Media Roundtable’s Podcast Movement Industry Edition; For 2023 Planning, Oxford Road’s Greatest Hits; Redwine Drops Some Historical Ad Knowledge

Media Roundtable Industry Edition returns this week, with the entire panel just back from their trip to Podcast Movement 22.

Host Jennifer Laine leads this week’s discussion with Roundtable veteran Dan Granger and newcomers Tamara Zubatiy from Barometer and Oxford Road’s Gary Brown.

The show begins with the panel discussing the biggest news of his year’s Podcast Movement; Ben Shapiro’s unannounced appearance and the social media s#*t storm that transpired.

At the time of the recording, Podcast Movement hadn’t openly discussed their stance on the misinformed apology but has since addressed the situation on Twitter. It seems like they’re on the right track, though not without fallout.

After putting the elephant in the room to bed (hopefully for the last time), the team discusses other hot news items of the day, including Twitter’s dance with Podcast, Snap Chat’s financial woes, Cadence13 going Hollywood, and Veritone’s AI box of possibilities.

Click below to hear the whole episode, or check out the articles discussed below for those short on time.

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The Classifieds

We Found a Classified

This week we are highlighting some top performers across our agency. Our first selection comes from the folks at Dear Media, a network representing a large selection of female-hosted offerings that appeal to women at every stage of their lives. On We Met At Acme, host Lindsey Metselaar destigmatizes and fully explores tough to talk about subjects such as sex, relationships, and being vulnerable. She often interviews other podcast hosts, authors, experts, and coaches, in a very relatable and honest environment. We will often recommend this podcast for clients who have a target audience that skews female and listens to society and culture and relationship advice type shows. This show always sells out, so now is the time to discuss the 2023 annuals. If you want to reach this coveted audience, please see below for more details

Get The Deal

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Another amazing internal performer from the sports genre, Harris Fantasy Football Podcast, has just celebrated 100 episodes. This genre has many options, especially ones centering around American football, yet Harris has always differentiated itself by having an effective, bright, personable host. Sold independently, and heavily sponsored by DraftKings, the show does exceptionally well through the NFL season. Regardless of the time of year, host Christopher Harris creates weekly hour-long episodes broaching topics such as recent news, sports history, future prospects, and the mechanics of fantasy football. Multiple clients have already found great success on the show, often booking annuals through the end of the year. With the 2022 NFL season kicking off tomorrow, now’s the time to get off the bench. Click below for more information.

Get The Deal

In Case You Missed It

Podcasts are Coming to Twitter

Announced last week, podcasts will now appear in Twitter’s redesigned “Spaces” tab, but you’ll be unable to choose individual shows: the interface gives pre-selected shows in topic-based playlists called “Stations.” It uses RSS feeds and is curated from what the people you follow are listening to. Twitter offers no search facility or ability to add your own RSS feeds, which significantly limits the platform as a legitimate content source. Our take is that while Twitter’s involvement in podcasts will undoubtedly help promote the medium, the way they’re going about it seems counter to how podcasts are typically shared and therefore lacks scale opportunity.

Snap Reducing Headcount by 20%

Snap is reducing its headcount by 20% and restructuring its ads team. The social space is increasingly tough, and increased competition and privacy concerns make it tough to monetize. But perhaps the more interesting takeaway is that some of the upcoming apps (LiveIn, Locket) lean more towards authentic connection rather than the traditional follower counts and self-promotion that make social media (shall we say) unfulfilling.

Cadence13 Goes Hollywood

Premium podcast studio, Cadence13 has hired Hollywood executive Patton Valentine to oversee IP adaptation strategy across its original content divisions. Cadence13 plans to adapt its audio documentary and scripted storytelling IP into the world of film and television, with several projects in work now. We’re going to start seeing more new podcast shows designed with the sole purpose of converting to television shows. The trick will be figuring out which ones are most likely to do so and negotiating baked-in ads so that 2nd and 3rd shelf life comes into play for advertisers. Stay tuned.

Veritone’s AI Voice Network

Veritone’s Voice Network now offers creators a multilingual custom A.I. voice solution and podcast monetization service that combines synthetic voice creation and AI translation services to localize podcasts. A.I. has gone from beating humans at Chess, then beating them at Go, to solving a problem in 48 hours that molecular biologists have struggled with for 50 years. Interest in A.I. has tapered since it seemed to plateau in the late ’10s with accomplishments like identifying objects in images. But it’s not going away. Capabilities are, instead, accelerating, and they will continue to. It’s the most important tech of our time. Brands’ applications will also rapidly grow better chatbots, A.I. script generation, optimization, and better attribution. Don’t stop paying attention to this one.

Delivering a Scalpel to Comedy

According to Edison Research, Comedy has topped the Q2 2022 podcast genre charts in the U.S. The team discusses that while some advertisers stay away from Comedy podcasts altogether due to brand safety concerns, with tools like Barometer, you can easily navigate the vast comedy podcast world while adhering to your brand’s values.

Help Your 🌎 While Helping Your💰

It’s hard to go wrong with a host whose personal values align with the brand they’re promoting. It’s especially hard when that host has built a loyal following around sharing those values on their weekly podcast. You might even say much of the heavy lifting has been done by the time she reads the copy. At least, that seems to be the case with Laura Diez’s endorsement for Aspiration Zero, a credit card that fights climate change by planting two trees for every swipe. Laura’s podcast, Eco Chic leaves no stone unturned when it comes to living climate-conscious; from fashion to food to justice, she covers it all. That’s what makes her Aspiration Zero read feel so effortless. She’s worked with Aspiration Zero before, and she believes in their model. But more importantly, she believes in the bigger picture, and that says it all.

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OXFORd In The News

100th Anniversary of the First Radio Commercial

On this week’s episode of Sounds Profitable, Oxford Road’s very own VP of Creative Services, Stew Redwine, joins Bryan Barletta to discuss the 100th Anniversary of the First Commercial Radio Broadcast. WEAF in NY aired the first paid radio commercial on August 28th, 1922. Stew & Bryan discuss what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and how Mark Twain’s quote about history holds true for audio advertising, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

If you’ve read this far, thank you!

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