In Digital Podcast 43, I take a quick tour through the history of media to examine how the economics of the industry are changing. I kept the video under the 10 minute YouTube limit and speed through some of the changes.

Fundamentally, we are entering a new era of media economics where supply is outstripping demand. We are on the verge of seeing what I believe will be hyper-deflation in impression based economics. There is simply too much supply and not enough demand. Consumers are increasingly unwilling to spend time watching ads to consume media. The alternatives for consumers are expanding every day and the media companies are struggling to keep up.

Media companies need to rethink their business models. They need to get beyond impression based business models and figure out community based business models that use media content as the centerpiece of social conversation. When the industry figures out the potential for communities to make make good money, I believe we will see the industry revive and go on to some remarkable things. Until then, look out. The hyper-deflation we are seeing in music will spread to video and if the industry does not adjust, it is in for a bad time.

Please let us know what you think.

 

 Digital Podcast 43: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

[tags]media economics, podcast[/tags]

Last week I attended Graphing Social Patterns West and reported on the sessions that took place down in San Diego. It was a great event with lots of content.

After a bit of reflection, these are my top 10 takeaways from the event.

1. Hollywood and Video Game Players were MIA. I went through the attendee list and could not find anyone in attendance from traditional media or big gaming companies like Disney/ABC, NBC Universal, CBS, Activision, EA etc. The only person from a traditional media company was a developer from Condenast. Given the amount of time people are spending on these social networks and the growth of social gaming, the social networks are perhaps some of the biggest competitive threats and opportunities for traditional media. I was shocked by the chasm between the techies and the media.
2. The social application space has gotten big fast and will get a lot bigger. Over the past 8 months, the Facebook application space has exploded and real companies have emerged to take advantage of the space. This is only going to get bigger as OpenSocial opens up more networks and data portability finally starts being a reality.
3. Social objects are at the center of healthy micro-communities. I had not thought about this before, but social networks are not just about looking at each other, talking to each other and helping each other. Social objects like books, movies, cars, etc. are powerful mechanisms for building networks that link together people who don’t know each other.
4. OpenSocial apps will grow rapidly in next six months. For the past few months, OpenSocial has been in a development mode. In the coming weeks, it will be released at MySpace an other places opening up huge new markets.
5. MySpace will get Facebook like functionality. I got this from listening to what seemed to be a subtle conversation about the differences in the platforms and concerns by the Facebook app developers that MySpace had been self expression oriented and that Facebook had been communication oriented. Whether true or not, it seems that the effect of the open APIs will be to make all of the social networks more alike through the integration of third party applications that plug functionality gaps. No one talked about this explicitly, but when I brought it up with some of the leading developers I would get knowing smiles, but no comments.
6. There’s money to be made, and advertising is only part of it. Virtual goods and virtual currencies are a very important part of the social business model. Advertising will play a big role, but it’s not the only way to monetize the communities that are being built by these applications.
7. Social shopping is coming soon. Facebook will add credit card functionality and with it will come social shopping. Look for this to emerge later this year.
8. Social networks are a powerful new force for fund raising. Beth Kanter showed that she could use social networking and social media to raise $200,000. The Obama campaign seems to be using it to raise huge amounts of money. Every organization that needs to raise money should be paying attention.
9. We need better data. The data we get now is ok, but we need more if we are going to be able to learn and drive innovation systematically. We need data beyond page views. We need data that reflects on not just users, but also social objects.
10. Social application development is a learnable skill. Stanford is teaching it and I’m sure other schools will too. Stanford was able to teach students to develop 50 applications and learned a lot by sharing experiences. This means that others can do this too. This is good news for traditional media as their content can be at the center of the social object, and a good social object is the basis for the good application. It’s also good news for organizations that need to raise money or that want to use social networking to build their relationships with other stakeholders.

 

 Digital Podcast 42 [15:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In Digital Podcast 41, we connect with Wizzard Media’s CEO Chris Spencer to talk about podcast based advertising. As Chris puts it, how else can you advertise on an iPod.

We cover some of the history of Wizzard and how they have brought together some of the most popular podcast hosting companies such as Libsyn and SwitchPod, and built a podcast advertising network to go with it.

The show focuses on podcast based advertising and in particular we discuss the two advertising campaigns Wizzard is running for the US Navy.

 

 Digital Podcast 41 [56:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The first of those ran on 20 podcasts with wide distribution and focused on recruitment. The current campaign is much more focused and is running on 7 podcasts. It focuses on recruiting medical personnel.

We get into some good detail about how the process works, what Wizzard does and what podcasters have to do to make it all work. We talk numbers and Chris tells us how different ads support different CPMs, depending upon their placement and whether they are audio or video. Videos commands the highest CPMs running $5-7 to $20-35 depending upon whether it’s a pre-roll or a mid-roll. Audio runs at lower CPMs that range from $3-5 to $15-25 depending upon placement.

Chris explains how the revenue share works. The advertising agencies get their 15% off the top and then Wizzard and the podcasters split the rest 50-50. Wizzard pays the sales force and covers the costs of setting up and running the campaign.

Wizzard published that they supported over one billion downloads last year from the over 8,500 podcasts that use their hosting services. Some have questioned how that could be, so we ask Chris to help us verify those numbers and to understand how 8,500 podcasts produce so many downloads. Chris explains how they count downloads and filter out the spiders and bots. He says that there are some blockbuster podcasts that do really high volumes and just as in other media forms there is a long tail of podcasters, so looking at mean based average per podcast just does not make sense. It’s the old 80-20 rule once again. Chris also clarifies that some recent problems with reporting to podcasters has nothing to do with how the count their download figure.

Chris ends the show by providing some tips for podcasters – The one to remember most is that if you think you want to advertise in your podcast someday, start tagging them now so that ad inserts are easy to do and you don’t have to go back and re-edit your catalog.

It’s good to see organizations like Wizzard taking up the flag and promoting podcasting. Wizzard along with a few others is taking the risk to build the platforms that we need to scale the downloadable media business. We wish them well on their mission to help marketers advertise on an iPod (or a Zune for you Zune fans.)

[tags]Wizzard Media, podcast advertising, podcast hosting, downloadable media[/tags]

Or maybe I should call it a CinchCast. Cinch is a new service from Blog Talk Radio that makes it extremely easy to record a podcast and produce the necessary RSS feeds. Just call 646-200-0000, record your CinchCast and you will find an RSS feed all ready for you at http://cinch.blogtalkradio.com/YOURPHONENUMBER.

Here’s the mp3 it made for me:

 

 Digital Podcast CinchCast [1:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

And you can see the RSS it created for me here.
http://cinch.blogtalkradio.com/5628245193

While I was a little disappointed in the sound quality, I found the experience so simple and easy that even my Mom could do this.

Ease of use breakthroughs like this open up whole new possibilities. Need to record that interview you’re doing, call Cinch. Need to report from the field, call Cinch. The instantaneous nature of it is fantastic.

I’m excited to see this. Kudos to BTR and their new VP of Product Development, Kris Smith of Croncast fame.

Via Twitter and Scripting News

[tags]cinch, cinchcast, Blog Talk Radio, phone call podcast, mobile podcasting[/tags]

In Digital Podcast 39, we interview David Bloom. David is Associate Dean and Chief Communications Officer at USC’s Marshall School of Business. I met David at an event USC’s Marshall School hosted during the Los Angeles Technology Week. David described some the social media initiatives being used by the University to communicate with potential students, students and alums.

The USC Marshall School of Business is an important part of the University with programs that run the gamut from undergraduate to graduate business programs. USC Marshall has over 5,700 students, numerous graduate programs and 70,000 alumni. The University has been very active in using social media to enhance their communication programs and we thought the world ought to know more about how large organizations can use these new tools to engage and activate their respective community’s.

David was kind enough to spend about an hour with us describing how USC Marshall is using social media, how they manage the process and decide what to pursue. USC Marshall is on YouTube with USCMarshall channel, it’s on iTunes with it’s own podcast channel and it’s adding social networking capabilities to it’s website. We discuss some of the ways they are coordinating communications across the channels to maximize the returns from the long tail of PR. We also have a great discussion about objectives and the decision making processes as it relates to social media.

David’s experience with communications for both businesses and universities provides a unique perspective on the opportunities and the challenges of using social media for communicating and building communities. If you are interested in using social media for corporate or not-for-profit communications and PR this is the podcast for you.

 

 Digital Podcast 39 [53:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

[tags]USC, Marshall School of Business, social media, David Bloom[/tags]

In Digital Podcast 38, we interview David Becker, Chief Marketing Officer at ExpoTV.com. ExpoTV is all about consumer generated video product reviews both on line and on TV. ExpoTV covers just about any product you can imagine with about 250,000 reviews.

If you are interested in producing a social media marketing campaign that uses user generated content this podcast is for you. David discusses the concerns advertisers have about marketing around user generated content and some of the steps marketers can take to mitigate the risks. He provides case studies from other companies that show how they have managed to produce successful social marketing campaigns. David has suggestions about how to connect with super fans and turn them into allies that will make social marketing work for you.

 

 Digital Podcast 38 [48:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

David Becker is ExpoTV’s Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to Expo, David served as president and COO for Beliefnet.com, a spirituality and self-help web site. David also founded Backslap Entertainment, a user-generated content production and syndication company backed by Fremantle, producers of American Idol. David was also President and COO of Uproar.com.

[tags]social media marketing, user generated content, super fans, advertising, David Becker, ExpoTV[/tags]

As part of our Super Fan series, we interviewed Dean Carignan. Dean is Director, Advertising Business Strategy for Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division. In this role, he develops long-range strategic plans for investments in streaming video advertising, mobile marketing, and game-based advertising. Dean also spent several years with Microsoft’s adCenter group, where he drove product strategy for Paid Search, Display Ads, and Contextual Advertising.

Dean was able to provide us with some excellent perspective on these new advertising opportunities. He is part of a group that looks at opportunities to advertise via the Xbox, Media Center, Zune and mobile platforms. We go into depth on in game advertising and how important this new segment will be. He walked us through case studies of Domino’s Pizza and P&G that describe how a well designed campaign can add to the realism of the game experience and yield results for the advertiser.

This is a must listen podcast for advertisers who are struggling to break through on television and are looking for new ways to market their products using these rapidly growing platforms.

 

 Digital Podcast 37 [49:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

[tags]Dean Carignan, Microsoft, in game advertising, gaming, social media, super fans[/tags]

As part of our Super Fan podcast series, we interviewed Jason Feffer, Founder and CEO, of SodaHead. Jason was one of the earliest employees at MySpace and experienced their rapid rise into a major social networking site. After MySpace, Jason founded SodaHead, a company in the Social Answers space. SodaHead allows users to set up opinion polls that users get to vote and comment on. It’s a fun and addictive experience, and well worth trying.

Jason’s discussion of his experience at MySpace illustrates the importance of operational optimization to drive monetization of super fans. In his new company, Jason is putting a lot of what he’s learned to use in creating a new and fun social site. SodaHead has mastered the art of lowering the difficulty and barriers to user generated content. It leads to an experience where its much easier to join in the social mix in a more meaningful way than just asking someone to be your friend. SodaHead is definitely an experience everyone should try.

 

 Digital Podcast 36 [1:06:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jason Feffer has an exciting eight-year history of Internet startup experience leading up to his most recent startup, SodaHead.com. Mr. Feffer helped start MySpace in 2003, which sold to News Corp for $580M. During his three years at MySpace, Jason served on the executive committee and as Vice President of Operations as the membership grew to 100 million. Mr. Feffer oversaw advertising operations, revenue reporting, policy enforcement, government relations and several other departments at MySpace.

[tags]Jason Feffer, MySpace, SodaHead, social media, social networking, social media optimization, super fans[/tags]

As part of our Super Fan series, we interview Tim Westergren, founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Pandora, about how Pandora works and what they are doing to engage and activate their community.

Pandora is a popular music recommendation service built on the Music Genome Project. It’s a fantastic service for discovering music and well worth a try if you have not experienced Pandora.

We discuss the importance of having a good product and connecting with fans. Tim speaks about how he has traveled the country to learn from Pandora’s fans and how he uses Town Hall meetings to get feedback directly from the fans. They started small with just six people in these Town Hall meetings and now have meetings where as many as 400 people show up to meet with Tim.

The lesson learned is that the effect of proactively communicating personally and sincerely with people is an incredibly powerful force in turning people into evangelists.

 

 Digital Podcast 35 [32:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

[tags]Tim Westergren, Pandora, Super Fans[/tags]

As part of our Super Fan Series, we spoke with Stephen Smyth, General Manager & Senior Vice President, Americas Reuters Media about how Reuters is working to build it’s audience and strengthen its relationships with Super Fans. We discussed how they think about user segments and their needs. Stephen shared how they start with the target users experience and then build the content to fit the desired experience. He highlighted a number of the more interesting initiatives Reuters has underway at Reuters Labs. Reuters Labs is where technology, user experience, content and business model meet together as Reuters explores new ways to distribute its content in applications such as Face Search, YouWitness and Context Based Video Ads.

Reuters’ history of syndication is proving a valuable capability as Reuters manages highly distributed content across their own sites, partner sites and other third party sites. They have decided who they want to target specifically and use content creatively to drive audience.

 

 Digital Podcast 34 [39:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Stephen Smyth is responsible for Reuters Americas consumer business, driving revenue and audience for the online, mobile, interactive TV, digital signage and online syndication services. In addition, Stephen oversees global business development as well as local programming and production, traffic and ad operations in the Americas. Prior to his current role, Stephen led Reuters mobile, video, and digital signage business globally. He was responsible for maximizing revenues and brand value from the company’s presence on these platforms and oversaw relationships with key technology providers and distribution affiliates across the globe. In addition, he headed up Reuters Labs, a public showcase of the latest consumer product innovations from Reuters. Previously, Stephen was responsible for media strategy and business development for Reuters.

[tags]Reuters, Stephen Smyth, super fans, syndication, podcast[/tags]