2023 Truly Begins; A New Voice For The Influencer Team; Call it Podcast Call it YouTube - it Works; The Upside of a Down Economy

Does it feel like 2023 yet?

Yes, we celebrated the arrival of 2023 earlier this month, but there is always a period in which the previous and current years overlap. Remembering to write the correct year on your checks at the supermarket used to mark the true beginning, at least mentally. But now it seems many are stuck in limbo.

Here at The Influencer, we’re officially announcing that 2023 is here. If by the last full week of January, you’re still wishing people “Happy New Year,” if your holiday decorations are still out, and please, dear reader, if you’re STILL running “New Year, New You” creative in the market, it’s time to pack it all away ‘till next January.

It’s the same for us. In the first part of this month, we focused on recaps & prognostications, and now we’re getting back to normal–actually better than normal. We’re proud to announce that we wrangled Oxford Road’s strategy guru Neal Lucey to the team to curate our “In Case You Missed Its.” As always, Spencer Semonson will continue to share unbiased show opportunities you won’t find anywhere else, and Antonio Coronado will continue to scour airchecks to find the best podcast reads of the week. The team is better than ever, and we hope that you find our newsletter even more informative and, hopefully just as entertaining.

So here’s to the true beginning of 2023 – Happy New Year (okay last one). –Kyle Jelinek – Editor in Chief

The Classifieds

OBGYN Shows That YouTube is Merely Child’s Play

As the conversation builds around YouTube’s viability for direct marketers, agencies are paying more attention to what’s already seeing success. This week we’re bringing you two YouTube-specific opportunities with open availability in Q1. Our first selection comes from the Health & Wellness category and is hosted by Dr. Jones, a board-certified OBGYN and mother of four. Available through the influencer network Select Partnerships, Jones’ videos cover topics that affect most people with a uterus, including childbirth, STIs, and period pain. She also reacts to popular media and gives her informed, expert analysis in lieu of the misinformation we often hear. This channel boasts a whopping 1.25m subscribers and has a large female skewing audience predominantly in the 25-34 age range. If you’re a babe in the woods looking for some help, click the link below.

Get The Deal

Movies So Bad They’re Good Again

During the height of the pandemic, many young professionals turned to comfort YouTubers to entertain themselves while working from home. A rising star during that time was Nick DiRamio, an incisive, funny, and consistent TV & Film commentator. The former production makeup artist has amassed an audience of 314k subscribers in only two years and has gained a loyal following from dissecting popular YouTubers’ content. His commentary series on bad movies, called Clip Breakdown, has become a great option for many direct-response advertisers. DiRamio is a unique critic, able to deliver constant jokes while proving to be extremely knowledgeable on film production, gaffes, and script doctoring. This opportunity is best suited for an LGBTQIA+ Gen Z or younger Millennial audience who love comedy and online drama. Get your popcorn to join in on the watch party below.

Get The Deal

In Case You Missed It

Spotify Layoffs

Spotify has announced that they are cutting 6% of their workforce due to the current economic climate. This is part of a larger trend of tech layoffs across the industry.

With the pandemic accelerating the listenership of digital audio, Spotify took a bullish approach with acquisitions and investments in big-name content producers – namely Joe Rogan. Fast forward to today and advertisers are reducing spending in an uncertain economy plus Shopify has redundancies as a result of recent acquisitions – e.g., Chartable & Podsights. The layoffs are not all that surprising especially considering the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are also reducing headcount.

Oxford Road sees an upside for marketers as Podcast is moving from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. Brands can be increasingly bullish on the channel for their purposes while acknowledging the growing pains that many suppliers are going through.

Read More

Podcast; A Buyers Market Again?

Springboarding off the previous article, we’ve been talking a lot about the state of Podcast lately. Using Indeed (Oxford Road client) job listings, the number of podcast job openings has declined. This is driven home by Spotify’s news and layoffs at other audio organizations such as SiriusXM, Acast, and NPR.

Despite recent headwinds, Podcast advertising is expected to grow to $2.3 billion in spending by the end of 2023, according to eMarketer; it’s just slower growth than we’ve seen in the past. Companies like iHeartMedia, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal are even expanding their teams and growing. In fact, this recent article from Digiday cites that iHeart’s podcast revenue grew 42% year over year.

For advertisers, these ups and downs are a good thing; rates go down, CPMs decrease, and greater efficiencies can be gained. The spoils will go to those who are most aggressive or have negotiating leverage.

Read More

Where Did All of the New Podcasts Go?

An article by the Nieman Lab asks, “where did all the new podcasts go?” In 2022, there were 219,000 new podcasts launched, a significant drop from the explosive growth of 1,109,000 new podcasts in 2020. However, the massive spike in new content in 2020 was undoubtedly driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the lower 2022 numbers indicate things may be returning to normal.

Marketers may wonder if this fewer number of new podcasts means the medium is past its heyday. But the reality is that podcasts have grown significantly from around 800,000 in 2019 to over 4 million in 2022. Similarly, podcast listenership has also increased, but the growth in available content has far outpaced audience growth. In 2019, there were roughly 40 unique listeners per podcast, compared to less than ten unique listeners per podcast in 2022. Fewer new podcasts being introduced is not necessarily an alarming development given the large amount of available content.

Read More

What is Old is New Again

Where do you find new music? For decades it was local radio, and a recent article from Billboard suggests it may be again. The article covers the success of two public radio stations, KEXP and KUTX, and their commitment to introducing new music to their audiences and details how they were able to grow their audiences and support new music.

It’s refreshing in 2023 to see that new music can still be found on the radio, albeit on a relatively small scale and primarily within public radio. While ad spending in audio has shifted to digital and will continue to do so, the reach of terrestrial is still unmatched, even if most commercial stations stick to tried and true playlists.

Read More

This Week in Great Podcast Reads

Hala Taha is a Shopify Fanatic

Find someone who gets your brand and captures it with the same excitement and pure joy that Hala Taha does for Shopify. If we didn’t write the copy and place the ad on her podcast Young and Profiting ourselves, we’d swear she was Shopify’s official spokesperson. We could go on about how her read for the all-in-one global commerce platform makes you experience the rush she feels using it, even going so far as to mention the dopamine hit she gets whenever someone makes an order on her site. We could also gush about her expert testimonial, with all the specifics to make it real and, more importantly, relatable. The way she underscores how quick and easy it was for her to set up chat is a perfect example of repetition. Or we could discuss how the read flows perfectly into the theme of her podcast, making dreams into actionable steps. But better yet, listen for yourself and tell us your thoughts. If you agree with us, then let Young and Profiting’s host take action toward your brand’s dreams.

Listen Here

Contact us for a Consultation 

OXFORd In The News

The Latest in Our Brand Safety Crusade

Dan Granger, CEO, and Founder of Oxford Road, shared his observations on the growing popularity of audio ads in a recent interview with MarTech. Dan emphasizes the importance of brand safety and suitability, ad delivery verification, and international podcasting for businesses investing in audio initiatives. He also recommends best practices for companies looking to boost their audio ad goals and plans and expresses his thoughts on the future of the B2B tech/MarTech-AdTech industry.

Read More