The Podcast Sponsorship Model
Podcasting continues to grow in reach and influence. With this growth there’s a new increasing interest in how to do advertising placements in this medium. We’ve been exploring this problem for some time now and are actively working on solutions to assist in the process.
ClickZ has a quick look into the process of securing placement for their client, Travelocity. As noted:
There's no formula to our approach, but I figured I could share how we made this sponsorship happen.The first thing you need to know is, at this point, this is a very manual process. There are podcasting networks that can make it easier for you to sponsor podcasts, but they’re still pretty early in their development. A few of the networks include Podtrac, Kiptronic, The Podcast Network, and PodShow. You’ll probably want to try the networks, but do some exploring on your own as well.
They go on to add 3 steps to their process:
- Find top-ranked podcasts
- Listen and evaluate
- Contact and negotiate
One point I do take issue with is the absolute correlation of good quality with credible content. In my opinion, the two have nothing to do with each other. You can have great quality while the content is worthless and vice versa. Our new medium is not about perfection - sometimes it’s even on purpose. I’m listening to Adam Curry go on now about the “beauty” of podcasting meaning it need not be perfect.
If advertisers are seeking perfection before they make placements, they have a long road to travel. Of course, there’s no way to deny that those shows, even without the best quality, are still gathering and growing audiences.