The Hindu Business Line : Podding an ad campaign

Hello and welcome to Gardencia, the trusted podcast on gardening. I’m your host Geeta; joining me is horticulture specialist Krishnan and we are talking today about growing veggies at your apartment. By the way, Krishnan, have you seen the newseeds by YellowDirt that have hit the shelves? What do you think of them?”

This is a fictitious example, but if real, the ad for YellowDirt’s seeds would melt into the conversation, which is actually a downloadable clip called a podcast.

WHAT IT IS – TAKEAWAY AUDIO

A podcast is the digital version of a taped conversation. It could be an interview of a CEO, or just two friends chatting about the Indian economy, like Abhishek and Aditya of Indicast, a podcast forum professing to discuss topics from an average person’s perspective. Podcasts could also be educational, or an event log, the voice of a company and could even be used to flash breaking news. Usually, an episode lasts between 15 and 30 minutes, and is available off the Net for download. You can listen to it either on your desktop or on your mp3 player, so you can utilise that time productively on the train journey or cab back home. Most advertisers are yet to realise a podcast is a viable medium to convey the message to the PC user.

HOW IT WORKS

The advertiser could either sponsor the entire podcast or insert a five-minute ad in a 15-minute episode. The host of the podcast either plays a jingle or reads out the advertisement. Some even could talk about the company’s products - offering a neutral view. The advertisement is informal in nature, and listeners are more likely to ‘hear out’ what the host says. “It feels like another person is talking to you, so the listener does not regard it as an advertisement,” says Aditya of Indicast.

Podcasting is a great way to extend the company as a brand. Cisco uses it to reach an external audience and make the company sound more ‘up-close-and-personal.’ By using insider voices in the podcast, the listener gets to hear from an executive inside the company. The networking product maker develops podcasts on various topics - the company’s strategy; executive perspectives from CXOs at other companies; educational; replays of events; and even summaries that include a conversation from a single event (such as an acquisition), or from news events or consumer events. Podcasts are a great way to make conversations happen any time, any place, anywhere, says the Cisco spokesperson.

Revenue models vary but can be latched with number of downloads. Indicast charges the advertiser Rs 10 per download. In a day, the podcast is downloaded around 1,000 times. Some others, such as Kamla Bhatt, an independent podcaster, go for a contract based on her existing record of retaining listeners. According to Aditya, the revenue podcasters could earn from advertising is in millions of dollars.

GETTING THE MESSAGE THROUGH

Podcast advertising will remain a supplement to online advertising – blogs, banners, ads on social networking sites and video ads. “Podcasts enable us to extend the message - tell the story in a new medium. Traditional means of disseminating information won’t go away. Podcasting is just adding to the mix, adding a new means to obtain info, where you are no longer tethered to a computer to read, but perhaps bound to a device you own while sitting in your car, bus, train, plane. The written word is still relevant, and people still want to read. But they are also looking to be inspired with audio and video, and want to continue to hear cool discussions when they want,” says a Cisco spokesperson.

Podcasts are a guaranteed hit each time for the advertiser, unlike other online advertising schemes. “The message will definitely come through in a podcast. There is no spillage - no click fraud,” says Aditya of Indicast. “Voice definitely adds a tangible dimension. People tend to listen,” agrees Kamla Bhatt. It performs auxiliary branding for physical products too. When you buy an e-book on Amazon.com, you are now offered a reference quote on the book that lets you download a podcast. The podcast could either offer a narration of the book by the author, or hold interesting titbits about the author and the novel. Museums are also offering podcasts for download on entry, so you walk away with a bit of learning in your pocket, says Abhishek.

PODSTERS

The target audience varies: from Indicast’s average of a 25-year-old who typically downloads up to two programmes per day - each lasting 15-25 minutes, to Kamla’s ‘thinking Indian’ who could belong to any age group, including members of the global diaspora and Indophiles (those who are just interested in news from the sub-continent). Cisco’s podcast listeners include analysts, partners, business-to-business (B2B) customers, and those interested in obtaining news via new types of media that suit their lifestyle or interests (on mobile devices at anytime and anywhere). “We expect to reach a new audience, one engaging in new social media opportunities, such as podcasting and blogs,” explained the spokesperson.

Podsters in India, according to C. V. S. Sharma, Senior Vice President and Director, Arc Worldwide, could even be teens. Those living in the city and aged between 14 and 30 years own mp3 players and like to listen to music while on the go. These are the potential podcast listeners. “But there are too few of them to target as of now. Advertising on podcasts is yet to evolve,” he says. “India is still in a discovery phase,” feels podcaster Kamla Bhatt. Indian advertisers are waiting for the medium to become popular before investing in it, she says. However, if audio follows video (as in digital TV channels) in the trend to go digital, podcasts could see a widespread adoption.

Now FMCG firms are early adopters of podcasts as a marketing tool. Globally, IT companies such as Cisco, IBM and Symantec invest in podcasts to grow their brands. However, their Indian counterparts are yet to catch up with this trend. While some such as Cognizant and Cisco use podcasting to disseminate information and for training purposes, few realise its worth. Podcasts on product reviews, especially consumer electronics, are catching up on the WWW. Organisations could target potential customers and employees using podcasts, too. Cisco’s podcasts reach external communities of customers, partners, press, analysts, bloggers and even competitors. The uptake of podcasting in the country is in stark contrast to what is happening across the world.

According to Forrester Research, only one per cent of 5,000 online households in North America regularly download and listen to podcasts. This number will increase to just 12 million by 2010.

“It is quite usual that India adopts something when it is already dying in the US,” says Aditya of Indicast. However, others believe podcasting will continue to grow. “The message will be accessible more easily, on more devices for the mass,” says Cisco. Podcasting may not live long, but will advertisers want to use it while it is available? It could be a case of making hay while the sun shines. Wait and watch.

More Stories on : Advertising | Online Marketing

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
We want to be a creative superstore

What do you really know about your consumer?

Hop, skip and jump

Podding an ad campaign

Well-rounded in a flattened world

Wal-Mart's distribution juggernaut

Fall of the big label bookmark

C-rich