Categories: Articles

RSS Advertising Yes – Podcast Advertising No

"’RSS and podcasting have both gone a little bit silent,’ he said. ‘Podcasting is a bust, and RSS was lumped in. It’s got a few unique challenges… but it has grown and become a part of revenue mix for publishers.’"

So says Gawker Sales Chief, Chris Batty, in the May 30th, 2008 ClickZ article titled, RSS Advertising Shows Signs of Life.

The main crux of this article is that there seems to be an opportunity in pumping ads into RSS feeds, while media planners have pretty much given up hope for doing the same in Podcasts.

Batty has some insights into this: "The latest indicator: Gawker Media sequentially grew its revenue from feed-driven traffic by 300 percent in Q1 2008."

There’s one side to this story that should excite the Digital Marketer in you: more channels, newer channels, more opportunity (and even some metrics thrown in for good measure).

Then there’s the other side: my guess is that the majority of those really into channels like RSS and Podcasting are probably also nuking ads with a Firefox extension or simply ignoring them anyway. If you’re not doing search engine marketing or leveraging your database with strategic email programs, it’s starting to look more and more like any form of display or interruption-driven advertising models are just that – an interruption. Can you count the clicks towards a branding campaign? Why not? Is there a real value in these two types of advertising? My guess would be that it’s not the most prudent long-term strategy.

This all goes back to my recent kicks on content. Why would you pollute a feed with the exact type of ads that drove people from the more traditional channels in the first place?

Am I the only one who looks at channels like RSS and Podcasting as the next great frontier to fill with compelling content and real community connections to truly build brand rapport and take Marketing to the next level?

"For marketers, the creative limits of feed advertising remain a sticking point. Kelly Twohig, SVP, digital activation director at Starcom Worldwide, said text ads and simple GIF banners are a hard sell with clients.

‘We haven’t seen [RSS] move as rapidly as other things have,’ she said. ‘It’s absolutely on our radar but still not the easiest thing to sell.’"

The stuff that works is usually the easiest things to sell (just ask Google).

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.