RAMP-The Content Optimization Company

Phil Windley reported on a keynote Leo Laporte did at Podcast Academy and notes that having Dell and Visa advertising on the show means that big companies are already starting to see the effectiveness of podcasts as an advertising medium.

PodZinger is hitting that right on as we see podcasting (or any kind of online media) to evolve into a major advertising medium pretty soon. Windley adds:

“Advertisers still think they need to reach large, broad audiences. In the next 3 or 4 years, they’ll realize that narrowcast media delivers better results.”

eMarketer recently released the findings of the study, “The AOL Latino 2006 Hispanic Cyberstudy” conducted by Synovate. Interestingly, the study found that there are more than 16 million Hispanic Americans online. (55% of the total US Hispanic population)

This is music to our ears, as we offer full-text search of all the audio and video podcasts created in Spanish with PodZinger en español. With more Hispanics going online to learn about brands, make purchasing decisions, chat with friends and read blogs, advertisers are beginning to take note of this influential population. The U.S. Hispanic population alone has an estimated purchasing power of over $700 billion.

In general, more Americans, 40 million according to the Pew Internet Life Survey, go to the web simply for entertainment. All of this translates into online advertising potential for marketers and advertisers. As more consumers continue to devote their free time surfing the web and searching for interesting content, online advertising budgets will simultaneously increase. Yet, marketers and advertisers still struggle with how to best target these audiences.

PodZinger enables advertisers to tie their messages to relevant content in audio and video and effectively deliver their brand messages. With our technology, advertisers are able for the first time to mine multimedia search data and leverage usage and topic filters to arrive at a better understanding of how consumers are interacting with content. For consumers, this means a more enjoyable search experience as ads directed to them are based on stated interests. For the Hispanic population, this gives more reason to visit PodZinger en español.

The trend of online advertising has steadily increased as companies continually recognize its value. Just this week, eMarketer reported that U.S. Internet advertising will increase more than 33 percent in 2006 from a year earlier, which is the fastest pace this decade. In addition to that, marketers are developing new, innovative ways to advertise online, such as placing ads within video clips, creating ones that are less intrusive and more user-interactive, allowing for heightened viewer responsiveness.

Online competitors Google and Yahoo! released new advertising campaigns last week, unveiling video user-integrated strategies of their own. While Google’s, takes the user on a cyber car shopping experience, Yahoo’s integrates a 15-30-second commercial after each viral video, making it the first time it has incorporated advertisements with user-produced material.

It’s exciting to see what other search engine providers are developing on the video advertising front, especially as we are in the process of completing our own platform, which we think adds unique benefits to advertisers and content publishers. Stay tuned for details on the launch of ours shortly!

The New York Times technology section today featured an article, “Some Hot Recorders for Those Cool Podcasts.” Reporter Larry Magid discusses how podcasting has created a need to expand the market for high-end portable audio gear. Today, top of the line recorders now use the same flash memory used in digital cameras and can hold up to 130 hours of compressed monaural audio. The catch? The high-end devices can cost up to $500.

We think it’s great these devices are being promoted, however for those not wishing to spend hundreds of dollars Magid did mention a couple of less expensive digital flash recorders such as the iRiver T30 for $40. There is always the option of simply using a computer microphone and audio-editing software!

We look forward to seeing future developments in portable audio gear, but ultimately what is important for a podcast is not how it is made, but who listens to it. What is the point of spending $500 to produce an immaculately sounding podcast, if no one hears it? As always, we encourage all podcasters to make sure their podcasts are registered with us and to do so if they aren’t. That way even if someone doesn’t know they are looking for your unique insight on Aardvark social dynamics, they will find it for the important research they are doing on termite eaters.

Last week, Leo Larporte announced on his blog that he launched a new advertising network for his TWiT podcasts. His first two sponsors are already big names – Dell and Visa.

The ads have started running at the beginning of all the podcasts and there have been considerably more mentions of Dell and Visa in the podcasts. For example, in one of the episodes of the Daily Giz Wiz show, Leo and Dick talk about the Excalibur Motorized Pool Lounger and Leo chimes in to say how he usually uses his Visa card to make his purchases online because it’s the safest way to buy online.

Check out the Visa’s and Dell’s mentions in the shows with PodZinger’s search.

There have been a lot of mixed responses by the listeners. Although some complain that big advertisers might affect content, most listeners understand that advertising will help finance the production of the podcasts and for podcasters to devote more time and efforts for the content. We have our thoughts on the best ways to insert advertising in audio and video content, and will tell you more about them soon!

In the Wall Street Journal today, editor William Bulkeley wrote an article entitled, “Surfing the Internet for Spoken Words:  New Technology Allows Searchers to Scour Online Audio, Video to Target Advertising,” and included PodZinger as one of the leading industry experts.  The article explores how online audio and video search engines are becoming a tapped resource for targeted advertising. 

“Audio and video have been a black space that cannot be discovered by traditional search engines,” Bulkeley quotes our CEO Alex Laats saying.    

Bulkeley discusses that, similar to targeted advertising with text-based searches such as Google and Yahoo!, PodZinger is utilizing viewers’ key word searches to enable advertisers to create relevant ads that are specifically tied to those queries.

Watching television as a little girl, I remember thinking how cool it was that no matter what show I watched, there were always commercials for my favorite toys.  It took me a few years to realize that that was just targeted advertising.  Boy, it’s amazing how far technology and advertising have come since then!

I went the first part of the first day of PodCamp Boston today, and it was a fantastic unconference. PodCamp is modeled after BarCamp, where it’s not formally organized, and anyone can put on a session simply by adding it to the schedule.

I went to Steve Garfield’s morning session where he talked about getting started podcasting and demonstrated a few of his tools by putting up a few audio and video podcasts right there (one including an introduction to PodZinger – as captured on video by Beth).

The next session I attended was put on by Casey McKinnon and Rudy Jahchan of Galacticast, where they talked about how they got started, all the different equipment they used, and the software tools they use to produce their series.

I gave a session about how PodZinger works, and had a lot of great questions from the group. [Doug Haslam from Topaz Partners had some nice things to say about my session.]

There were a lot of other people there, including Rocketboom creator (and PodZinger partner) Andrew Baron, Rocketboom producer Sherng-Lee Huang, from whom I learned how to tie my shoes, Rocketboom producer Elspeth Rountree, an old classmate of mine David Tames, and former Rocketboom host Amanda Congdon.

I wish I could have stayed past lunch on the first day, but I had some prior family commitments.

Check out a few more photos in the PodCamp Boston 2006 photo album I posted.

Amanda Congdon and Henry Houh

The first game of the NFL kicked off last night with the Dolphins vs. Steelers.  Although the polls predicted Miami to win, Pittsburgh came through with a triumphant victory of 28-17. 

Living in New England, it’s pretty hard not to have at least some idea as to what’s going on with football.  If you’re not particularly interested in it yourself, you probably still hear your co-workers, friends, family members, grocery bag boy or someone else talking about the Patriots.  Fans feel that it is the Pats’ year to win the title again.  I mean, they have won the Super Bowl three of the past five seasons.  They are bound to win it again soon.  Right?     

I myself am not a fanatic fan, but I do like to catch the highlights here and there, and with my busy schedule, it’s easier to listen to podcasts on the go.  I’ve included some of my favorite NFL ones below.

Sports Podcast Network – NBA, NFL, MLB, NASCAR, Boxing, Golf, Tennis, and More Sports Radio On Demand!
Around-the-clock sports coverage through blogs, podcasts and message boards.

Gridiron Grumblings Live! Football Show                                                                                        A live internet broadcast with Gridiron Grumblings and sidekicks Roy ‘The Instigator’ Cankosyan and John ‘Statmaster’ Rakowski.  Discusses news of the week in football, and provides some fantasy strategy, tips and more.  Airs live every Friday evening at 9:05PM ET.

The Fantasy Football Guys
Hosts in-depth discussions on the NFL in general, and Fantasy Football in particular.  

If you want to discover the most talked about teams and players or more podcast suggestions, visit PodZinger’s Zing Index at PodZinger. 

Jeff Pulver has a very interesting list of “TV Shows Only Available on the Internet“. He also did a pretty good job in categorizing them and according to him, video sites are divided into the following:

- “TV on the Net” – these are websites for TV shows that are, or have been, on TV/Cable and are now available for viewing on the Net;
- “TV Shows Only Available on the Internet” – these are new programs produced for the purpose of viewing on the broadband internet.
- “User Created Content sites” – these are the sites like Veoh and YouTube which offer community members the ability to upload video content to share with others;
- “Sites to View TV” – these are sites like ChannelKing and ChannelChooser where someone can watch commercial TV stations over the internet.
- “Misc” – for websites that didn’t fit in any of the other boxes above.

Ultimately, name them what you like – Video logs, Vblogs, Online Video, Internet TV Shows – whatever they are identified as, we know online video is the biggest thing on the Internet now and it is here to stay.