Live from SXSW Part II: Preserving Trust as Podcast meets Adtech; Netflix and Disney Jump on The AdWagon: Facebook Hates Podcasts

This week we’re serving up a panel discussion with some of the leading minds of the industry, from last month’s SXSW for you to feast upon. Oxford Road’s Jennifer Laine sits down with industry experts Bryan Barletta founder of Sounds Profitable, iHeart Radio’s Chief Creative Officer, and self-proclaimed recovering Creative, Rahul Sabnis, and Ph.D., Engineer, and Polarization Expert, Kevin Kells to discuss the state of Podcast and what’s next in the medium.

“14 years in ad tech and all I’ve watched is people kick things down the road. There’s not a lot of money in transparency”

-Bryan Bartletta

Together these deep thinkers and far-seers examine podcast industry trends from every angle and look into the future of the industry they’re collectively shaping.

Tune in to hear:

How brands are managing values and customer trust while advertising in podcasts
How Podcasts Influence real-world behavior
The good bad and ugly about Ad Tech in Podcast
How voice is the key to trust in the Metaverse
How Brands can use context to set tolerance levels in media planning

You’re not going to want to miss this week’s episode. Click below to hear the entire conversation.

Listen to the Interview

The Classifieds

These Stories are Bearley Believable

Our partners at QCode have recently accrued the next big comedic educational podcast hit and it concerns tales of human suffering at the behest of our many four-legged friends. Wildlife biologist and animal behavior expert Wes Larson, his brother Jeff, and their friend Mike, spend each episode deciphering recent animal attacks (from bears and gorillas all the way through camels and squirrels) to figure out what humans can do to be more vigilant, learned, and experienced in similar situations. Though extremely specific in its choice of topic the show covers a broad range of genres, from education to science to comedy. Similar shows with this type of content have been heavily rebooked for several of our clients. The show is still small but will have a substantial marketing push, so Q2 may allow for low pricing as it climbs the charts. Invest in some bear spray, make yourself look big, and stay safe by clicking below for details.

Get The Deal

XXY Examines the ABCs of True Crime

Though women have historically been the target listeners of true crime they are oftentimes only portrayed as the victims in those same stories. True Crime Obsessed co-host Gillian Pensavalle wants to shine a bright light on that fact in her new podcast from the folks over at Audioboom. On Pensavalle’s newest show she will interview actual detectives, witnesses, and central figures in some of the least covered criminal cases, with the distinction that they’re all women. The first season launches on 4/28 and will look at ten women and their roles in catching criminals and finding their own versions of justice. TCO is one of the highest performance drivers of the agency and is in great demand throughout this year, and this newest series will surely also have the same heavily skewed female millennial audience. If you want to test this game-changing opportunity I’ll give you a clue: click below for more details.

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In Case You Missed It

Podcast and Radio Listeners NEED Their Content

iHeartMedia and PMX, the investment arm of Publicis Media, recently shared the results of their, “Exploring The Brand Benefits of Trust and Companionship in Audio” study which focused on how audio influencers are perceived by the listeners of their content. The results conclude what we’ve known all along; radio hosts are deemed authentic, and podcast hosts are perceived as highly honest and trustworthy.

The study goes on to dig into specific data on the above:

55% of participants said they listen to commercials more often on radio and in podcasts
53% found radio and podcast advertisements to be more relevant
51% said they are more trusting of radio and podcast advertisers
Podcast listeners are 158% more likely than listeners of other audio platforms to say they listen “to immerse myself;”
67% of podcast listeners and 74 percent of heavy podcast listeners say that podcasts “motivate and inspire me;”
71% of podcast listeners and 79% of heavy podcast listeners say that podcasts “educate/teach me something new”

CMO of iHeartMedia, Gayle Troberman refers to this relationship between audio hosts and their listeners as the “Trust Halo”. If you’d like to learn more about how you can firmly wrap this halo around your brand, let’s chat.

Crossing Streams

Netflix and Disney+ have long declared that they would never bring ads to their precious platforms. But in light of the current economy and Netflix’s first subscriber decline in a decade, the premium streaming giants are (finally) taking another look at Madison Avenue. Now claiming that while he’s not a fan of the complexity involved in adding advertising to the platform, Netflix’s co-chief executive, Reed Hastings now says the company is looking into a lower-priced tier supported by ads “over the next year or two.” Last month, a spokesperson for “The Mouse’s” streaming service announced that it would introduce a lower-price advertising tier to Disney+, explaining that it would be a “building block in the company’s path to achieving” its subscription targets. This opens up a huge potential for advertisers looking to tap into Netflix and Disney’s collective subscribers of over 350m worldwide. If you haven’t blasted off into OTT advertising yet, the universe is about to get a lot bigger really soon.

Facebook’s Fickle Relationship With Podcasts

Last June, Facebook made headlines with their announcement of Live Audio Rooms and podcasts integration in an effort to bring social audio experiences to the platform, but now it seems like the social media giant has drastically shifted focus. Despite growing interest in the Podcast space from YouTube, Spotify, and a million other companies (give or take), Meta is quietly turning its attention away from podcasts altogether and shifting focus towards the metaverse, e-commerce, and short-video projects. For podcast advertisers, this means nothing because Facebook really hasn’t done anything meaningful with the space, it’s just another reason to not like them.

A Film Buff’s Favorite Brush

Chances are you don’t celebrate your oral hygiene at length. Unless… you’re Jeff Cannata, one of the hosts of The Filmcast (AKA The Slashfilmcast), and you use an electric toothbrush like quip. The actor and longtime film and TV enthusiast kicks off his ad read for quip with a dynamic testimonial that reveals just why he’s used quip every single day for years. It’s hard to argue with Substantiation like this. Jeff has hosted The Filmcast, alongside David Chen and Devindra Hardawar, for years so you’re in good hands when it comes to taste be it TV or toothpaste.

Listen Here

OXFORd In The News

Winning In Your Category with Dan Granger and Tony Durso

We shared the whole interview a couple of weeks back but the final video version of Dan Granger’s appearance on the popular Tony DUrso show dropped this week. Tune in to watch the Oxford Road Story and how we’ve helped hundreds of DTC companies scale their efforts in audio using Podcast, Radio, Streaming, Connected Voice and more.

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!