I'm pretty damn bullish on podcasting. Not just in terms of talking about it, but also in terms of walking it...and by walking, I'm referring to talking and by talking I'm talking about being able to demonstrate its proven ability to draw a quality audience, monetize that audience (input) and generate return on investment in return (output)
Ricky Gervais took his chances by going the paid route and anecdotally evidence has pointed to this being a success (although I'm not convinced) as in season 2's audible/iTunes audiobook rankings and the fact, Gervais didn't bale after 2 episodes i.e. completed 6 recordings.
Australia's The Age wrote this piece on the subject, including a take on the free-fee transition and ask.
The view in the market seems to be that, if you move from a free podcasting service to a paid one, you will lose at least 90 per cent of your audience.
On the flipside is the ability to monetize via marketing/advertising support and sponsorship. That debate hinges around both quantity and quality of audience, together with the ability to move beyond the 30-second audio spot.
ChaosScenario's Paul Herring alerted me to his colleague John Keehler's post and critique on the recent Forrester study which allegedly underplayed the numbers/potential of podcasting listenership.
One thing's for sure, the limited data/metrics available certainly are not going to reward the risk-averse and conservative marketers/agencies out there. My take has been pretty consistent...don't judge podcasting on what it is (or appears to be), but rather on what it could be (and more specifically, what you can make it become)
Recent Comments