Special Guest Bryan Barletta Joins Media Roundtable: Industry Edition; Gen Z’s Podcast Takeover; Hey Riddle Riddle’s Reads Rocket Past The Competition

This week, on the Media Roundtable: Industry Edition, the agents of influence are tackling legitimacy–from partners grading their own homework to watermarking voices. You won’t want to miss it.

Hosting is Oxford Road’s very own Head of Marketing, Jennifer Laine, along with fellow Oxford Road experts Stew Redwine and Neal Lucey. And we’re welcoming special guest Bryan Barletta of Sounds Profitable, a newsletter about the business of podcasting (a must-read if you’re making or spending money on podcasts).

At the top of everyone’s mind:

“Ads: A Netflix Original” – How Netflix builds trust in their new ad-supported tier.
Ghosts in the Machine Learning – Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs’s creepy/cool AI chat.
Frequency Cap Issues? – Checking the data on conventional wisdom.
I Like Those Odds – ESPN + DraftKings = Legitimizing sports betting?

Short on time? A recap of each topic is shared below, but for industry insights, you won’t get anywhere else, hear the full episode by clicking the link below.

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The Classifieds

Minecrafters Build Themselves a Podcast Audience

Gen Z is a newly emerging target demo for advertisers, and simulcast options are a great way to tap into an existing younger YouTube fan base. For this reason, we highlight two YouTuber, video-enabled podcasts in this week’s classifieds. Our first selection comes from Night Media and is hosted by Minecraft YouTubers Sapnap, GeorgeNotFound, and Karl Jacobs. Altogether they boast a combined 18.9 million followers and have been climbing the Spotify charts since the show premiered in September. They’re also seeing high engagement on YouTube, with trending weekly guests such as Mark Cuban, Hasan Piker, and Mr. Beast. The newly released show has many look-alikes that our agency counts as some of its biggest performers in Comedy, Video Games (Leisure), and Society & Culture. Change it up from spectator to adventure mode by clicking below for more details.

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Anonymous Callers Bring Taboo Topics to Light

Joe Santagato is a formidable force in the YouTube sphere, having built an audience of 2.5 million followers over the course of seven years. His podcast, The Basement Yard, is one of our agency’s top performers in the Comedy genre, and clips of it have recently been going mega-viral on TikTok. This newest offering from The Paragon Collective is another of Santagato’s existing channels, co-hosted by Elite Daily managing editor Greg Dybec. Every episode is a mix of interviews with trending micro celebs and anonymous callers with interesting stories and backgrounds, always ending with a shocking look into everyday people’s lives. While not recommended for those seeking purely brand-safe options, this would be a great test for anyone who performs well on similar offerings or in the Comedy genre. Save your money on a collect call and click the link below.

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In Case You Missed It

Podcast Frequency Caps?

This article was brought to the panel by our own Neal Lucey as a potential topic, but unbeknownst to him, the article’s author was to be a guest on this week’s episode. Sounds Profitable analyzed the top 50 podcasts to determine if the industry has a problem with duplicate ads running the same episode of podcasts. Surprisingly, unlike CTV, where it’s common to deliver the same ad multiple times in one episode, the overall finding is that there is not a major issue in Podcast. Phew! The panel goes on to discuss the possibilities of sequential narrative ads that could tell a larger story and how that could be a unique opportunity for the medium, one that few have even tried.

Netflix Ad Free No More

They’ve been hinting at it for months, but Netflix finally unveiled the details on their new ad-supported tier, which comes in at $6.99 per month, which is $1 less than Hulu. But for advertisers, the ad-supported tier has a wildly high $60CPM! The panel discusses how the high price tag may be worth it for some brand advertisers while questioning whether the move will change the quality of content coming from the streaming platform in the future. They go on to discuss how unlike Spotify which is an increasingly walled garden, Netflix has opted into third-party measurement which will give prospective advertisers the assurances that the ads will run where they’re supposed to and confirm ads are viewed according to industry standards. Regardless, the available impressions for streaming advertisers just got a whole lot bigger.

Audio Gets Its Day in the Sun

ANA’s recent message to advertisers is “Audio Is A Powerhouse Medium,” and most brands under-invested in the medium. This week’s panel is full of audio lovers, so as you can imagine, this is music to their ears. As the economic headwinds gain momentum, marketers are looking where to spend their money the smart way, and the case for audio is only getting better as time goes on. Lower cost than other channels, broad reach, intimate connection, and engaged listeners makes it a smart choice. Plus, with improvements in reaching audiences in high-impact moments at scale with unprecedented accuracy due to a clearer picture of listeners over-the-air, digital audio, and podcasts consumption, audio is finally getting the credit it deserves. If you haven’t fully tested into audio – now’s the time.

Place Your Bets

Earlier this month, Ed Hammond and Crystal Tse of Bloomberg covered an anticipated deal between ESPN and sports-betting firm DraftKings. As a result, DraftKings’ stock rose as much as 8.8% in response to the news. This week’s guest, Bryan Barletta, had so much to say on the topic he produced a whole show about it. Business is booming for the sports betting industry, and with its geo-targeted capabilities, Podcast and Streaming Audio are perfect for brands that require geo-specific messaging. The panel talks about the growth of the sports-betting industry and the creative opportunities the emerging audio channels open up. But you don’t have to be a sportsbook marketer to imagine how localized creative could reinvigorate your campaign.

The Rise of The Fake Interview

The Influencer covered the fake, AI-generated interview between Joe Rogan and Steve Jobs in last week’s edition, but we wanted to put it in front of our panel to get their thoughts. While the coolness of the technology is unquestionable, the panel agrees that it opens a Pandora’s box of ethical and legal questions about AI-generated content as a whole. One thing is for certain, the interview is a fascinating 30 mins.

This Week in Great Podcast Reads

He’s a Rocket Money Man

Three of Chicago’s most skilled improv performers have made it their business to solve the most brain-stumping riddles of the modern world. Hey Riddle Riddle is the podcast where you can listen to these sharp minds in action, but more accurately, it’s where you can listen to them run amuck, entertaining you on all topics, not just riddles. If this group’s buffoonery doesn’t keep you engaged—even just a little—you might want to check that your soul is still intact. Take their ad read for Rocket Money, the app that helps you identify and cancel those unwanted subscriptions that seemed to have eluded you for months or longer. Come for the third-rate Elton John impression, and stay for a hard-hitting testimonial expressing all the ways you feel about subscription services (sound effects and all). You won’t understand your true feelings about saving money on subscriptions until you’ve heard them voiced through the mouth of Erin Keif. That’s not part of their act; it’s just what this group does.

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If you’ve read this far, thank you!

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