Widhelm is currently the senior vice president of B2B marketing and ad innovation, while Walker serves as senior vice president of ad platform for both SXM Media and AdsWizz. Here is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.
The other piece of it is just marketers having to take a pause. It is a different format. It’s a more authentic connection to the audience. None of it is prerecorded, like a song that you hear over and over again. A show is unique, so in regards to how an advertiser fits in that space — they’re just thinking a little bit harder about how they do that and in a way that benefits the listener experience. That kind of comes back to the creative consultation [...for podcast ads].
But advertisers would really need to start spending if they are ever going to catch up to audience size.Oh, they’re like night and day. I don’t know where I would start. I would compare podcasting almost more to branded entertainment. Sometimes it’s similar to what we grew up with, like the product placement in movies. It’s so much deeper of a connection. The CPMs are higher, the ad links can be more variable.
The ad load is fundamentally different. There is a lot more clutter and a lot more ads per hour on broadcast radio compared to podcasting. The technology and measurement and what you can do from an advertiser perspective — to really understand how to find your audience, reach them effectively, measure, refine and optimize your ad campaigns. To Lizzie’s point, night and day.