9/11, 20 Years Later: Rudy Giuliani joins The Media Roundtable; Joe Rogan Cancelled? Spotify Podcasts Now Available At 30,000 Ft.

The story of America in the last two decades since 9/11 is the story of Rudy Giuliani, who joins us this week at The Media Roundtable.

Our conversation begins in the 1960s, when Guiliani, then a promising young Democrat, meets two men he admires: John and Bobby Kennedy. Two decades later, Guiliani is U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York prosecuting the heads of the five families, when John Gotti motions to order his assassination. Fast forward to 2001, we all know Giuliani’s role on 9/11 as the picture of leadership during a crisis, earning him recognition as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, being knighted by the Queen, and dubbed, “America’s Mayor” by Oprah. The morning of our interview, he retraces his steps in Lower Manhattan, reliving his experience of that fateful day. Nowadays, Rudy describes how some people run up to hug and thank him for his leadership, while at the same time, others yell expletives that he is unwilling to repeat.

For those of us who long to recreate an age where our leaders set aside personal differences to stand united in the face of an existential threat, Rudy Giuliani will not be of service. His podcast, Common Sense, features a steady stream of unfiltered claims against leading Democratic figures. Spoiler Alert: Rudy does not like the Bidens. As a podcaster, his goal is to provide information that The New York Times will not. While Giuliani’s placement on the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart ranks the show on par with Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper, advertisers who might consider alignment with his program must count the risks of his position on the right as commentator and participant.

The search for a modern unifying figure in America feels like an acid trip through a house of mirrors. The Rudy Giuliani we see today is beleaguered, but defiant, resembling more of the New York Prosecutor of the 80’s than the unifying figure we met on September 11th, 2001, but this time, without backing from the halls of power.

Rudy explains that in recent times, people on the left will approach him and ask why he changed so much. He responds, “I haven’t changed. You have.” As we look back on the last twenty years, Rudy Giuliani serves as a figure who, for better or worse, is woven through some of the most significant moments of our nation’s history, and forces us to confront our divisions head-on.

Listen on Spotify

The Classifieds

The Day That Shook The Nation Turns 20

This Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks on 9/11. Whether you were in NYC that day, watching it unfold on TV, or have only heard stories about it because you were too young–9/11 will always be a pivotal point in American history. For the anniversary, Amazon Music & Wondery is releasing a seven-part podcast series named, 9/12. Hosted by host Dan Taberski (Missing Richard Simmons, Surviving Y2K, Running From ‘Cops’), the show examines how 9/11 shaped American culture in the two decades since it happened. This is the type of show that garners a lot of attention but may not drive the directly attributable performance you would expect for personality-driven programming. So we’ll limit this one to advertisers looking for a safe play seeking a potentially massive audience.

Get The Deal

Bachelor Nation Unites To Talk it Out

This may come as a surprise to podcast intellectuals – but some of the top-performing shows for many of our advertisers are hosted by either Real Housewives or Bachelors/Bachelorettes. Cadence13, in partnership with Warner Bros Entertainment, has joined forces to add another title to this list of performers with Talking It Out. Hosted by Mike Johnson, the breakout star of season 15 of The Bachelorette, and Dr. Bryan Absaolo, the winner of season 13, the former Bachelorette contestants won’t just be talking about their time on the show, but also taking a deep dive into the male psyche, providing advice, and sitting down with special guests who help them learn, reflect and “talk it out”. But if you’re an advertiser looking to reach a rabidly loyal female audience, don’t just talk about it, click below to sponsor this sure-fire win.

Get The Deal

In Case You Missed It

Did Joe Rogan Lose His Spotify Deal?

The simple answer is no! A story from Patheos that took the Twitter world by storm last week turned out to be completely farcical. The story says that Rogan lost his multi-million dollar contract with the Swedish streaming giant due to a morality clause stemming from his avocation of the horse de-wormer, Ivermectin after being diagnosed with COVID last month. If it sounds like an article on The Onion, you’re close. The site on which the article was posted is satirical and the article quotes “Andrew Canard” as Spotify CEO: Andrew is also quoted by Patheos in other stories as a vet, a land-owner, an attorney, a researcher, a catholic teacher, a pastor, a reporter, a judge, CEO of Fox News, and PM of The Netherlands. Canard isn’t any of those either. So fans of “The Experience” rest assured that Rogan isn’t going anywhere for now.

Podcast Joins The Mile High Club

Speaking of Spotify, here’s some real news about their increasingly massive podcast distribution platform. Beginning last week, Spotify launched a new partnership with Delta in which they will take over the “audio” section of the airline’s in-flight seatback entertainment. This means passengers on Delta flights that are equipped with seatback entertainment globally can now enjoy their favorite audio content in the form of mixtapes curated by Spotify’s editorial experts—along with 42 select podcast series to choose from. For advertisers on the platform, this means a captive audience of potential new listeners to the shows you’re already advertising on. The sky’s the limit.

Facebook Struggles To Prove Their Worth

Since Apple’s release of iOS 14.5 in April, Facebook advertisers have been struggling to find a way to measure the results from their ad campaigns, and four months later, it’s not getting any better. According to a recent article in AdAge, “(14.5) is making it more difficult to do even the most basic analysis, like detecting whether a consumer who saw an ad was the same person who made a purchase.” And Facebook’s proposed fix, using statistical modeling, is making too many assumptions in the eyes of many advertisers. While the geniuses in Mountainview scramble to find a way to fill in the gaps made from Apple’s privacy changes, many advertisers are redirecting ad dollars to more traditional platforms like radio, TV, and podcast.

Rick and Bubba Love Moink

Free Bacon! If there are two better words to drive direct response, we’re all ears. In a recent episode of Rick & Bubba University, the hosts belted out a near textbook ad-read for our client Moink, who offers the highest quality beef, chicken, pork, lamb, and salmon delivered directly to your door while fighting for family farms. Not only did the hosts nail the key benefits of choosing Moink for all of your meat delivery needs, but they also made listeners salivate over the way it tastes in a fun and entertaining way. It’s no wonder this show is performing so well.

Listen Here

OXFORd In The News

Whiskey Business

Oxford Road Ad agency founder, and CEO, Dan Granger joined The Fred Minnick Show while traveling through the hills of Tennessee to sip some ultra-rare bourbon, and chat about the ad business. Whether you’re curious about President Roosevelt’s role in American Whiskey, why distillers added rattlesnakes to whiskey in the 1800s, or what the future holds for the podcast industry, this episode covers it all.

If you’ve read this far, thank you!

The Influencer is a production from the team at Oxford Road.
If you like our sometimes sassy, mostly informed POVs on the wonderful world of audio advertising, you should see what we do for our clients.

Interested in seeing how we could help your business?
Contact us at influencer@oxfordroad.com!