The Other Lindsay Graham Joins The Media Roundtable; Your Quick Guide to The Podcast Upfronts; How to Not Be A Glasshole

They say history repeats itself, so there may be no better person than American history aficionado and podcast mastermind Lindsay Graham to show us what we have in store for the future of the medium. Lindsay’s podcast pedigree is unmatched, with nearly everything he touches worthy of sponsorship consideration for most advertisers. This week, he gives an insider’s look at the myriad of things it takes to make a great podcast and what he desperately needs from the brands he endorses.

Lindsay Graham (the podcaster, not the other one) has had a chart-topping rise to podcast prominence at the same time as the podcast industry itself broke into the mainstream.

Over the last past few years, Graham has evolved into a podcasting titan. He’s the Webby Award-winning host of American History Tellers, American Scandal, and American Elections: Wicked Game. He’s also the executive producer of scripted podcasts 1865 and Terms and has worked on Dirty John and Dr. Death, among many others. Needless to say, Lindsay Graham has impacted tens of millions of listeners through his work.

Tune in to our conversation for gems such as why our nation’s messy history is a comfort during troubling times (which period is the best analog for our current polarization), and what one change to the country’s history he thinks would’ve had the greatest impact on racial inequality today. Along the way, you’ll also learn how the industry has changed during his watch, the hallmarks of his productions, and tells advertisers exactly what he needs to make a great ad read.

Click below for the entire fascinating chat with a podcaster who is unparalleled at making sure the past can speak to us now.

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The Classifieds

Put The Podcast in The Basket

The spooky season is right around the corner, so the timing is perfect for Where the Bodies are Buried, a first-of-its-kind True Crime podcast that features renowned serial killer profiler Phil Chalmers. Each episode features Phil conducting behind bars interviews with incarcerated psychopathic serial killers. His unprecedented connections within the prison system coupled with his law enforcement relationships and the entrusted “friendships” he’s made with notorious killers provide this series access to information thought otherwise impossible to obtain. True Crime kills it (pun not intended) for most of our response-driven campaigns, so you won’t want to miss out on testing this one.

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You Shouldn’t Miss Out on the King of FOMO

Calling all clients who are targeting entrepreneurs & multi-taskers: We just learned something new: The term FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) was coined in 2004 by Patrick J McGinnis, venture capitalist and author of The 10% Entrepreneur. Eighteen years later, Patrick is back in the FOMO game with his new podcast FOMO Sapiens. Each week, Patrick talks to leaders in business, entrepreneurship, politics, and culture about how they choose from among the many opportunities in their busy lives and find the courage to miss out on the rest. Marketers, particularly in the B2B space, will not want to experience FOMO by not testing this show (pun intended), so hit us up for the details.

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In Case You Missed It

Podcast Upfront Cliff’s Notes

The podcast industry united virtually again this year to discuss all things podcast for IAB’s 2021 Podcast Upfronts. While Oxford Road advertisers can get a more detailed overview of this year’s proceedings based on our team’s involvement in the event, Digiday has curated its snapshot of everything that transpired.

For us, it’s bizarre that Digiday and other companies are talking about contextual targeting in podcasts as a “substitution for programmatic.” Podcast has been built on contextual targeting. We know the mind frame and appetite of an audience listening to a true-crime show, or a self-improvement show, or an investing show. That’s part of the power of the channel. Contextual has been, or should always have been, part of any smart marketers’ podcast plans. Contextual is not a substitution for programmatic. Programmatic is a substitution for contextual, or rather, it will perhaps be found to be a satisfactory substitution for it and for authentic host endorsement and enthusiasm. Programmatic has a long way to go in podcasting.

As usual, this is paid lip service to and casually glossed over, but any performance marketer worth their salt knows this data is over-hyped and often best avoided. This article from Forbes makes the point clearly; an academic study found a single digital data point – gender – was correct only 42% of the time. To summarize, pre-recorded host read ads can work, and the industry’s rush into ever-more supposed efficiency can’t be stopped, but there are and always will be some holdouts, that recognize the value of real, authentic, passionate product endorsement. If advertisers can’t get that on podcast anymore, many may start looking to other influencer channels, which if things continue, would be a legitimate substitution.

The Sound of Dunkin’

Dunkin’ Donuts recently drove 238% higher engagement with audio ads while piloting a new solution that dynamically matches ad content to what the user is listening to in real-time. According to MarketingDive.com, the test used an AI platform to match the background music of the ads to the content in which the ads were being served. In addition to making the ads less disruptive by matching the tone of the content on which they’re delivered, the AI integration reportedly reduced production times by up to 95% when compared with traditional methods. Everything is dynamic, and while we won’t trust the words we say to AI technology just yet, it seems it’s doing a fine job at making your ads work just a little bit better.

Big Brother & Chad Are Watching

Smart Glasses were the talk of the tech world a few years back when Google introduced Google Glass in 2014. The problem; they were too expensive and they made you look like a tool (or as the recent NYT article more accurately describes, a “Glasshole”). Enter Facebook’s partnership with RayBan. The tech and eyeglass giants have teamed up to create smart glasses that retail for under $300 and allow you to take pictures and video while streaming your favorite podcasts. Will the ease of using your favorite shades increase the time spent in audio? Probably. But as our virtual and reality lives meld together in a Ready Player One-esque world, at least we’ll look like Chad’s and not Glassholes.

Joe Rogan – Still Not Cancelled (Retraction)

In last week’s edition, we shared an article about Joe Rogan’s reported cancellation of his contract with Spotify. While we correctly declared that the rumors stemming from a post on Patheos.com were completely farcical, we neglected to acknowledge the fact that the primary source of this knowledge came from an article written by the folks at Podnews who broke the story last week. Thank you, Podnews for your continued efforts to report on all things in the world of podcasting.

A Gross, Great Ad Read

When you’re doing an ad for the bidet that saves your ass, saves your money, saves the planet, and saves the world, potty humor is not only likely, it’s encouraged. Last week, host Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal of Blocked and Reported jumped in head first as they recorded their most recent ad for Tushy. While it’s definitely not the type of ad you want to hear at the dinner table, the hosts nailed all of the copy points while creating banter that showcased the product in a highly entertaining way. This investment was definitely not flushed down the toilet.

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OXFORd In The News

Leverage Podcast Marketing

With more than 117 million monthly listeners in the US alone, podcasting has officially become the next billion-dollar industry, becoming one of the most viable and exciting channels for brand growth. Join Oxford Founder and CEO Dan Granger and a panel of industry experts for an hour-long conversation on how they have successfully helped hundreds of marketers integrate podcasts in their marketing plans and share the lessons they have uncovered along the way.

If you’ve read this far, thank you!

The Influencer is a production from the team at Oxford Road.
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