research Consulting. “The high unaided ad recall figures are the result of a less cluttered environment.”
Podcast publishers seek premium prices, but eMarketer says, “Some publishers are still trying to figure out how to price. Podcast advertising networks simplify this, but it can still be tough to gauge ad effectiveness.”
“Podcasting is, by its nature, a niche medium, and this is not likely to change,” said Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer. “But podcasting delivers a level of end-user engagement that is rare in today’s multi-format world.”
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More