Podcasts about after these messages

Big thank you to Hip-Hop legend, host, and activist Talib Kweli for coming on my show for an interview! Talib discussed his new album Liberation 2 with Madlib, why he decided to drop the album now on DSPs, and the lyrical breakdown on After These Messages. He talked about the right and the left discord in politics, Donald Trump being mentioned in rap lyrics back in the day because he was a money symbol, and his beef with Tom MacDonald. He got into why rappers are afraid to be conscious, why the same labels who signed acts such as Public Enemy are not signing those acts anymore, and the last time that he saw Prince. He also spoke about what he has on the way with Javotti Media, his recent conversation Eminem, and recording Get Em High with Kanye West. Stay tuned! Talib Kweli & Madlib's new album Liberation 2 is available on all platforms, including Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/liberation-2/1730156035. Go checkout Talib Kweli's website for upcoming shows, The People's Party interviews, and more: https://www.talibkweli.com/. Follow me on Instagram and X: @thereelmax Website: https://maxcoughlan.com/index.html. Website live show streaming link: https://maxcoughlan.com/sports-and-hip-hop-with-dj-mad-max-live-stream.html. MAD MAX Radio on Live365: https://live365.com/station/MAD-MAX-Radio-a15096. Subscribe to my YouTube channel Sports and Hip Hop with DJ Mad Max: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCE0107atIPV-mVm0M3UJyPg. Talib Kweli on "Sports and Hip-Hop with DJ Mad Max" visual on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97UCpYtPegg. 

Squeegie Oblong talks about his biggest lyrical influences, how he deals with grief, and his new album, After These Messages.

Episode 154: In this episode, Mark is joined by Hip Hop artist Squeegie Oblong to talk about his current project "After These Messages" and how it's inspired by Saturday morning cartoons and has commercials breaks throughout the album. We also talk about favorite cereals, cartoons, his upcoming project "Tanface" and we discuss being big fans of Sade and seemingly, Hip Hop heads are bigger fans of hers. Check out Squeegie Oblong on Bandcamp-https://itsobitch.bandcamp.com/album/after-these-messages-bandcamp-editionMark also ranks his favorite top ten Sade songs and talks about the passing and legacy of recently passed wrestling icon The Iron Sheik

Check out the new single "After These Messages" from the album Liberation 2, coming March 6th--only on Luminary.

Manuela: This is The Download from Sounds Profitable, the most important news from this week and why it matters to people in the business of podcasting. I'm Manuela Bedoya. Shreya: And I'm Shreya Sharma.This week: The ‘slippery slope' of podcast endorsements, Netflix's ad-supported tier has teething troubles, why ad buyers are hesitant to embrace DSPs, and a look at modern contextual advertising. Let's get started.Navigating the ‘slippery slope' of personal endorsements in podcast adsManuela: Over the past few years there have been multiple headlines spotlighting instances of social media influencers butting up against the Federal Trade Commission. This period of adjustment as new media incorporates modern advertising rules has matured to the point the FTC has a official page just for coaching influencers on advertisement disclosure. As MarketingBrew's Alyssa Meyers pointed out this week: the FTC hasn't similarly cracked down on podcast advertisements just yet, but it has come close. Listeners of The Download might remember a case in November when Google and iHeartRadio settled with the FTC out of court. The case concerned allegations that several iHeart on-air radio personalities were given ad copy with personal endorsements for a Pixel phone the hosts had not used. From Meyers' article: “Though the FTC's guidelines for endorsements and testimonials in advertising don't mention podcasts, the agency proposed a change last May that would, if approved, add an example concerning a podcast host related to disclosing material connections.”Podcasting is no stranger to ad copy that flirts the line between advertisement and personal endorsement. Meyers opens her article asking if the reader has ever questioned if podcasters really made the meal kits they endorse, or if their mattress sponsor actually fixed their back problems. Hyperbolic, perhaps, but endorsements are a big factor in the appeal of host-read ads. David Plotz, CEO of City Cast told MarketingBrew he has experienced advertisers requiring ads to contain personal endorsements or, more worryingly from an FTC perspective, attempt to slip a personal endorsement into the ad copy. Meyers spotlights two approaches that eliminate any FTC concerns: Lauren Lograsso and NPR. Lograsso prefers ad deals with required endorsements and the authenticity of having tried the product herself. Conversely, NPR has a blanket policy of zero personal endorsements, a byproduct of the company carrying over its radio journalism ethos into podcasting. The article then closes out with advice from Veritone One VP of podcasting Hilary Ross Shafer and Adopter Media CEO Glenn Rubenstein: onboarding calls between podcasters and advertisers are useful, if not vital, tools to establish goals and prevent miscommunication. While host-read remains the preferred method of podcast advertising, it's worth remembering Sounds Profitable's first study, After These Messages, found the gap between host-read and announcer-read was smaller than conventional wisdom might suggest. 81% of respondents trusted host-read ads, followed by 71% trusting announcer-read.While it's certainly possible podcasting will get a headline or two on par with, say, Instagram influencers selling teas that claimed to cure cancer, the data shows there's no need for such extremes. Podcast listeners, especially in comparison to other forms of media, are quite accepting, if not supportive of advertising. Netflix Ad-Supported Tier Experiences Teething TroublesShreya: Time for an update on a continuing story involving Netflix. Back in early November we covered the details of Netflix's new Basic tier with advertisements, as well as the big brands buying space at a reported CPM between $60 and $80. Now Basic with Ads has been out a few months and experienced its first teething troubles. Danielle Long, writing for The Drum, reports the streamer has had to issue refunds to Australian advertisers after failing to meet projected audience numbers. From the article: “Media reports suggest Netflix's Basic with Ads subscription tier, which launched in November, has underperformed by as much as 70% in the first three months of operation.”While Australia's ad refunds are the most eye-opening headline, Basic with Ads is reportedly slower to start than expected on a global scale. From a US perspective, last week an Insider Intelligence piece from Sara Lebow digs into the question of why, in the face of a recession, consumers aren't downgrading their Netflix memberships to Basic with Ads. In fact, as economic worries mount, CivicScience numbers show there has been a three percent decline in US citizens who only have one subscription video-on-demand service since January of 2022. From Insider Intelligence analyst Daniel Konstantinovic: “Not only have people shown they are willing to pay for entertainment through difficult economic times, but they're actually adding more.”One bright spot for Basic with Ads is the recent rollout of Netflix's password-sharing restrictions in certain markets, with plans to implement them in more places over time. While controversial on social media, kicking people off shared accounts will likely drive Basic with Ads subscriptions as people begin to sign up and see the ad-free experience they've grown accustomed to comes with the sticker shock of $16 a month.Audiences can be ad-averse and comfortable with paying to get away from ads. Even in podcasting, where we have seen audiences be particularly accepting of ads, there's a booming market of premium subscriptions that frequently offer ad-free feeds. The question remains if consumers will value ad-free Netflix at the price point of three premium subscriptions on Apple Podcasts. Why podcast ad buyers are hesitant to spend through demand-side platforms Manuela: It's no secret that programmatic has yet to be wholly adopted by podcast advertisers. This Valentine's Day, Sara Guaglione of Digiday has published a piece specifically to investigate why the hesitancy still exists. From the article: “There are a variety of reasons for this: host-read ads are still king in the medium, not all podcast networks or shows have inventory available to buy programmatically, and buyers often feel the need to vet the content to ensure contextual alignment when targeting specific audience segments or category verticals across a number of podcast networks.”This commitment to host-read and lack of programmatic accessibility also leads to a shortage of inventory available to plug into an SSP. Podcasting is also light on SSPs, with few exceptions past AdsWizz and Triton Digital. As Marketecture founder Ari Paparo told Digiday for another piece, it's not likely we'll see a lot of new SSPs pop up anytime soon. Paparo's quote from that article: “I think that, fundamentally, the SSP business is not very attractive … It's not growing, and it's very competitive as publishers really treat you like a commodity, they have like 10 or 20 of them implemented on every page.”It's not all grim news, though.Guaglione reports some buyers Digiday spoke to are either in the testing phase or outright investing in programmatic podcast ads for the first time this year. She also cites a prediction from Insider Intelligence that programmatic's 2% of total podcast ad spend in 2021 will grow to just under 10% by 2024. That said, there are still some outliers who take issue with programmatic as a concept. From the article: “One buyer — who did not feel comfortable speaking on the record to summarize agencies' hesitancy to buy podcast ads programmatically — said there is a “sect of the podcast ecosystem that is anti-programmatic that does not exist in other mediums,” which they believe is due to being “burned” by issues with programmatic display ad buying.”It's perfectly fine if buyers prefer host read. It's a proven and sound strategy, but it's also not a good look to trash alternatives that appeal to a larger buy-side. As has been said many times on this podcast: programmatic advertising is a tool, not a magic button. When used correctly, it can do amazing things. When implemented suboptimally, it can deliver suboptimal results. Shreya: Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading.Before we get into the articles, we want to take a quick second to point you to a new video from Sounds Profitable partner Tom Webster. The first episode of Data Decoded, a series where Tom breaks down interesting data from studies done in podcasting in bite-sized videos, is live now. Check it out for context on some numbers from the newest study out of audio fiction network Realm.fm. Benedict Evans' latest annual presentation on macro and strategic trends in the tech industry - The New Gatekeepers - is now live on his site in both slide and video form, as well as an excellent breakdown of three takeaways by Conor McKenna on LinkedIn.YouTube's influencer program pivots to self-service after staff cuts, an article by Amanda Perelli, Lara O'Reilly, and Geoff Weiss. This piece breaks down the upcoming transition from YouTube's previously hands-on program that helped connect creators with relevant marketing campaigns. The Royal Rumble Is On For Who Wins Contextual Advertising by James Hercher. A bird's-eye view of contextual advertising, what it looks like in a post App Tracking Transparency world, and potential issues it faces with older brand safety methods like keyword-blocking. Here's what a $7M, 30-second Super Bowl ad can purchase in digital media in 2023 by Kristina Monllos. A fun breakdown of what the money necessary to book a thirty second ad during the most-watched football game of the year could buy on other platforms. In case you're curious, at the industry average CPM, that'd buy ad space on about 280 million podcast downloads. Manuela: And that was The Download, brought to you by Sounds Profitable! Today's episode was built using Spooler and hosted on Amazon's ART19. Find out more at Spooler.fm and Art19.comI know we went through today's stories fast, so be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned, right in your podcast listening app, or on SoundsProfitable.com/TheDownload. And thank you for sticking with us as we bring you the top stories you might have missed from the past week. I'm Manuela Bedoya.Shreya : And I'm Shreya Sharma. Our producers are Bryan Barletta, Gavin Gaddis, and Tom Webster. Our editors are Reece Carman and Ron Tendick. Special thanks to Art19 for hosting The Download. And thanks to you for joining us.

Manuela: This is The Download from Sounds Profitable, the most important news from this week and why it matters to people in the business of podcasting. I'm Manuela Bedoya. Shreya: And I'm Shreya Sharma.This week: The ‘slippery slope' of podcast endorsements, Netflix's ad-supported tier has teething troubles, why ad buyers are hesitant to embrace DSPs, and a look at modern contextual advertising. Let's get started.Navigating the ‘slippery slope' of personal endorsements in podcast adsManuela: Over the past few years there have been multiple headlines spotlighting instances of social media influencers butting up against the Federal Trade Commission. This period of adjustment as new media incorporates modern advertising rules has matured to the point the FTC has a official page just for coaching influencers on advertisement disclosure. As MarketingBrew's Alyssa Meyers pointed out this week: the FTC hasn't similarly cracked down on podcast advertisements just yet, but it has come close. Listeners of The Download might remember a case in November when Google and iHeartRadio settled with the FTC out of court. The case concerned allegations that several iHeart on-air radio personalities were given ad copy with personal endorsements for a Pixel phone the hosts had not used. From Meyers' article: “Though the FTC's guidelines for endorsements and testimonials in advertising don't mention podcasts, the agency proposed a change last May that would, if approved, add an example concerning a podcast host related to disclosing material connections.”Podcasting is no stranger to ad copy that flirts the line between advertisement and personal endorsement. Meyers opens her article asking if the reader has ever questioned if podcasters really made the meal kits they endorse, or if their mattress sponsor actually fixed their back problems. Hyperbolic, perhaps, but endorsements are a big factor in the appeal of host-read ads. David Plotz, CEO of City Cast told MarketingBrew he has experienced advertisers requiring ads to contain personal endorsements or, more worryingly from an FTC perspective, attempt to slip a personal endorsement into the ad copy. Meyers spotlights two approaches that eliminate any FTC concerns: Lauren Lograsso and NPR. Lograsso prefers ad deals with required endorsements and the authenticity of having tried the product herself. Conversely, NPR has a blanket policy of zero personal endorsements, a byproduct of the company carrying over its radio journalism ethos into podcasting. The article then closes out with advice from Veritone One VP of podcasting Hilary Ross Shafer and Adopter Media CEO Glenn Rubenstein: onboarding calls between podcasters and advertisers are useful, if not vital, tools to establish goals and prevent miscommunication. While host-read remains the preferred method of podcast advertising, it's worth remembering Sounds Profitable's first study, After These Messages, found the gap between host-read and announcer-read was smaller than conventional wisdom might suggest. 81% of respondents trusted host-read ads, followed by 71% trusting announcer-read.While it's certainly possible podcasting will get a headline or two on par with, say, Instagram influencers selling teas that claimed to cure cancer, the data shows there's no need for such extremes. Podcast listeners, especially in comparison to other forms of media, are quite accepting, if not supportive of advertising. Netflix Ad-Supported Tier Experiences Teething TroublesShreya: Time for an update on a continuing story involving Netflix. Back in early November we covered the details of Netflix's new Basic tier with advertisements, as well as the big brands buying space at a reported CPM between $60 and $80. Now Basic with Ads has been out a few months and experienced its first teething troubles. Danielle Long, writing for The Drum, reports the streamer has had to issue refunds to Australian advertisers after failing to meet projected audience numbers. From the article: “Media reports suggest Netflix's Basic with Ads subscription tier, which launched in November, has underperformed by as much as 70% in the first three months of operation.”While Australia's ad refunds are the most eye-opening headline, Basic with Ads is reportedly slower to start than expected on a global scale. From a US perspective, last week an Insider Intelligence piece from Sara Lebow digs into the question of why, in the face of a recession, consumers aren't downgrading their Netflix memberships to Basic with Ads. In fact, as economic worries mount, CivicScience numbers show there has been a three percent decline in US citizens who only have one subscription video-on-demand service since January of 2022. From Insider Intelligence analyst Daniel Konstantinovic: “Not only have people shown they are willing to pay for entertainment through difficult economic times, but they're actually adding more.”One bright spot for Basic with Ads is the recent rollout of Netflix's password-sharing restrictions in certain markets, with plans to implement them in more places over time. While controversial on social media, kicking people off shared accounts will likely drive Basic with Ads subscriptions as people begin to sign up and see the ad-free experience they've grown accustomed to comes with the sticker shock of $16 a month.Audiences can be ad-averse and comfortable with paying to get away from ads. Even in podcasting, where we have seen audiences be particularly accepting of ads, there's a booming market of premium subscriptions that frequently offer ad-free feeds. The question remains if consumers will value ad-free Netflix at the price point of three premium subscriptions on Apple Podcasts. Why podcast ad buyers are hesitant to spend through demand-side platforms Manuela: It's no secret that programmatic has yet to be wholly adopted by podcast advertisers. This Valentine's Day, Sara Guaglione of Digiday has published a piece specifically to investigate why the hesitancy still exists. From the article: “There are a variety of reasons for this: host-read ads are still king in the medium, not all podcast networks or shows have inventory available to buy programmatically, and buyers often feel the need to vet the content to ensure contextual alignment when targeting specific audience segments or category verticals across a number of podcast networks.”This commitment to host-read and lack of programmatic accessibility also leads to a shortage of inventory available to plug into an SSP. Podcasting is also light on SSPs, with few exceptions past AdsWizz and Triton Digital. As Marketecture founder Ari Paparo told Digiday for another piece, it's not likely we'll see a lot of new SSPs pop up anytime soon. Paparo's quote from that article: “I think that, fundamentally, the SSP business is not very attractive … It's not growing, and it's very competitive as publishers really treat you like a commodity, they have like 10 or 20 of them implemented on every page.”It's not all grim news, though.Guaglione reports some buyers Digiday spoke to are either in the testing phase or outright investing in programmatic podcast ads for the first time this year. She also cites a prediction from Insider Intelligence that programmatic's 2% of total podcast ad spend in 2021 will grow to just under 10% by 2024. That said, there are still some outliers who take issue with programmatic as a concept. From the article: “One buyer — who did not feel comfortable speaking on the record to summarize agencies' hesitancy to buy podcast ads programmatically — said there is a “sect of the podcast ecosystem that is anti-programmatic that does not exist in other mediums,” which they believe is due to being “burned” by issues with programmatic display ad buying.”It's perfectly fine if buyers prefer host read. It's a proven and sound strategy, but it's also not a good look to trash alternatives that appeal to a larger buy-side. As has been said many times on this podcast: programmatic advertising is a tool, not a magic button. When used correctly, it can do amazing things. When implemented suboptimally, it can deliver suboptimal results. Shreya: Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading.Before we get into the articles, we want to take a quick second to point you to a new video from Sounds Profitable partner Tom Webster. The first episode of Data Decoded, a series where Tom breaks down interesting data from studies done in podcasting in bite-sized videos, is live now. Check it out for context on some numbers from the newest study out of audio fiction network Realm.fm. Benedict Evans' latest annual presentation on macro and strategic trends in the tech industry - The New Gatekeepers - is now live on his site in both slide and video form, as well as an excellent breakdown of three takeaways by Conor McKenna on LinkedIn.YouTube's influencer program pivots to self-service after staff cuts, an article by Amanda Perelli, Lara O'Reilly, and Geoff Weiss. This piece breaks down the upcoming transition from YouTube's previously hands-on program that helped connect creators with relevant marketing campaigns. The Royal Rumble Is On For Who Wins Contextual Advertising by James Hercher. A bird's-eye view of contextual advertising, what it looks like in a post App Tracking Transparency world, and potential issues it faces with older brand safety methods like keyword-blocking. Here's what a $7M, 30-second Super Bowl ad can purchase in digital media in 2023 by Kristina Monllos. A fun breakdown of what the money necessary to book a thirty second ad during the most-watched football game of the year could buy on other platforms. In case you're curious, at the industry average CPM, that'd buy ad space on about 280 million podcast downloads. Manuela: And that was The Download, brought to you by Sounds Profitable! Today's episode was built using Spooler and hosted on Amazon's ART19. Find out more at Spooler.fm and Art19.comI know we went through today's stories fast, so be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned, right in your podcast listening app, or on SoundsProfitable.com/TheDownload. And thank you for sticking with us as we bring you the top stories you might have missed from the past week. I'm Manuela Bedoya.Shreya : And I'm Shreya Sharma. Our producers are Bryan Barletta, Gavin Gaddis, and Tom Webster. Our editors are Reece Carman and Ron Tendick. Special thanks to Art19 for hosting The Download. And thanks to you for joining us.

What's the episode about: If you're a long time podcast listener, you're probably familiar with promo codes. In this episode, we discuss how impactful they really are. And, is it possible that they could have even more impact for listeners, publishers, and advertisers? Tom Webster proposes an upgrade. Arielle Nissenblatt and Bryan Barletta are here to discuss with it with him. Listen to learn about:  A promo code that's been living rent free in Arielle's head for 5+ years Why promo codes work for publishers A possible upgrade to the promo code system we know and love Whether or not this potential upgrade would be as impactful for advertisers as it would be for publishers and listeners How this discussion ties into our recent research studies, After These Messages and We'll Be Right Back Links: Bryan Barletta Arielle Nissenblatt Tom Webster Article discussed The Download Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles SquadCast Podsights Credits: Hosted by Bryan Barletta, Tom Webster, Arielle Nissenblatt Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron Produced by: Reece Carman and Ron Tendick Assembled by: Spooler Media Hosted by: Omny Studio See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's the episode about: If you're a long time podcast listener, you're probably familiar with promo codes. In this episode, we discuss how impactful they really are. And, is it possible that they could have even more impact for listeners, publishers, and advertisers? Tom Webster proposes an upgrade. Arielle Nissenblatt and Bryan Barletta are here to discuss with it with him. Listen to learn about:  A promo code that's been living rent free in Arielle's head for 5+ years Why promo codes work for publishers A possible upgrade to the promo code system we know and love Whether or not this potential upgrade would be as impactful for advertisers as it would be for publishers and listeners How this discussion ties into our recent research studies, After These Messages and We'll Be Right Back Links: Bryan Barletta Arielle Nissenblatt Tom Webster Article discussed The Download Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles SquadCast Podsights Credits: Hosted by Bryan Barletta, Tom Webster, Arielle Nissenblatt Sounds Profitable Theme written by Tim Cameron Produced by: Reece Carman and Ron Tendick Assembled by: Spooler Media Hosted by: Omny Studio See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's easy to make a podcast, right? You just need an idea, buy a mic and off you go right? ... Wrong!  Multiple factors that make or break a podcast and if you don't start in the right place, you're setting yourself up for failure.  In the second part of this three part series produced by Ampel, , Michelle Lomas, Ampel GM & Head of Strategy sits down with Darren to discuss the development of a successful branded podcast.  We'll discuss knowing your listener, the strategic process,  being innovative with formats and finding a great host.  Michelle will share mistakes to avoid in development, audio  trends, and why podcasts are the most exciting storytelling platform since instagram.  We'll bring in one of Ampel's clients to discuss their branded podcast, how they approached the decision to start, the ups and downs of the creative process,  their feelings now it's live, what they'd do differently and what they want to do more of in the future.  MIchelle hosts the ‘Flex Your Hustle' podcast. FYH tells the stories of amazing marketers and founders who did things a little differently! You can hear that podcast here: pod.link/1628927417 Zane McIntyre is the CEO and Co-Founder of affiliate marketing company Commission Factory, the brand behind the Flex Your Hustle podcast. Zane tells Michelle about his experience creating and implementing the Flex Your Hustle podcast with Ampel.If you would like to find out more about Commission Factory, you can visit them here:  https://bit.ly/3RNAptk Tom Webster is one of the leading podcast industry market researchers with 25 years experience and 18 years in podcasting. After beginning in radio, Tom has dedicated his career to being an advocate for podcasting and contributed to building the podcast industry leading hundreds of audience research projects on six continents, including the audio industry's benchmark Infinite Dial study. In 2022, Tom joined Bryan Barletta at Sounds Profitable to continue to grow the podcast industry with the best in tech and research.  To check out the "After These Messages" podcast study, follow this link: https://soundsprofitable.com/article/after-these-messages   With thanks to Josh Butt, Michelle Lomas, Stuart Buckland, Lauren Deighton, Tania Peres, Justin McArthur, Luke Sewell, Brittany Frappell and Sez O'Neill from Ampel   If you are interested in finding out more about what a professional audio channel can do for your company,  visit ampel.com.au or email us at hearhere@ampel.com.au Thanks to Melod.ie for their music. Recorded at King Sound Studio with thanks to Joe Lewis.    For more episodes of TrinityP3's Managing Marketing podcast, visit https://www.trinityp3.com/managing-marketing-podcasts/ Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/managing-marketing/id1018735190 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/75mJ4Gt6MWzFWvmd3A64XW?si=a3b63c66ab6e4934 Listen on Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zb3VuZGNsb3VkLmNvbS91c2Vycy9zb3VuZGNsb3VkOnVzZXJzOjE2MTQ0MjA2NC9zb3VuZHMucnNz Listen on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/managing-marketing Listen on Podbean: https://managingmarketing.podbean.com/

With the release of We'll Be Right Back, part two of After These Messages, Tom Webster has a few questions about promo codes. Is it time to change how we use them? Credits: Written by Tom Webster Edited by Tom Webster Produced with Spooler.fm Hosted with Omny Studio Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the release of We'll Be Right Back, part two of After These Messages, Tom Webster has a few questions about promo codes. Is it time to change how we use them? Credits: Written by Tom Webster Edited by Tom Webster Produced with Spooler.fm Hosted with Omny Studio Sounds Profitable theme written by Tim Cameron Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: Serial and the importance of content curation, Spotify launches audiobooks, Spanish-language TV is surging,  why Wonder Media Network won't use programmatic, and SirusXM is no longer the biggest podcast network by reach. Let's get started. Serial and the importance of content curation.  Manuela: Last week news broke that prosecution would petition for the release of Adnan Syed, whose case was the subject of the first season of Serial. Since then Syed has been officially released. In the interim conversation regarding the case and the part Serial played in popularizing it reached a boiling point on social media. On Friday the 16th attorney Rabia O'Chaudry, host of Undisclosed and the person who originally brought Syed's case to the attention of Sarah Koenig, tweeted an analogy for how Serial fit into the narrative of Syed's release: “Imagine you ask someone to help renovate your house. Instead they set fire to it. The story about the fire brings thousands to your aid that rebuild your house.” Media critic and true crime aficionado Rebecca Lavoie quote-tweeted O'Chaudry to start a thread with an important lesson to be learned from Serial. “I have previously heralded Serial as a seminal piece of media and even made a podcast originally based on reviewing it. But given the facts of the case, Rabia's analogy is precise. Serial doesn't hold up. And its biggest crime is its abandonment of its own reporting.”Lavoie details several sections of the popular podcast that contain outdated or inaccurate knowledge with seven years of hindsight that, due to the podcast's popularity, are still being discovered by brand new podcast listeners with. No warnings or amendments have been placed on the original season of Serial.  “I am not saying that Sarah Koenig et al have an obligation to report this story forever. But…the owners of the Serial feed (now [The New York Times]) have an absolute obligation to point news consumers to the latest… news.”Lavoie points to dynamic ad insertion tech and how it could be used to retroactively place a warning giving context without having to manually update each episode's file. Given last year's scandal with Caliphate, the NYT is no stranger to retroactively adding disclaimers to its own in-house reporting. Lavoie argues they have the same level of responsibility to maintain legacy feeds. Even the most popular true crime podcast in the industry is not above poor reporting or claims that were later disproven by new evidence. Despite being seven years old, Serial's popularity means statistically it's still someone's first podcast in 2022. Spotify Offers Audiobook Service with 300,000 Titles  Shreya: This Tuesday Spotify announced the launch of their audiobook platform. “Starting today, Spotify listeners in the U.S. will be able to purchase and listen to more than 300,000 audiobook titles—making our platform a true all-in-one destination for everyone's listening needs. And we're excited to launch audiobooks with a brand-new user interface that's geared specifically for listening to audiobooks and fits them seamlessly alongside the music and podcasts you already listen to and love.” The new audiobook interface includes an in-app purchase screen to buy each individual audiobook. Most popular audiobook platforms, like Audible or Libro.fm,  use a monthly subscription system that gives users a set amount of credits to exchange for audiobooks at a rate that costs less than purchasing them retail. Spotify's model requires a Premium Spotify membership for the ability to purchase audiobooks.Press materials include a series of four screenshots depicting the purchase of Colleen Hoover's novel It Ends with Us for $13.99, on sale from a normal listing of $17.99. This pricing is in lockstep with the average retail cost of the same book at popular audiobook providers Google Play, Kobo, and Audible if the user is not a subscriber. With this addition Spotify is now a one-stop shop for the casual user. While it might not attract many users specifically for the audiobook functionality, any user who listens to music or podcasts with Premium has the ability to buy audiobooks and listen without leaving the app they're already paying for. Spanish-Language TV viewership surges despite mishandled metrics, lackluster representation.  Manuela: As is becoming common on The Download, this segment will discuss two articles that are closely related. First off: Spanish-language TV Viewership is Surging by Kelsey Sutton for MarketingBrew. The headline leads into a subheader explaining the surge is accompanied by poor measurement leading to under-investing. Now things are turning around. “We're sure you've heard it about a million times: linear TV viewership is, on average, not looking good. But there's one segment of old-fashioned TV whose outlook seems downright rosy.  Spanish-language TV networks, including mainstays like Univision and Telemundo, are on the upswing, growing daily audience reach even as many other major networks are seeing steady declines.” Dan Reiss, EVP and chief growth office at TelevisaUnivision told MarketingBrew Univision has seen an increase of brands on-air of more than 200 over the past two years. One of the benefits of podcasting being a younger industry than other media is it can learn from their mistakes and adjust earlier on when it's easier to do so. Just last month Edison Research's Latino Podcast Listener Report dropped, revealing 59% of the U.S. Latino population have listened to podcasts. Podcasting is a diverse field and should be treated as such from the ground up. To that note the final quote from an AdExchanger piece featuring Orci CEO Marina Filippelli: ““Gen Z can smell bullshit from a mile away – they know whether or not creative was produced by somebody like them,” Filippelli said. “Representation needs to take place not just in front of the camera, but behind the scenes.” Why Wonder Media Network won't sell its podcast ad inventory programmatically Shreya: This Tuesday Kayleigh Barber published a piece distilling an interview on the Digiday Podcast into article form. The interview features Wonder Media Network co-founder and CRO Shira Atkins enthusiastically explaining why the network refuses to carry programmatically-served ads, instead choosing a more bespoke approach. Not only are ads produced in-network, they're permanently baked-in.  “But on the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast, Atkins said she still believes that programmatic is “a tragedy for the podcasting ecosystem at large.” Her team does not sell any of its ad space programmatically. Instead, the podcast network uses its branded content studio to make bespoke audio ads, which Atkins said creates memorable ads that listeners are less likely to skip over.” It's worth noting the difference between content provided by programmatic methods and the tool of programmatic advertising itself. High quality memorably ads like those produced by Wonder Media Network for baked-in use can be served programmatically through direct deals that operationalize and improve the process for both buyers and sellers.  NPR, for example, does this currently with great success. Programmatic distribution is a tool, not a particular flavor of advertisement.  “We don't [carry programmatic-sold ads] because the reason that we're able to demand such high CPM [or sell flat rate deads] is that we're selling embedded ads in perpetuity. It makes me feel like an old lady whenever people ask me about this, because they're like, ‘I can't believe you don't do dynamic ad insertion.' But it works for us.” Host reads, baked-in, and dynamic ad insertion are all excellent tools that podcast audiences are receptive to, and companies like Wonder Media Network are an excellent example of how the power of the podcasting industry can allow individual facets of the industry to exist and thrive on their own.  Sounds Profitable's first research study - After These Messages - has the data to back up the efficacy of host-read ads. The study shows the audience preference for host-read ads over generic announcer-read ads, which Atkins conflates with programmatic, is much smaller than one would expect.  Spotify hits the top of Edison Manuela: For our final story I don't have to summarize the info, as they do it for me. “This week Edison Research publicly announced the ranking of the biggest podcasting networks through the second quarter of 2022, based on Edison Podcast Metrics survey of over 8,000 weekly podcast listeners age 18 and older.” For the three years Edison Research has done this report on podcast metrics, SiriusXM Media has held the top spot of the U.S. Top Podcast Networks, By Reach report. This last quarter the top contender was unseated by the relative newcomer. As of Q2 of this year Spotify is the #1 network by reach. They've gradually risen up the charts over years, using a combination of acquisitions, licensing deals, original content, and a fertile walled garden to grow the platform. As of this last quarter the top five now reads Spotify, SiriusXM Media, iHeartRadio, Audioboom, and NPR.  Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading Shreya: Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:  Athletic Greens gives us the scoop on its podcast advertising strategy by Alyssa Meyers of Marketing Brew.The article features company CRO Jonathan Corne explaining their strategy of carefully selecting podcasts to sponsor with intent of establishing a long-term relationship.  ‘Gaming is very much here to stay': Why Axe body spray is taking a bigger swing at esports marketing by Kimeko McCoy of Digiday. Axe isn't a stranger to sponsoring esports outside the US, but the company is renewing its efforts at home and getting into TikTok. Which is to say influencer marketing, a thing podcasting is very good at.  On that same note: Roblox will be one of the first major platform to launch in-game ads by Daniel Konstantinovic of InsiderIntelligence. For anyone without a kid: Roblox is a big deal. Arguably bigger than Minecraft. Allowing outside advertising without locking it to the game's internal currency is a big step.  RIP Broadcast TV? Legacy Broadcast Execs Say Not Just Yet by Alyssa Boyle of AdExchanger. A breakdown of the new trend of broadcast TV getting into streaming media by simulating traditional always-running broadcasts.  The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: Serial and the importance of content curation, Spotify launches audiobooks, Spanish-language TV is surging,  why Wonder Media Network won't use programmatic, and SirusXM is no longer the biggest podcast network by reach. Let's get started. Serial and the importance of content curation.  Manuela: Last week news broke that prosecution would petition for the release of Adnan Syed, whose case was the subject of the first season of Serial. Since then Syed has been officially released. In the interim conversation regarding the case and the part Serial played in popularizing it reached a boiling point on social media. On Friday the 16th attorney Rabia O'Chaudry, host of Undisclosed and the person who originally brought Syed's case to the attention of Sarah Koenig, tweeted an analogy for how Serial fit into the narrative of Syed's release: “Imagine you ask someone to help renovate your house. Instead they set fire to it. The story about the fire brings thousands to your aid that rebuild your house.” Media critic and true crime aficionado Rebecca Lavoie quote-tweeted O'Chaudry to start a thread with an important lesson to be learned from Serial. “I have previously heralded Serial as a seminal piece of media and even made a podcast originally based on reviewing it. But given the facts of the case, Rabia's analogy is precise. Serial doesn't hold up. And its biggest crime is its abandonment of its own reporting.”Lavoie details several sections of the popular podcast that contain outdated or inaccurate knowledge with seven years of hindsight that, due to the podcast's popularity, are still being discovered by brand new podcast listeners with. No warnings or amendments have been placed on the original season of Serial.  “I am not saying that Sarah Koenig et al have an obligation to report this story forever. But…the owners of the Serial feed (now [The New York Times]) have an absolute obligation to point news consumers to the latest… news.”Lavoie points to dynamic ad insertion tech and how it could be used to retroactively place a warning giving context without having to manually update each episode's file. Given last year's scandal with Caliphate, the NYT is no stranger to retroactively adding disclaimers to its own in-house reporting. Lavoie argues they have the same level of responsibility to maintain legacy feeds. Even the most popular true crime podcast in the industry is not above poor reporting or claims that were later disproven by new evidence. Despite being seven years old, Serial's popularity means statistically it's still someone's first podcast in 2022. Spotify Offers Audiobook Service with 300,000 Titles  Shreya: This Tuesday Spotify announced the launch of their audiobook platform. “Starting today, Spotify listeners in the U.S. will be able to purchase and listen to more than 300,000 audiobook titles—making our platform a true all-in-one destination for everyone's listening needs. And we're excited to launch audiobooks with a brand-new user interface that's geared specifically for listening to audiobooks and fits them seamlessly alongside the music and podcasts you already listen to and love.” The new audiobook interface includes an in-app purchase screen to buy each individual audiobook. Most popular audiobook platforms, like Audible or Libro.fm,  use a monthly subscription system that gives users a set amount of credits to exchange for audiobooks at a rate that costs less than purchasing them retail. Spotify's model requires a Premium Spotify membership for the ability to purchase audiobooks.Press materials include a series of four screenshots depicting the purchase of Colleen Hoover's novel It Ends with Us for $13.99, on sale from a normal listing of $17.99. This pricing is in lockstep with the average retail cost of the same book at popular audiobook providers Google Play, Kobo, and Audible if the user is not a subscriber. With this addition Spotify is now a one-stop shop for the casual user. While it might not attract many users specifically for the audiobook functionality, any user who listens to music or podcasts with Premium has the ability to buy audiobooks and listen without leaving the app they're already paying for. Spanish-Language TV viewership surges despite mishandled metrics, lackluster representation.  Manuela: As is becoming common on The Download, this segment will discuss two articles that are closely related. First off: Spanish-language TV Viewership is Surging by Kelsey Sutton for MarketingBrew. The headline leads into a subheader explaining the surge is accompanied by poor measurement leading to under-investing. Now things are turning around. “We're sure you've heard it about a million times: linear TV viewership is, on average, not looking good. But there's one segment of old-fashioned TV whose outlook seems downright rosy.  Spanish-language TV networks, including mainstays like Univision and Telemundo, are on the upswing, growing daily audience reach even as many other major networks are seeing steady declines.” Dan Reiss, EVP and chief growth office at TelevisaUnivision told MarketingBrew Univision has seen an increase of brands on-air of more than 200 over the past two years. One of the benefits of podcasting being a younger industry than other media is it can learn from their mistakes and adjust earlier on when it's easier to do so. Just last month Edison Research's Latino Podcast Listener Report dropped, revealing 59% of the U.S. Latino population have listened to podcasts. Podcasting is a diverse field and should be treated as such from the ground up. To that note the final quote from an AdExchanger piece featuring Orci CEO Marina Filippelli: ““Gen Z can smell bullshit from a mile away – they know whether or not creative was produced by somebody like them,” Filippelli said. “Representation needs to take place not just in front of the camera, but behind the scenes.” Why Wonder Media Network won't sell its podcast ad inventory programmatically Shreya: This Tuesday Kayleigh Barber published a piece distilling an interview on the Digiday Podcast into article form. The interview features Wonder Media Network co-founder and CRO Shira Atkins enthusiastically explaining why the network refuses to carry programmatically-served ads, instead choosing a more bespoke approach. Not only are ads produced in-network, they're permanently baked-in.  “But on the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast, Atkins said she still believes that programmatic is “a tragedy for the podcasting ecosystem at large.” Her team does not sell any of its ad space programmatically. Instead, the podcast network uses its branded content studio to make bespoke audio ads, which Atkins said creates memorable ads that listeners are less likely to skip over.” It's worth noting the difference between content provided by programmatic methods and the tool of programmatic advertising itself. High quality memorably ads like those produced by Wonder Media Network for baked-in use can be served programmatically through direct deals that operationalize and improve the process for both buyers and sellers.  NPR, for example, does this currently with great success. Programmatic distribution is a tool, not a particular flavor of advertisement.  “We don't [carry programmatic-sold ads] because the reason that we're able to demand such high CPM [or sell flat rate deads] is that we're selling embedded ads in perpetuity. It makes me feel like an old lady whenever people ask me about this, because they're like, ‘I can't believe you don't do dynamic ad insertion.' But it works for us.” Host reads, baked-in, and dynamic ad insertion are all excellent tools that podcast audiences are receptive to, and companies like Wonder Media Network are an excellent example of how the power of the podcasting industry can allow individual facets of the industry to exist and thrive on their own.  Sounds Profitable's first research study - After These Messages - has the data to back up the efficacy of host-read ads. The study shows the audience preference for host-read ads over generic announcer-read ads, which Atkins conflates with programmatic, is much smaller than one would expect.  Spotify hits the top of Edison Manuela: For our final story I don't have to summarize the info, as they do it for me. “This week Edison Research publicly announced the ranking of the biggest podcasting networks through the second quarter of 2022, based on Edison Podcast Metrics survey of over 8,000 weekly podcast listeners age 18 and older.” For the three years Edison Research has done this report on podcast metrics, SiriusXM Media has held the top spot of the U.S. Top Podcast Networks, By Reach report. This last quarter the top contender was unseated by the relative newcomer. As of Q2 of this year Spotify is the #1 network by reach. They've gradually risen up the charts over years, using a combination of acquisitions, licensing deals, original content, and a fertile walled garden to grow the platform. As of this last quarter the top five now reads Spotify, SiriusXM Media, iHeartRadio, Audioboom, and NPR.  Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading Shreya: Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:  Athletic Greens gives us the scoop on its podcast advertising strategy by Alyssa Meyers of Marketing Brew.The article features company CRO Jonathan Corne explaining their strategy of carefully selecting podcasts to sponsor with intent of establishing a long-term relationship.  ‘Gaming is very much here to stay': Why Axe body spray is taking a bigger swing at esports marketing by Kimeko McCoy of Digiday. Axe isn't a stranger to sponsoring esports outside the US, but the company is renewing its efforts at home and getting into TikTok. Which is to say influencer marketing, a thing podcasting is very good at.  On that same note: Roblox will be one of the first major platform to launch in-game ads by Daniel Konstantinovic of InsiderIntelligence. For anyone without a kid: Roblox is a big deal. Arguably bigger than Minecraft. Allowing outside advertising without locking it to the game's internal currency is a big step.  RIP Broadcast TV? Legacy Broadcast Execs Say Not Just Yet by Alyssa Boyle of AdExchanger. A breakdown of the new trend of broadcast TV getting into streaming media by simulating traditional always-running broadcasts.  The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: Analyst predicts programmatic will get podcasting to six billion in ad spend, the new iOS update takes care of AppleCoreMedia, Apple announces virtual neighborhood for Latine Heritage Month, brand-lift studies are catching up with the times, and kids content is booming for Paramount+. Programmatic advertising could make podcasting a $6 billion industry by 2026 Manuela: In last Friday's Hot Pod Insider, Ariel Shapiro covers B. Riley analyst Daniel Day's newest publication about the industry. His most attention-grabbing prediction, as the headline spoils, expects podcast ad spending to be up to six billion dollars within four years. It'll be an uphill battle to get there. Shapiro points out the potential downsides of programmatic without the right data and infrastructure by recalling the infamous Wild Turkey incident. Back in May Spotify accidentally ran an ad for budget whiskey on every podcast on the app simultaneously, leading to a social media firestorm as users posted screenshots of the most inappropriate examples of podcasts to pair with Wild Turkey. Day is of the opinion more detailed location data will be a game-changer that avoids such issues in future.  “Small and mid-sized businesses really have almost entirely sat out podcast advertising to date,” Day told Hot Pod. “These advances in geo-targeting and programmatic allow mom and pops and local, regional businesses to access this medium in a way that they couldn't before, absent reaching out to like some local sports or news podcast. Now, they can target audiences listening to some big national podcast.” Day points to iHeartMedia putting significant investments into podcasting, as well as podcasting making up a larger portion of the company's revenue each year, as examples of the growth he projects in action.  iOS 16: What's new for Apple Podcasts Shreya: Last Wednesday Apple published an update blog detailing some of the new features coming with their iOS 16 update.  The update comes with some creature comforts for the user, such as more prominent placement of the sleep timer button and better Apple Watch integration for podcasts. There's also a bit of housekeeping noted, in case you missed the multiple emails over the past few weeks: “Show and provider titles will continue to be displayed alongside show artwork on the Library and Search tabs, so make sure your show's metadata is up to date and that your artwork includes your show's title for the best experience.”  The most important feature of this update for the business side of podcasting isn't mentioned in the update blog, though. This update brings the change to AppleCoreMedia user agent that'll shift how we view Apple's footprint in podcasting. As covered in our June 10th episode, this will lead to far less confusion as to what traffic is actually coming from Apple Podcasts. Those who didn't report ACM will no longer underestimate traffic from Apple, and those who labeled all traffic from ACM as Apple will get a more balanced look at just how much traffic is coming out of Apple. For those that are code-savvy, we'll include a link in the show notes to the official Apple developer page for the updated user agent key. Apple Podcast launches "El Vecindario" collections. Manuela: On the subject of Apple: This Monday an email sent by Apple announced their plans for Latine Heritage Month, which runs from today through October 15th.  “Later this month, Apple will showcase the abundance of Latine created content across genres, formats, and languages – and spotlight many great creators. Apple Podcasts has created a special destination, titled El Vecindario, that honors the spaces where Latine communities come together and conversations originate.” El Vecindario, the neighborhood in Spanish, will showcase Latine-created content covering multiple genres, formats, and languages.  Influencer marketing brand-lift studies are improving Shreya: Last Friday Marketing Brew's Phoebe Bain used the release of the Association of National Advertisers' organic measurement guidelines for influencers as an excuse to discuss how brand-lift studies have matured.  “Out of more than 1,000 Marketing Brew readers surveyed last month, about one-third said they think measurement for influencer marketing has “evolved significantly” over the past two years.”  A useful tool to track that rapid evolution is the brand-lift study. Bain spends a good portion of the article explaining the basics: two groups are asked questions about something, with only one having experience with that thing. Any differing answers or familiarity expressed by the second group is quantified as - you guessed it - brand lift.  Old-school brand-lift studies would ask simple questions regarding information retention, or whether the audience wanted to buy the product in an ad. Modernized studies take into account the changing media landscape, especially with the popularity of influencers.VP of marketing at creator management platform Grin  Ali Fazal explains to Marketing Brew: “With an influencer marketing brand-lift study, questions go a level deeper. Those questions might focus more on brand affinity, or how consumers feel. For example, “is the brand cool? Is it viral? Is it modern?” These questions focus less on what consumers remember, and more on a brand's overall or social appeal. In an influencer marketing brand-lift study, he said, the questions focus on the full picture rather than just the ad itself. “This measures the true depth of impact that creator marketing has,” he said. Why should the business side of podcasting care? Podcasting is influencer marketing. In a world of pixel-based brand attribution and walled garden ad solutions, people are finding their options are missing the mark for influencer and podcaster alike. Brand lift studies by companies like Edison Research, Signal Hill Insights, Veritonic, or Nielsen can help fill that gap.  How kids shows are boosting Paramount+ Manuela: Last Thursday Kelsey Sutton published a look at how kids' content is performing well at Paramount+. While Paramount+ is separate from Paramount's podcasting ventures, The Download has been covering the boom in kid-friendly podcasting since our March 18th episode. Paramount's experiences reaffirm that family and kid-oriented content drive engagement.  “When it comes to streaming, parents will go without eating before disconnecting something that entertains their kids,” Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon, said Tuesday at the Bank of America Securities 2022 Media, Communications, and Entertainment Conference. “Kids content is an amazing, amazing retention tool for us.” The streaming platform has done well for itself since the CBS All-Access rebrand. Currently Paramount+ reports 3 million paid subscribers.  “Kids' programming on streaming can also help fill the audience void as linear viewing continues to drop off. “If you take our linear share and the audience for kids that we've picked up on Paramount+, we actually have more audience and share of kids 2–11 than we've had in years when you combine them both,” Robbins said.? As reported back in March, studies show the Kids & Family categories have grown 20% since last year and there's reason to believe poor categorization of content is causing a lower number than the industry is actually experiencing. Kids content is doing quite well, as any parent will tell you.  Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading Shreya: Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:  Class Photos by Skye Pillsbury, for The Squeeze.  Pillsbury holds a mirror up to diversity on the business side of podcasting by compiling yearbook-style collages of the big podcasting company's leaders and known executives with deal-making power. A must-read.  Introducing The Mullet Career Strategy™ — Creativity & Business by Steve Pratt. Pacific Content co-founder Steve Pratt announces his upcoming venture titled The Creativity Business, a strategy firm aimed at helping creatives learn better business and businesses learn better creativity.   17 Stats That Reveal the Power of Podcast Advertising and Host-Read Ads by Connie Chen. In addition to quoting our After These Messages study, senior manager of content management at Gumball Connie Chen brings a bundle of research to back up the efficacy of host-read ads. The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: Analyst predicts programmatic will get podcasting to six billion in ad spend, the new iOS update takes care of AppleCoreMedia, Apple announces virtual neighborhood for Latine Heritage Month, brand-lift studies are catching up with the times, and kids content is booming for Paramount+. Programmatic advertising could make podcasting a $6 billion industry by 2026 Manuela: In last Friday's Hot Pod Insider, Ariel Shapiro covers B. Riley analyst Daniel Day's newest publication about the industry. His most attention-grabbing prediction, as the headline spoils, expects podcast ad spending to be up to six billion dollars within four years. It'll be an uphill battle to get there. Shapiro points out the potential downsides of programmatic without the right data and infrastructure by recalling the infamous Wild Turkey incident. Back in May Spotify accidentally ran an ad for budget whiskey on every podcast on the app simultaneously, leading to a social media firestorm as users posted screenshots of the most inappropriate examples of podcasts to pair with Wild Turkey. Day is of the opinion more detailed location data will be a game-changer that avoids such issues in future.  “Small and mid-sized businesses really have almost entirely sat out podcast advertising to date,” Day told Hot Pod. “These advances in geo-targeting and programmatic allow mom and pops and local, regional businesses to access this medium in a way that they couldn't before, absent reaching out to like some local sports or news podcast. Now, they can target audiences listening to some big national podcast.” Day points to iHeartMedia putting significant investments into podcasting, as well as podcasting making up a larger portion of the company's revenue each year, as examples of the growth he projects in action.  iOS 16: What's new for Apple Podcasts Shreya: Last Wednesday Apple published an update blog detailing some of the new features coming with their iOS 16 update.  The update comes with some creature comforts for the user, such as more prominent placement of the sleep timer button and better Apple Watch integration for podcasts. There's also a bit of housekeeping noted, in case you missed the multiple emails over the past few weeks: “Show and provider titles will continue to be displayed alongside show artwork on the Library and Search tabs, so make sure your show's metadata is up to date and that your artwork includes your show's title for the best experience.”  The most important feature of this update for the business side of podcasting isn't mentioned in the update blog, though. This update brings the change to AppleCoreMedia user agent that'll shift how we view Apple's footprint in podcasting. As covered in our June 10th episode, this will lead to far less confusion as to what traffic is actually coming from Apple Podcasts. Those who didn't report ACM will no longer underestimate traffic from Apple, and those who labeled all traffic from ACM as Apple will get a more balanced look at just how much traffic is coming out of Apple. For those that are code-savvy, we'll include a link in the show notes to the official Apple developer page for the updated user agent key. Apple Podcast launches "El Vecindario" collections. Manuela: On the subject of Apple: This Monday an email sent by Apple announced their plans for Latine Heritage Month, which runs from today through October 15th.  “Later this month, Apple will showcase the abundance of Latine created content across genres, formats, and languages – and spotlight many great creators. Apple Podcasts has created a special destination, titled El Vecindario, that honors the spaces where Latine communities come together and conversations originate.” El Vecindario, the neighborhood in Spanish, will showcase Latine-created content covering multiple genres, formats, and languages.  Influencer marketing brand-lift studies are improving Shreya: Last Friday Marketing Brew's Phoebe Bain used the release of the Association of National Advertisers' organic measurement guidelines for influencers as an excuse to discuss how brand-lift studies have matured.  “Out of more than 1,000 Marketing Brew readers surveyed last month, about one-third said they think measurement for influencer marketing has “evolved significantly” over the past two years.”  A useful tool to track that rapid evolution is the brand-lift study. Bain spends a good portion of the article explaining the basics: two groups are asked questions about something, with only one having experience with that thing. Any differing answers or familiarity expressed by the second group is quantified as - you guessed it - brand lift.  Old-school brand-lift studies would ask simple questions regarding information retention, or whether the audience wanted to buy the product in an ad. Modernized studies take into account the changing media landscape, especially with the popularity of influencers.VP of marketing at creator management platform Grin  Ali Fazal explains to Marketing Brew: “With an influencer marketing brand-lift study, questions go a level deeper. Those questions might focus more on brand affinity, or how consumers feel. For example, “is the brand cool? Is it viral? Is it modern?” These questions focus less on what consumers remember, and more on a brand's overall or social appeal. In an influencer marketing brand-lift study, he said, the questions focus on the full picture rather than just the ad itself. “This measures the true depth of impact that creator marketing has,” he said. Why should the business side of podcasting care? Podcasting is influencer marketing. In a world of pixel-based brand attribution and walled garden ad solutions, people are finding their options are missing the mark for influencer and podcaster alike. Brand lift studies by companies like Edison Research, Signal Hill Insights, Veritonic, or Nielsen can help fill that gap.  How kids shows are boosting Paramount+ Manuela: Last Thursday Kelsey Sutton published a look at how kids' content is performing well at Paramount+. While Paramount+ is separate from Paramount's podcasting ventures, The Download has been covering the boom in kid-friendly podcasting since our March 18th episode. Paramount's experiences reaffirm that family and kid-oriented content drive engagement.  “When it comes to streaming, parents will go without eating before disconnecting something that entertains their kids,” Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon, said Tuesday at the Bank of America Securities 2022 Media, Communications, and Entertainment Conference. “Kids content is an amazing, amazing retention tool for us.” The streaming platform has done well for itself since the CBS All-Access rebrand. Currently Paramount+ reports 3 million paid subscribers.  “Kids' programming on streaming can also help fill the audience void as linear viewing continues to drop off. “If you take our linear share and the audience for kids that we've picked up on Paramount+, we actually have more audience and share of kids 2–11 than we've had in years when you combine them both,” Robbins said.? As reported back in March, studies show the Kids & Family categories have grown 20% since last year and there's reason to believe poor categorization of content is causing a lower number than the industry is actually experiencing. Kids content is doing quite well, as any parent will tell you.  Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading Shreya: Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:  Class Photos by Skye Pillsbury, for The Squeeze.  Pillsbury holds a mirror up to diversity on the business side of podcasting by compiling yearbook-style collages of the big podcasting company's leaders and known executives with deal-making power. A must-read.  Introducing The Mullet Career Strategy™ — Creativity & Business by Steve Pratt. Pacific Content co-founder Steve Pratt announces his upcoming venture titled The Creativity Business, a strategy firm aimed at helping creatives learn better business and businesses learn better creativity.   17 Stats That Reveal the Power of Podcast Advertising and Host-Read Ads by Connie Chen. In addition to quoting our After These Messages study, senior manager of content management at Gumball Connie Chen brings a bundle of research to back up the efficacy of host-read ads. The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, it's my pleasure to welcome Tom Webster to the show, a name that needs little introduction for anyone in the podcasting space. Tom is partner at Sounds Profitable, a collection of media properties that provides industry leading research around podcasting's most pressing questions. Their latest two studies, After These Messages, and The Creators, throw up a lot of eye-opening data around podcasters and their listeners, as well as how different ads perform.  We'll be chatting about that and more in this episode, including: YouTube's entry into podcasting on being conservative around data why you shouldn't ignore Soundcloud the tipping point for podcasting and brands why education around ads could be hindering podcasters and agencies Connect with Tom to get more insights like this: https://soundsprofitable.com/ (Sounds Profitable) https://soundsprofitable.com/article/after-these-messages (After These Messages) (research paper) https://soundsprofitable.com/article/the-creators-us-2022 (The Creators) (research paper) https://twitter.com/webby2001 (Tom on Twitter) Contact me: danny@dannybrown.me Products I use for Pod ChatNote: these contain affiliate links, so I may get a small percentage of any product you buy/use when using my link. Recommended resources: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=dannybrown2 (Captivate.fm) https://www.aweber.com/easy-email.htm?id=513434 (Aweber email marketing) https://app.boomcaster.com/users/sign-up?referral=6oZlBSl1P8EU5Wsy (Boomcaster remote interviewing) https://mypodcastreviews.com/?ref=150 (My Podcast Reviews) https://reel.so/?via=3DW0OVDL (Reel.so audiogram creator) Mentioned in this episode: Enjoy Pod Chat? Leave a review or rating on your preferred app and show the world you care! Did you know every time Pod Chat gets a new review, a baby podcaster takes their first steps? Help a baby podcaster walk today, by leaving a 5-star rating or review on the likes of Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. Just head on over to https://podchat.ca/review (podchat.ca/review) and do your magic - these little feet are counting on you! https://podchat.ca/review (Review the show) Get your daily podcasting newsletter with Podnews Pod Chat is sponsored by Podnews - get a daily email with all the latest news about podcasting. It's free at https://podchat.ca/getpodnews (podnews.net). From jobs across the industry to events and conferences, you'll find the latest podcasting info in the daily newsletter. You can add https://podchat.ca/getpodnews (podnews.net) to your daily briefing on your smart speaker too - just search for it in your smart speaker app. https://podchat.ca/getpodnews ( Visit Podnews) This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp

After an extended summer break (sorry, it was only meant to be a month but life got in the way!), Pod Chat returns next week, on Friday September 9 - woot woot! My first guest is https://twitter.com/webby2001 (Tom Webster) of https://soundsprofitable.com/ (Sounds Profitable), and former SVP at Edison Research. We spoke about data in podcasting, the recent After These Messages report that premiered at Podcast Movement, the opportunity for podcasters and advertising (including programmatic), and more. Here's a snippet. I can't wait to share the full episode soon! Contact me: danny@dannybrown.me Products I use for Pod ChatNote: these contain affiliate links, so I may get a small percentage of any product you buy/use when using my link. My equipment: https://www.shure.com/en-GB/products/microphones/sm7b (Shure SM7B) https://amzn.to/3geVL2w (Motu M2 Audio Interface) https://amzn.to/3JUtJVn (Sony MDR-7506 Studio Monitor Headphones) https://www.elgato.com/en/wave-mic-arm-lp (Elgato Wave Mic Arm Low Profile) Recommended resources: https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=dannybrown2 (Captivate.fm) https://www.aweber.com/easy-email.htm?id=513434 (Aweber email marketing) https://app.boomcaster.com/users/sign-up?referral=6oZlBSl1P8EU5Wsy (Boomcaster remote interviewing) https://mypodcastreviews.com/?ref=150 (My Podcast Reviews) https://reel.so/?via=3DW0OVDL (Reel.so audiogram creator) This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrp

Esta semana: El gasto en publicidad de podcasts se fortalece a pesar de los temores de recesión, YouTube y Twitter lanzaron espacios dedicados a los podcasts, la publicidad cuestiona qué hacer si los usuarios premium eligen no ver anuncios y se analiza por qué los anuncios directo al consumidor no se han reducido como se esperaba. La inversión en publicidad de podcasts no desacelera, aunque se acerca una recesión Manuela: Alyssa Meyers de Marketing Brew publicó buenas noticias el miércoles pasado. Las cosas están mejorando para el gasto en publicidad de podcasts a pesar de condiciones económicas menos que ideales. Para la publicidad general, es un poco sombrío. El 18 de agosto, Daniel Konstantinovic, escribiendo para Insider Intelligence, cubrió el peor mes de inversión publicitaria en dos años. "En julio, el gasto en publicidad observó su peor caída mensual desde julio de 2020. El gasto en publicidad se contrajo un 12,7% año tras año en julio, según MediaPost y el US Ad Market Tracker de Standard Media Index". Se proponen varias causas potenciales de esta caída. La relajación de las restricciones pandémicas y el regreso de las reuniones sociales más grandes ha aumentado los viajes al trabajo y el tiempo libre lejos de las pantallas. Mientras tanto, incluso cuando el jurado está deliberando sobre si técnicamente estamos en una recesión, Konstantinovic señala una estadística de Brand Keys que muestra que el 70 % de los consumidores creen que están en una recesión y, por lo tanto, están recortando el gasto. No le ha ido bien al gasto en el espacio publicitario general, pero el gasto en publicidad de podcast continúa aumentando a pesar de todo. “Algunas de las compañías de audio más grandes informaron un crecimiento en los ingresos por publicidad de podcasts para el segundo trimestre a pesar de que el mercado publicitario se debilitó, y los compradores responsables de los principales presupuestos de audio nos dijeron que aún no han visto un revés significativo de los podcasts, lo que indica que el sector podría seguir creciendo independientemente del estado de la economía”. También vale la pena tener en cuenta qué datos estamos viendo y cómo los interpretamos, como explica Sean Russo de Magella AI: “Echamos un vistazo a través de algunos lentes diferentes. Cuando observamos el gasto año tras año en julio en podcasts, vemos un aumento del 19%. Si miramos el segundo trimestre año tras año, estamos viendo un aumento del 48%. Vale la pena señalar que, al mirar mes a mes de junio a julio, vimos una disminución del 7%. Entonces, la conclusión de lo que estamos viendo es que la inversión en publicidad de podcasts continúa creciendo a un ritmo saludable año contra año, aunque vimos un pequeño retroceso de junio a julio”. YouTube y Twitter lanzan secciones dedicadas a los podcasts Gabe: Dos plataformas gigantes de redes sociales han lanzado secciones dedicadas a los podcasts. El jueves pasado, Twitter comenzó el lanzamiento de la nueva pestaña: Spaces. Según el anuncio de Twitter “La integración de podcasts en Spaces, donde las conversaciones de audio ocurren en Twitter, es otra forma en que continuamos invirtiendo en creadores de audio. Para hacer esto de una manera simple e intuitiva que permita a los oyentes simplemente presionar play y go, comenzamos con una experiencia de audio rediseñada en la pestaña: Spaces”. Twitter sigue siendo un espacio importante para que los podcasters promuevan y establezcan contactos. Con la adición de la funcionalidad de podcast que es nativa de la aplicación, eliminaron parte de la fricción entre la promoción de un podcast y el miembro potencial de la audiencia que realmente escucha. En el mismo tema: el pasado lunes YouTube lanzó una página dedicada a los podcasts, aunque solo para usuarios de Estados Unidos. Según, Sarah Perez de TechCrunch, la URL de la nueva página se descubrió antes del anuncio formal. A pesar de que su trueno fue parcialmente robado, YouTube ha mostrado una cantidad prometedora de dedicación a la industria. El año pasado, YouTube contrató a un ejecutivo de podcasts, Kai Chuk, para liderar sus esfuerzos en el espacio y ha estado ofreciendo dinero en efectivo a los podcasters populares para filmar sus programas, según los informes. En marzo, Podnews filtró una presentación de 84 páginas que detallaba la hoja de ruta a los podcasts por YouTube. En el documento, YouTube reveló que tenía planes para probar la integración de fuentes RSS. También mencionó una nueva URL, YouTube.com/podcasts, pero el enlace no funcionó en ese momento”. Además de lo que Pérez cubrió en la cita, también vale la pena recordar que YouTube anunció recientemente una asociación con NPR para llevar sus programas a la plataforma. Es seguro decir que YouTube es una de las grandes empresas que se está tomando en serio la industria de los podcasts y su potencial. ¿Qué sucede cuando los hogares con altos ingresos optan por no recibir anuncios? Manuela: El lunes pasado, Kelsey Sutton, escribiendo para Marketing Brew, abordó una pregunta importante: ¿qué pasa si las personas a las que ciertas marcas desean comercializar también son el grupo demográfico con más probabilidades de pagar una prima específicamente para evitar anuncios? “Las personas a las que más quieren dirigirse los anunciantes se esconden de los anunciantes”, dijo Eric Schmitt, director de investigación y analista de Gartner for Marketing Leaders. "Realmente va a tener algunos efectos colaterales interesantes para el negocio de la publicidad con el tiempo". El podcasting no se menciona específicamente en el artículo, pero es un fenómeno creciente a tener en cuenta. Los datos actuales nos dicen que la mayoría de los oyentes se sienten cómodos con los anuncios tal como existen actualmente en los podcasts. El estudio, After These Messages, publicado por Sounds Profitable la semana pasada tiene algunos datos extremadamente relevantes. El artículo de Sutton apunta a las suscripciones múltiples a los servicios de streaming como el mayor ejemplo de la popularización de una opción premium sin publicidad. Aunque vale la pena mencionar eso, también hay un amplio espacio para los matices en la discusión, incluidos servicios como Paramount + y Hulu, que tienen anuncios pre-roll incorporados antes de cada episodio de televisión o película, independientemente del nivel de suscripción. “Schimtt planteó la hipótesis de que el cambio eventualmente puede significar mayores desafíos para los canales de medios tradicionales con publicidad, incluida la televisión, ya que los especialistas en marketing buscan en otros lugares para llegar a los consumidores de mayores ingresos o gastar más recursos en marketing para clientes anteriores”. Escuchar sin publicidad es un invento relativamente nuevo en el podcasting, especialmente a gran escala. Por ahora, esperemos a ver de qué lado soplan los vientos publicitarios. Como y por que la publicidad directo al consumidor no ha disminuido como se pensaba Gabe: Michael Bürgi de Digiday publicó el martes pasado: “Facebook tiene el gasto promedio mensual más alto en julio de 2022 con $19.022 ($2,000 menos que el año anterior), según Varos, una empresa de investigación que rastrea el gasto en comercio electrónico de unas 1.800 empresas. El gasto medio de Google aumentó de $8.101 a $8.209 durante el mismo período; TikTok creció de $4.095 a $5.981 “. Con la capacidad obsoleta de realizar un seguimiento de las conversiones debido a los cambios en iOS 14.5 (y versiones posteriores) y los cambios adicionales en las cookies y los datos de terceros, las marcas de directo al consumidor están recurriendo a oportunidades de marca para alcanzar sus objetivos. Se creía que habría un reves de ese gasto, y algunas empresas no lo han sobrevivido, pero las que lo han hecho están explorando otras vías además del clic más barato y rápido, a través del marketing de influencers. La Descarga es una producción de Sounds Profitable. El episodio de hoy fue presentado por Manuela Bedoya y Gabriel Soto, y escrito por Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta y Tom Webster son los productores ejecutivos de La Descarga de Sounds Profitable.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: Podcast ad spending goes strong despite recession fears, YouTube and Twitter launched dedicated podcast spaces, advertising questions what to do if premium users choose not to see ads, and a look into why DTC ads haven't fallen off as expected. Podcast Ad Spend isn't Slowing as a Recession Potentially Looms. Manuela: Marketing Brew's Alyssa Meyers brought good news last Wednesday. Things are looking up for the podcast ad spending despite, shall we say, less than ideal economic conditions.  Over on the general advertising side of things, it's a bit bleak. On August 18th  Daniel Konstantinovic, writing for Insider Intelligence, covered the worst month of ad spending in two years.  “July saw ad spending go through its worst monthly decline since July 2020. Ad spending contracted 12.7% year over year in July, per MediaPost and Standard Media Index's US Ad Market Tracker.”  Several potential causes of this dip are proposed, most of which are interlinked to some degree. Relaxing of pandemic restrictions and the return of larger social gatherings has increased commuting and free time away from screens. Meanwhile, even while the jury's out on whether we're technically in a recession, Konstantinovic points out a Brand Keys statistic showing 70% of consumers believe they're in a recession and thus are cutting back on spending.  Perhaps spending wasn't great in the general advertising space, but podcast ad spending continues to boom regardless.  “Some of the biggest audio companies reported growth in podcast ad revenue for Q2 despite a softening ad market, and buyers responsible for major audio budgets told us they've yet to see a significant retreat from podcasting, indicating that the sector could continue growing regardless of the state of the economy.”  It's also worth keeping in mind which data we're looking at and how we're looking at it, as Magellan AI's Sean Russo explains:  “We took a look through a few different lenses. When you look at year-over-year spend in July in podcasts, we're seeing a 19% increase.  If we look at Q2 YoY we're seeing a 48% increase. Worth noting that looking at month-over-month June to July we saw a 7% decrease. So, the bottom line on what we're seeing is that podcast ad spend continues to grow at a healthy clip YoY, though we did see a minor pullback from June to July.” YouTube and Twitter Launch Dedicated Podcast Sections Shreya: It's time to follow up on two developing stories we've covered in recent weeks, as two giant social media platforms have now rolled out sections dedicated to podcasting.  Last Thursday Twitter started the rollout of the new dedicated Spaces tab.  “Integrating podcasts into Spaces, where audio conversations happen on Twitter, is another way we're continuing to invest in audio creators. To do this in a simple and intuitive way that allows listeners to simply hit play and go, we started with a redesigned audio experience in the Spaces Tab.”  Twitter remains an important space for podcasters to both promote and network. With the addition of podcast functionality that's native to the app they've removed some of the friction between the promotion of a podcast and the potential audience member actually listening.  On that same note: last Monday YouTube launched a dedicated page for podcasts, though only for users in the United States. As covered by Sarah Perez in TechCrunch, the url for the new page was discovered ahead of formal announcement. Despite their thunder being partly stolen, YouTube's shown a promising amount of dedication to the industry.  “Last year, YouTube hired a podcast executive, Kai Chuk, to lead its efforts in the space and has been offering cash to popular podcasters to film their shows, reports said. This March, a site called Podnews leaked an 84-page presentation that detailed YouTube's podcast roadmap. In the document, YouTube revealed it had plans to pilot the feature by ingesting RSS feeds. It also mentioned a new URL, YouTube.com/podcasts, but the link didn't work at the time.” A quick note from script writer Gavin: yes, that bit of the quote with the phrase “a site called Podnews” hurt me too.  In addition to what Perez covered in the quote, it's also worth remembering YouTube has recently announced a partnership with NPR to bring their shows to the platform. It's safe to say YouTube is one of the big companies that is taking the podcasting industry and its potential seriously.  What happens when high-income households opt out of ads? Manuela: Last Monday Kelsey Sutton, writing for Marketing Brew, approached an important question: what if the people certain brands wish to market to are also the demographic most likely to pay a premium specifically to avoid ads?  “The people that advertisers most want to target are hiding from the advertisers,” said Eric Schmitt, research director and analyst on the Gartner for Marketing Leaders. “It really is going to have some interesting knock-on effects for the ad business over time.” Podcasting is not specifically name-checked in the piece, but it is a growing phenomenon to keep in mind. Current data tells us most listeners are comfortable with ads as they currently exist in podcasting. Stick around for our Quick Hits section this week if you want a link to some extremely relevant data from a certain study Sounds Profitable published last week. Sutton's article points to multi-tired subscriptions to streaming services as the biggest example of the popularization of a premium ad-free option. While these are worth thinking about, there's ample room for nuance in the discussion, up to and including services like Paramount+ and Hulu, who have baked-in preroll ads before every television episode or movie regardless of subscription level.  “Schimtt hypothesized that the shift may eventually spell larger challenges for traditional ad-supported media channels, including TV, as marketers look elsewhere to reach higher-income consumers or spend more resources marketing to past customers.” Ad-free listening is a relatively new invention in podcasting, especially on a large scale. For now we wait and see which way the advertising winds blow.  How and why DTC advertising hasn't cooled off as much as once thought Shreya: Last Tuesday Digiday's Michael Bürgi published a brief look into the world of direct-to-consumer advertising in a world anticipating DTC upheaval. With the deprecated ability to track conversions due to changes in iOS 14.5 and the additional changes to cookies and third party data, DTC brands are turning to alternatives like branding opportunities to hit their goals. Surprisingly, after seasonal changes are taken into account, there's quite a few DTC markets growing.  “Facebook has the highest monthly median spend in July 2022 at $19,022 ($2,000 less than a year prior), according to Varos, a research company that tracks e-commerce spend for about 1,800 companies. Google's median spend inched up from $8,101 to $8,209 over the same period; TikTok's grew from $4,095 to $5,981.”  The commonly-held belief that there would be pullback from DTC spending was indeed widespread, even leading to some companies not surviving. Those who did explore other avenues besides the cheapest and fastest clicks have discovered the wide world of influencer marketing, which just so happens to be where podcasting thrives.  Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading Manuela: Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week's Sounds Profitable releases their second study, After These Messages.  Do podcast audiences prefer improvised host-read ads, scripted host-read, or pre-recorded radio spots? After These Messages is a one-of-a-kind study polling over 1,000 podcast super listeners to answer that question. Both the study and the half-hour video of Tom Webster's presentation at Podcast Movement 2022 are available now.  Streaming surpasses cable and broadcast for the first time by Kurt Hanson.  While not a podcasting story, per se, it does highlight a significant milestone for digital media. People are becoming more and more comfortable unplugging from traditional broadcast media and constructing their own media diets from digital sources. Podcasting could ride along with that. I made a map of Spotify podcast recommendations. Here's what I learned by Dan Misener.  The inner workings of the aggregators are completely unknown to us. While Spotify refutes Dan's points, his research with multiple touch-points shows a very interesting story.  Podcasters test offering more bonus content and additional features to grow subscriptions An interesting look inside podcast subscription content by Sara Guaglione. Long headline, relatively short article. Transparency on trying new endeavors is always exciting and there's some valuable information in this look into premium podcast subscriptions.  The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week: Podcast ad spending goes strong despite recession fears, YouTube and Twitter launched dedicated podcast spaces, advertising questions what to do if premium users choose not to see ads, and a look into why DTC ads haven't fallen off as expected. Podcast Ad Spend isn't Slowing as a Recession Potentially Looms. Manuela: Marketing Brew's Alyssa Meyers brought good news last Wednesday. Things are looking up for the podcast ad spending despite, shall we say, less than ideal economic conditions.  Over on the general advertising side of things, it's a bit bleak. On August 18th  Daniel Konstantinovic, writing for Insider Intelligence, covered the worst month of ad spending in two years.  “July saw ad spending go through its worst monthly decline since July 2020. Ad spending contracted 12.7% year over year in July, per MediaPost and Standard Media Index's US Ad Market Tracker.”  Several potential causes of this dip are proposed, most of which are interlinked to some degree. Relaxing of pandemic restrictions and the return of larger social gatherings has increased commuting and free time away from screens. Meanwhile, even while the jury's out on whether we're technically in a recession, Konstantinovic points out a Brand Keys statistic showing 70% of consumers believe they're in a recession and thus are cutting back on spending.  Perhaps spending wasn't great in the general advertising space, but podcast ad spending continues to boom regardless.  “Some of the biggest audio companies reported growth in podcast ad revenue for Q2 despite a softening ad market, and buyers responsible for major audio budgets told us they've yet to see a significant retreat from podcasting, indicating that the sector could continue growing regardless of the state of the economy.”  It's also worth keeping in mind which data we're looking at and how we're looking at it, as Magellan AI's Sean Russo explains:  “We took a look through a few different lenses. When you look at year-over-year spend in July in podcasts, we're seeing a 19% increase.  If we look at Q2 YoY we're seeing a 48% increase. Worth noting that looking at month-over-month June to July we saw a 7% decrease. So, the bottom line on what we're seeing is that podcast ad spend continues to grow at a healthy clip YoY, though we did see a minor pullback from June to July.” YouTube and Twitter Launch Dedicated Podcast Sections Shreya: It's time to follow up on two developing stories we've covered in recent weeks, as two giant social media platforms have now rolled out sections dedicated to podcasting.  Last Thursday Twitter started the rollout of the new dedicated Spaces tab.  “Integrating podcasts into Spaces, where audio conversations happen on Twitter, is another way we're continuing to invest in audio creators. To do this in a simple and intuitive way that allows listeners to simply hit play and go, we started with a redesigned audio experience in the Spaces Tab.”  Twitter remains an important space for podcasters to both promote and network. With the addition of podcast functionality that's native to the app they've removed some of the friction between the promotion of a podcast and the potential audience member actually listening.  On that same note: last Monday YouTube launched a dedicated page for podcasts, though only for users in the United States. As covered by Sarah Perez in TechCrunch, the url for the new page was discovered ahead of formal announcement. Despite their thunder being partly stolen, YouTube's shown a promising amount of dedication to the industry.  “Last year, YouTube hired a podcast executive, Kai Chuk, to lead its efforts in the space and has been offering cash to popular podcasters to film their shows, reports said. This March, a site called Podnews leaked an 84-page presentation that detailed YouTube's podcast roadmap. In the document, YouTube revealed it had plans to pilot the feature by ingesting RSS feeds. It also mentioned a new URL, YouTube.com/podcasts, but the link didn't work at the time.” A quick note from script writer Gavin: yes, that bit of the quote with the phrase “a site called Podnews” hurt me too.  In addition to what Perez covered in the quote, it's also worth remembering YouTube has recently announced a partnership with NPR to bring their shows to the platform. It's safe to say YouTube is one of the big companies that is taking the podcasting industry and its potential seriously.  What happens when high-income households opt out of ads? Manuela: Last Monday Kelsey Sutton, writing for Marketing Brew, approached an important question: what if the people certain brands wish to market to are also the demographic most likely to pay a premium specifically to avoid ads?  “The people that advertisers most want to target are hiding from the advertisers,” said Eric Schmitt, research director and analyst on the Gartner for Marketing Leaders. “It really is going to have some interesting knock-on effects for the ad business over time.” Podcasting is not specifically name-checked in the piece, but it is a growing phenomenon to keep in mind. Current data tells us most listeners are comfortable with ads as they currently exist in podcasting. Stick around for our Quick Hits section this week if you want a link to some extremely relevant data from a certain study Sounds Profitable published last week. Sutton's article points to multi-tired subscriptions to streaming services as the biggest example of the popularization of a premium ad-free option. While these are worth thinking about, there's ample room for nuance in the discussion, up to and including services like Paramount+ and Hulu, who have baked-in preroll ads before every television episode or movie regardless of subscription level.  “Schimtt hypothesized that the shift may eventually spell larger challenges for traditional ad-supported media channels, including TV, as marketers look elsewhere to reach higher-income consumers or spend more resources marketing to past customers.” Ad-free listening is a relatively new invention in podcasting, especially on a large scale. For now we wait and see which way the advertising winds blow.  How and why DTC advertising hasn't cooled off as much as once thought Shreya: Last Tuesday Digiday's Michael Bürgi published a brief look into the world of direct-to-consumer advertising in a world anticipating DTC upheaval. With the deprecated ability to track conversions due to changes in iOS 14.5 and the additional changes to cookies and third party data, DTC brands are turning to alternatives like branding opportunities to hit their goals. Surprisingly, after seasonal changes are taken into account, there's quite a few DTC markets growing.  “Facebook has the highest monthly median spend in July 2022 at $19,022 ($2,000 less than a year prior), according to Varos, a research company that tracks e-commerce spend for about 1,800 companies. Google's median spend inched up from $8,101 to $8,209 over the same period; TikTok's grew from $4,095 to $5,981.”  The commonly-held belief that there would be pullback from DTC spending was indeed widespread, even leading to some companies not surviving. Those who did explore other avenues besides the cheapest and fastest clicks have discovered the wide world of influencer marketing, which just so happens to be where podcasting thrives.  Quick Hits: Recommended Weekend Reading Manuela: Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week's Sounds Profitable releases their second study, After These Messages.  Do podcast audiences prefer improvised host-read ads, scripted host-read, or pre-recorded radio spots? After These Messages is a one-of-a-kind study polling over 1,000 podcast super listeners to answer that question. Both the study and the half-hour video of Tom Webster's presentation at Podcast Movement 2022 are available now.  Streaming surpasses cable and broadcast for the first time by Kurt Hanson.  While not a podcasting story, per se, it does highlight a significant milestone for digital media. People are becoming more and more comfortable unplugging from traditional broadcast media and constructing their own media diets from digital sources. Podcasting could ride along with that. I made a map of Spotify podcast recommendations. Here's what I learned by Dan Misener.  The inner workings of the aggregators are completely unknown to us. While Spotify refutes Dan's points, his research with multiple touch-points shows a very interesting story.  Podcasters test offering more bonus content and additional features to grow subscriptions An interesting look inside podcast subscription content by Sara Guaglione. Long headline, relatively short article. Transparency on trying new endeavors is always exciting and there's some valuable information in this look into premium podcast subscriptions.  The Download is a production of Sounds Profitable. Today's episode was hosted by Shreya Sharma and Manuela Bedoya, and the script was written by Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster are the executive producers of The Download from Sounds Profitable.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Esta semana en La Descarga: Las noticias más importantes de esta semana y por qué es importante para las personas en el negocio de los podcasts. ¡Yo soy Gabriel Soto! Manuela está de vacaciones. Gabe: esta semana: informes de ganancias trimestrales, el audio obtiene su propio lugar en Advertising Week, y Spotify le da a los podcast un nuevo espacio en su aplicación. ¡Empecemos! Gabe: Espero que estén listos para informes de ganancias, porque tenemos dos segmentos de ganancias del segundo trimestre para revisar. Primero: las grandes plataformas. El miércoles pasado, Alyssa Meyers de Marketing Brew publicó un resumen sobre las ganancias de Spotify, SiriusXM y Acast, lo que trae un poco de esperanza: Meyers dice, “Llámalo como quieras, el negocio de la publicidad no se ve lo mejor en este momento. Pero según estos ejecutivos, el creciente segmento de podcasts se mantiene a flote”. Fin de cita Es innegable que la incertidumbre económica está afectando a la industria publicitaria. Los directores ejecutivos de Spotify y SiriusXM citan las tendencias "macro" como nefastas, pero no para las ventas de anuncios de podcast. Los ingresos publicitarios del segundo trimestre de SiriusXM para Pandora y las plataformas asociadas informan un aumento interanual del 5 %, alcanzando los 403 millones de dólares estadounidenses. Spotify registró una ganancia anual del 31%, ganando alrededor de 366 millones. Meyers cita al director financiero de Spotify, Paul Vogel, diciendo que están experimentando un "fuerte crecimiento en el lado de los podcasts". El servicio de alojamiento Acast ha estado ocupado este segundo trimestre, citando nuevas funciones en su plataforma, un aumento masivo de podcasts en ella, y la adquisición de Podchaser como factores impulsores de su crecimiento de ventas netas del 39 %. Una cifra que asciende a 31 millones de dólares. Claro que las tendencias macro son preocupantes, pero La Descarga nunca dejará pasar la oportunidad de informar sobre el aumento de los números en los podcasts. Grandes o pequeños, los protagonistas de la industria están aumentando los ingresos por publicidad, y eso es algo bueno. Gabe: Ahora, a cubrir los números del segundo trimestre de tres grandes emisoras: iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media y Audacy. Hay unos puntos de preocupación para las empresas, pero, curiosamente, los podcasts son faros de esperanza en los tres informes. En general, iHeartMedia informa un aumento interanual del 11 %, a pesar de “el entorno económico incierto” según el presidente, Rich Bressler. Los ingresos por podcasts ascienden a 86 millones de dólares estadounidenses, un aumento del 60 % año tras año. Mientras tanto, Cumulus Media se unió al club que ha mencionado la palabra “macro”. Durante la primera declaración de la presidenta Mary Berner dijo: “A pesar del desafiante entorno macroeconómico, aumentamos los ingresos en el trimestre más del 5 %, impulsado por nuestros negocios digitales, cuyo crecimiento se aceleró en el segundo trimestre al 20 % año tras año”. Fin de cita Los podcasts le ganaron a Cumulus casi 15 millones este último trimestre, un 27 % más año tras año. En total, el medio representa el 6% de los ingresos de la empresa. Genial Finalmente, el presidente de Audacy, David J Field, nos trae un uso final del término "macro": Según field, “Después de un primer trimestre muy fuerte en el que aumentamos los ingresos en un 14 % y aumentamos significativamente el margen, nuestros resultados del segundo trimestre se vieron afectados negativamente por las condiciones macroeconómicas en declive y los obstáculos del mercado publicitario que redujeron nuestro crecimiento de ingresos brutos al 5 %”. Fin de cita. La compañía ganó $ 69 millones por “ el digital", que incluye podcasts, y ha subido un 18% año tras año. Las descargas de podcasts crecieron un 40% durante e mismo periodo. Se supone que los ingresos de los podcasts están en la parte superior del porcentaje de crecimiento, pero Audacy no dio detalles. Incluso con los vientos en contra del mercado publicitario, parece que los podcasts les están yendo bien, ¿no creen? Gabe: El miércoles de la semana pasada Alyssa Meyers, anunció que "El audio obtuvo su propia pista en el Advertising Week de este año". El jefe de podcasting de Advertising Week, Richard Larsson, le dijo a Marketing Brew: “El crecimiento de audio durante la pandemia, junto con los esfuerzos de Advertising Week para construir su propia red de podcasts, culminó con la decisión de darle al audio un lugar más oficial en la agenda este octubre”.fin de cita. La representación de audio continúa con una de las ceremonias de entrega de premios de podcasts más antiguas, si no la más antigua. Ayer, los premios People's Choice Podcast Awards anunciaron los nominados para su 17ª sesión anual. La lista de nominados se puede encontrar en el sitio web de Podcast Awards. Hablando de premios: el lunes, el último número de Adweek salió con los ganadores de los premios Adweek Podcast of the Year 2022. La lista completa de ganadores se puede encontrar en la publicación oficial de Adweek de Kennyatta Collins. Gabe: Los podcasts y la música se separarán pronto en Spotify, según el artículo de David Pierce para The Verge, publicado este martes. Según Pierce “Spotify ha estado trabajando en un nuevo diseño para su pestaña de inicio que creará feeds separados para su música y sus podcasts. La compañía dice que es parte de un esfuerzo por brindar más y mejores recomendaciones, pero también aborda una crítica común de la experiencia de Spotify: con todo tipo de audio mezclado en la aplicación, a veces puede ser difícil de entender” fin de cita El nuevo diseño crea una barra en la parte superior de la aplicación que indica si el usuario está en el área de Música o en uno llamado Podcasts y Shows. Música continuará presentando nuevas sugerencias de canciones y álbumes junto con pistas escuchadas recientemente, mientras que Podcasts & Shows se deshace de la música y se enfoca únicamente en nuevos episodios de podcasts suscritos y recomendaciones para programas que Spotify cree que el usuario disfrutará. Pierce ofrece la comparación: “No son tanto nuevas pantallas de inicio como nuevos filtros para su pantalla de inicio. (Preferiría que fueran pestañas separadas por completo, pero tomaré lo que pueda).” Fin de cita Un rediseño de la aplicación con un área dedicada a los podcasts ofrece más oportunidades de promoción. La promoción de podcasts y el crecimiento de la audiencia es uno de los temas más discutidos en el podcasting. Gabe: Finalmente, un poco de autopromoción: el último proyecto de investigación de Sounds Profitable debutará el martes 23 de agosto durante el Sounds Profitable Business Summit. El evento tendrá lugar en Dallas, Texas, durante el día inaugural de Podcast Movement. El estudio llamado "After These Messages" presentará una visión definitiva del impacto de los anuncios leídos por anfitriones en vivo, los anuncios con guión y los anuncios leídos por otro locutor. Este estudio fue diseñado por Tom Webster, veterano de la industria de la investigación y los podcasts, en asociación con Edison Research, y será visto como un nuevo recurso importante para los editores y las marcas. No te lo pierdas. Gabe: ¡Y así es La Descarga, de Sounds Profitable! Sé que recorrimos estas historias muy rápido, así que no olvides revisar los enlaces para cada artículo que mencionamos directamente en tu aplicación de podcasts o en SoundsProfitable.com/ladescarga. Y gracias por seguir con nosotros para brindarles las mejores historias que tal vez se hayan perdido en la semana. Soy Manuela Bedoya La Descarga es una producción de Sounds Profitable. El episodio de hoy fue presentado por Manuela Bedoya y Gabriel Soto, y escrito por Gavin Gaddis. Bryan Barletta y Tom Webster son los productores ejecutivos de La Descarga de Sounds Profitable.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on The Download:  Quarterly earnings, more quarterly earnings, Audio is getting its own track at Advertising Week, and Spotify is giving podcasts their own space in its app.  Arielle: Hope you're ready for some earnings reports, because we've got two segments worth of second quarter earnings to go over. First up: the big platforms. Last Wednesday Alyssa Meyers of Marketing Brew posted a roundup of Spotify, SiriusXM and Acast. Things kick off with a silver lining:  “Call it what you want, the ad biz is not looking its best right now. But according to these execs, the growing podcast segment is keeping its head above water.”  Economic uncertainty is undeniably impacting the ad industry. The CEOs of Spotify and SiriusXM both cite ‘macro' trends as being notably dire but not to podcast ads sales. SiriusXM's Q2 ad revenue for Pandora and associated platforms reports a 5% year over year increase, reaching 403 million. Spotify posted a 31% year over year gain, earning around 366 million. This time around they neglected to isolate their podcast ad revenue as its own statistic.  Meyers quotes Spotify CFO Paul Vogel as saying they're experiencing “strong growth on the podcasting side.” Hosting service Acast has been busy this second quarter, citing new features, a massive increase of podcasts on the platform, and their acquisition of Podchaser as driving factors of their 39% net sales growth. A figure that calculates out to 31 million USD.  While the macro trends are concerning, The Download will never pass up an opportunity to report numbers going up in podcasting. Big or small, names in the industry are increasing ad revenue, and that's a good thing.  Shreya: Now to cover the Q2 numbers from three large broadcasters: iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media, and Audacy. There's a few dark spots throughout but, interestingly, their podcast numbers are shining beacons of hope in all three reports.  Overall iHeartMedia reports an 11% year over year increase, despite, in the words of company president Rich Bressler: “the uncertain economic environment.” Podcast revenue is up to 86 million, a 60% year over year increase.  Meanwhile, Cumulus Media joined the macro club during president Mary Berner's opening statement:  “Despite the challenging macro environment, we increased revenue in the quarter by more than 5%, driven by our digital businesses whose growth accelerated in Q2 to 20% year-over-year.” Podcasting made Cumulus around 15 million this last quarter, up 27% year over year. All told, podcasting accounts for 6% of the company's revenue. Not too shabby.  Finally, Audacy's president David J Field brings us a final use of the term ‘macro' for this episode:  “After a very strong first quarter in which we grew revenues by 14% and significantly increased margin, our second quarter results were adversely impacted by declining macroeconomic conditions and ad market headwinds which reduced our top line growth to 5%.”  The company made a nice $69m from “digital,” which includes podcasting, and is up 18% year over year. Podcast downloads grew 40% year-over-year. Revenue from podcasts is supposedly in the upper teens of percentage growth, but Audacy didn't give specifics. Even with the ad market headwinds it seems podcasting is doing well for them.  Arielle: Wednesday of last week was a busy day for Alyssa Meyers, as we cover her second article of the day: “Audio gets its own track at this year's Advertising Week.”  Advertising Week's head of podcasting Richard Larsson told Marketing Brew,  “The rise of audio throughout the pandemic, coupled with Advertising Week's efforts to build its own podcast network, culminated in the decision to give audio a more official spot on the agenda this October.” Audio representation continues with one of - if not the - longest-running podcast awards ceremony. Yesterday the People's Choice Podcast Awards announced the nominees for their 17th annual session. The substantive list of nominees can be found on the Podcast Awards website.  Continuing the award theme with one more bit of news: on Monday the newest issue of Adweek dropped with the winners to the 2022 Adweek Podcast of the Year Awards. The full list of winners can be found in the official Adweek post by Kennyatta Collins. Shreya: Podcasts and music are taking a break from each other soon on Spotify, according to David Pierce's article for The Verge, posted this Tuesday.  “Spotify has been working on a new design for its home tab that will create separate feeds for your music and your podcasts. The company says it's part of an effort to give you more and better recommendations, but it also addresses a common criticism of the Spotify experience: with every kind of audio smushed together in the app, it can sometimes be hard to figure out.”  The new layout creates a bar at the top of the app delineating whether the user is in the Music area or one called Podcasts & Shows. Music will continue to feature new suggestions for songs and albums along with recently-listened tracks while Podcasts & Shows gets rid of music and purely focuses on new episodes of subscribed podcasts and recommendations for shows Spotify believes the user will enjoy.  Pierce offers the comparison:  “They're not so much new home screens as new filters for your home screen. (I'd rather just have them be separate tabs altogether, but I'll take what I can get.)” An app redesign with a dedicated area for podcasting provides more opportunities for promotion. Podcast promotion and growth of audience is one of the hottest topics in podcasting.   Spotify providing more of those opportunities for ads in a way that doesn't step on music-based ads is a big deal. Promotion opportunities are a big enough deal that Dan Misener and Jonas Woost of Pacific Content have left to form Bumper, an agency dedicated solely to promotion.  Arielle: Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week's three great reads are:  Fundamentals of Programmatic Advertising by Evelyn Mitchell. A quick read with a helpful infographic that makes a great introduction for those not familiar with programmatic, as well as those in need of a refresher.  DoubleVerify Grows Q2 Revenue By Expanding Brand Safety To Retail Media, TikTok And Gaming by Alyssa Boyle. Notable in its absence is any entrance into podcasting. Meanwhile IAS, a direct competitor of DoubleVerify, is the brand safety service for Spotify. DoubleVerify not expanding into audio over these other verticals suggests that the IAS and Spotify relationship is more driven by Spotify looking to tend their walled garden. Perhaps the move was more motivated by Spotify themselves rather than actual advertiser demand to have a brand safety partner. Finally, some self-promotion: Sounds Profitable's latest research project will debut Tuesday, August 23rd during the Sounds Profitable Business Summit. The Summit, as covered in a previous episode of The Download, will take place in Dallas, Texas during the opening day of Podcast Movement. The “After These Messages” study will present a definitive take on the impact of live host-read ads, scripted ads, and announcer-read spots. This study was designed by podcast and research industry veteran Tom Webster, in partnership with Edison Research, and will be seen as an important new resource for publishers and brands. Don't miss it.  Arielle: And that was The Download, from Sounds Profitable! I know we went through these fast, so be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned, right in your podcast listening app, or on SoundsProfitable.com/TheDownload. And thank you for sticking with us as we bring you the top stories you might have missed from the past week. I'm Arielle Nissenblatt. Shreya : And I'm Shreya Sharma. Our producers are Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster. Special thanks to Gavin Gaddis for writing today's script, and to Omny Studio for hosting The Download. And thanks to you for joining us.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on The Download:  Quarterly earnings, more quarterly earnings, Audio is getting its own track at Advertising Week, and Spotify is giving podcasts their own space in its app.  Arielle: Hope you're ready for some earnings reports, because we've got two segments worth of second quarter earnings to go over. First up: the big platforms. Last Wednesday Alyssa Meyers of Marketing Brew posted a roundup of Spotify, SiriusXM and Acast. Things kick off with a silver lining:  “Call it what you want, the ad biz is not looking its best right now. But according to these execs, the growing podcast segment is keeping its head above water.”  Economic uncertainty is undeniably impacting the ad industry. The CEOs of Spotify and SiriusXM both cite ‘macro' trends as being notably dire but not to podcast ads sales. SiriusXM's Q2 ad revenue for Pandora and associated platforms reports a 5% year over year increase, reaching 403 million. Spotify posted a 31% year over year gain, earning around 366 million. This time around they neglected to isolate their podcast ad revenue as its own statistic.  Meyers quotes Spotify CFO Paul Vogel as saying they're experiencing “strong growth on the podcasting side.” Hosting service Acast has been busy this second quarter, citing new features, a massive increase of podcasts on the platform, and their acquisition of Podchaser as driving factors of their 39% net sales growth. A figure that calculates out to 31 million USD.  While the macro trends are concerning, The Download will never pass up an opportunity to report numbers going up in podcasting. Big or small, names in the industry are increasing ad revenue, and that's a good thing.  Shreya: Now to cover the Q2 numbers from three large broadcasters: iHeartMedia, Cumulus Media, and Audacy. There's a few dark spots throughout but, interestingly, their podcast numbers are shining beacons of hope in all three reports.  Overall iHeartMedia reports an 11% year over year increase, despite, in the words of company president Rich Bressler: “the uncertain economic environment.” Podcast revenue is up to 86 million, a 60% year over year increase.  Meanwhile, Cumulus Media joined the macro club during president Mary Berner's opening statement:  “Despite the challenging macro environment, we increased revenue in the quarter by more than 5%, driven by our digital businesses whose growth accelerated in Q2 to 20% year-over-year.” Podcasting made Cumulus around 15 million this last quarter, up 27% year over year. All told, podcasting accounts for 6% of the company's revenue. Not too shabby.  Finally, Audacy's president David J Field brings us a final use of the term ‘macro' for this episode:  “After a very strong first quarter in which we grew revenues by 14% and significantly increased margin, our second quarter results were adversely impacted by declining macroeconomic conditions and ad market headwinds which reduced our top line growth to 5%.”  The company made a nice $69m from “digital,” which includes podcasting, and is up 18% year over year. Podcast downloads grew 40% year-over-year. Revenue from podcasts is supposedly in the upper teens of percentage growth, but Audacy didn't give specifics. Even with the ad market headwinds it seems podcasting is doing well for them.  Arielle: Wednesday of last week was a busy day for Alyssa Meyers, as we cover her second article of the day: “Audio gets its own track at this year's Advertising Week.”  Advertising Week's head of podcasting Richard Larsson told Marketing Brew,  “The rise of audio throughout the pandemic, coupled with Advertising Week's efforts to build its own podcast network, culminated in the decision to give audio a more official spot on the agenda this October.” Audio representation continues with one of - if not the - longest-running podcast awards ceremony. Yesterday the People's Choice Podcast Awards announced the nominees for their 17th annual session. The substantive list of nominees can be found on the Podcast Awards website.  Continuing the award theme with one more bit of news: on Monday the newest issue of Adweek dropped with the winners to the 2022 Adweek Podcast of the Year Awards. The full list of winners can be found in the official Adweek post by Kennyatta Collins. Shreya: Podcasts and music are taking a break from each other soon on Spotify, according to David Pierce's article for The Verge, posted this Tuesday.  “Spotify has been working on a new design for its home tab that will create separate feeds for your music and your podcasts. The company says it's part of an effort to give you more and better recommendations, but it also addresses a common criticism of the Spotify experience: with every kind of audio smushed together in the app, it can sometimes be hard to figure out.”  The new layout creates a bar at the top of the app delineating whether the user is in the Music area or one called Podcasts & Shows. Music will continue to feature new suggestions for songs and albums along with recently-listened tracks while Podcasts & Shows gets rid of music and purely focuses on new episodes of subscribed podcasts and recommendations for shows Spotify believes the user will enjoy.  Pierce offers the comparison:  “They're not so much new home screens as new filters for your home screen. (I'd rather just have them be separate tabs altogether, but I'll take what I can get.)” An app redesign with a dedicated area for podcasting provides more opportunities for promotion. Podcast promotion and growth of audience is one of the hottest topics in podcasting.   Spotify providing more of those opportunities for ads in a way that doesn't step on music-based ads is a big deal. Promotion opportunities are a big enough deal that Dan Misener and Jonas Woost of Pacific Content have left to form Bumper, an agency dedicated solely to promotion.  Arielle: Finally, it's time for our semi-regular roundup of articles we're calling Quick Hits. These are articles that didn't quite make the cut for today's episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week's three great reads are:  Fundamentals of Programmatic Advertising by Evelyn Mitchell. A quick read with a helpful infographic that makes a great introduction for those not familiar with programmatic, as well as those in need of a refresher.  DoubleVerify Grows Q2 Revenue By Expanding Brand Safety To Retail Media, TikTok And Gaming by Alyssa Boyle. Notable in its absence is any entrance into podcasting. Meanwhile IAS, a direct competitor of DoubleVerify, is the brand safety service for Spotify. DoubleVerify not expanding into audio over these other verticals suggests that the IAS and Spotify relationship is more driven by Spotify looking to tend their walled garden. Perhaps the move was more motivated by Spotify themselves rather than actual advertiser demand to have a brand safety partner. Finally, some self-promotion: Sounds Profitable's latest research project will debut Tuesday, August 23rd during the Sounds Profitable Business Summit. The Summit, as covered in a previous episode of The Download, will take place in Dallas, Texas during the opening day of Podcast Movement. The “After These Messages” study will present a definitive take on the impact of live host-read ads, scripted ads, and announcer-read spots. This study was designed by podcast and research industry veteran Tom Webster, in partnership with Edison Research, and will be seen as an important new resource for publishers and brands. Don't miss it.  Arielle: And that was The Download, from Sounds Profitable! I know we went through these fast, so be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned, right in your podcast listening app, or on SoundsProfitable.com/TheDownload. And thank you for sticking with us as we bring you the top stories you might have missed from the past week. I'm Arielle Nissenblatt. Shreya : And I'm Shreya Sharma. Our producers are Bryan Barletta and Tom Webster. Special thanks to Gavin Gaddis for writing today's script, and to Omny Studio for hosting The Download. And thanks to you for joining us.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Greetings on this, the first Annual Snowmo Sapiens night! With a potentially historic blizzard in Boston, we present you this very on topic podcast episode about a 1942 Disney short starring Donald Duck.It's Donald's Snow Fight!Geoffrey remembered this one from his childhood, and this is not exactly an After These Messages, but it is sort of in that spirit, recorded to go with The Dog That Stopped the War. We get into a BUNCH of stuff with this, from inventing new holidays to discussing François Truffaut's famous assertion that there's no such thing as an antiwar film, to the Finnish Ducktales theme, to Splash Mountain and The Song of the South. So, cozy up in a blanket, build yourself a snowman (or put three ice cubes in an adult beverage), and join us for some anti-clericalism and fornication (okay, only a little mention of that, not the actual deed), ‘cause it's just six months til Snowmer! Full transcript available at https://www.juliarios.com/donalds-snow-fight/

Greetings on this, the first Annual Snowmo Sapiens night! With a potentially historic blizzard in Boston, we present you this very on topic podcast episode about a 1942 Disney short starring Donald Duck.It’s Donald’s Snow Fight!Geoffrey remembered this one from his childhood, and this is not exactly an After These Messages, but it is sort of in that spirit, recorded to go with The Dog That Stopped the War. We get into a BUNCH of stuff with this, from inventing new holidays to discussing François Truffaut’s famous assertion that there’s no such thing as an antiwar film, to the Finnish Ducktales theme, to Splash Mountain and The Song of the South. So, cozy up in a blanket, build yourself a snowman (or put three ice cubes in an adult beverage), and join us for some anti-clericalism and fornication (okay, only a little mention of that, not the actual deed), ‘cause it’s just six months til Snowmer! You can read a transcript of this episode here if you like. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

We have often talked *about* straight cis white dudes on this show. But the number of times we've talked *to* them on the show? Next to never. So we wanted to revisit this bonus episode from the Before Times with two of our favorite dudes, Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh, the co-hosts of the long-running daily podcast https://www.tbtl.net/ (Too Beautiful To Live). We talked about allyship and their own evolving thoughts about racism and sexism on the job. Luke also hosts https://www.livewireradio.org/ (Live Wire) on public radio stations everywhere and Andrew also co-hosts the delightful podcasts https://spotlesspod.com/ (Spotless )and https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/after-these-messages-podcast/id1057815491 (After These Messages).

Episode 605: After These Messages

Episode 605: After These Messages

When the hell are we getting back from those messages? Did we ever leave? Did we get those 80s and 90s toys they were about to talk to us about! Did we ever achieve the ultimate in fantasy weaponry? We don’t know because we’re trapped in a claymation hell going bump in the night with… Read more S5:E16 – ABC ‘After These Messages’ Saturday Morning Bumpers

TBTL host and perennial After-These-Messages content pirate Luke Burbank joins Andrew and Vieves to evaluate this year's crop of commercial Santa Clauses. Plus, it's a great week for jingles, and it's possible that Luke's mom has been an imposter this whole time.

As a US Election week treat to follow up your Halloween treat, we’re unlocking the original After These Messages episode we made for Mr. Boogedy.Please enjoy this glimpse back in time to the dawn of 2020 when we had NO IDEA what this year had in store. We’re back to talk about stuff related to Mr. Boogedy, and wow, buckle up! This one’s wild!Image Description: A still from “I Told Ya” by D’ Lil showing two tall women in tight black suits standing on either side of David Faustino, who is 5’3” and wearing black overalls with a white, long sleeved shirt. He is, at this point of the song, saying he wants “to get that pussy pussy pussy pussy pussy pussy cat, meow meow meow meow meow, how’s that?” Because of course he is.Let’s Get Down to Boogedy Business!Of course we had to start with the Michael Eisner opening for this movie. But then… we just had to know what David Faustino’s rap career was like. So we watched the video for D’ Lil’s “I Told Ya”So David Faustino was one of the kids (Corwin), but Benji Gregory was another (R.E. or Aurie), and he was the kid on ALF. So naturally we had to watch an ALF cellphone Super Bowl commercial from 2014.Radio Shack went out of business in 2015, so apparently not even an alien life form could save them…This did lead us into a discussion of car phones, which we did not remotely look up any facts about when we were actually recording this. Here’s Wikipedia on the topic, in case you’re curious about their history. We also watched an ALF Department of the Interior Commercial from 1989.Given the state of our planet at present, ALF’s warning hasn’t really helped with that, either. His home planet was destroyed. Ours is dealing with severe climate change. So that’s cool. This did also lead us to consider how ALF is similar to Superman and Princess Leia, though…Okay, so we thought we should lighten up some after that, and since the Davis family moved to Lucifer Falls to open a joke shop, we did a search for joke shops and found a tribute to Don the joke shop guy in Quincy, MA. He apparently ran a joke shop there for 45 years!We also watched a promotional video for a Joke Shop in Athlone, Ireland. That one mostly seemed to be costumes, though. After that, we returned to David Faustino, and watched a supercut of Grandmaster B jokes from Married With Children. Holy Toxic Heteronormativity, Batman!And finally, Grandmaster B rapping.Which is better, this or D’ Lil? You be the judge! This also led us to discuss the boy band Why Don’t We, and their performance on the Today Show.We also watched the official video for this song, so here’s that, in case you are wondering what we’re talking about with the art gallery stuff.Julia sends us home with a story about a New Year’s Eve from the early years of the 21st century that lives on in infamy to this day. If you’re having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We’re also on Patreon if that’s your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we’re @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

As a US Election week treat to follow up your Halloween treat, we're unlocking the original After These Messages episode we made for Mr. Boogedy.Please enjoy this glimpse back in time to the dawn of 2020 when we had NO IDEA what this year had in store. We're back to talk about stuff related to Mr. Boogedy, and wow, buckle up! This one's wild!Image Description: A still from "I Told Ya" by D' Lil showing two tall women in tight black suits standing on either side of David Faustino, who is 5'3" and wearing black overalls with a white, long sleeved shirt. He is, at this point of the song, saying he wants "to get that pussy pussy pussy pussy pussy pussy cat, meow meow meow meow meow, how's that?" Because of course he is.Let's Get Down to Boogedy Business!Of course we had to start with the Michael Eisner opening for this movie. But then… we just had to know what David Faustino's rap career was like. So we watched the video for D' Lil's "I Told Ya"So David Faustino was one of the kids (Corwin), but Benji Gregory was another (R.E. or Aurie), and he was the kid on ALF. So naturally we had to watch an ALF cellphone Super Bowl commercial from 2014.Radio Shack went out of business in 2015, so apparently not even an alien life form could save them…This did lead us into a discussion of car phones, which we did not remotely look up any facts about when we were actually recording this. Here's Wikipedia on the topic, in case you're curious about their history. We also watched an ALF Department of the Interior Commercial from 1989.Given the state of our planet at present, ALF's warning hasn't really helped with that, either. His home planet was destroyed. Ours is dealing with severe climate change. So that's cool. This did also lead us to consider how ALF is similar to Superman and Princess Leia, though…Okay, so we thought we should lighten up some after that, and since the Davis family moved to Lucifer Falls to open a joke shop, we did a search for joke shops and found a tribute to Don the joke shop guy in Quincy, MA. He apparently ran a joke shop there for 45 years!We also watched a promotional video for a Joke Shop in Athlone, Ireland. That one mostly seemed to be costumes, though. After that, we returned to David Faustino, and watched a supercut of Grandmaster B jokes from Married With Children. Holy Toxic Heteronormativity, Batman!And finally, Grandmaster B rapping.Which is better, this or D' Lil? You be the judge! This also led us to discuss the boy band Why Don't We, and their performance on the Today Show.We also watched the official video for this song, so here's that, in case you are wondering what we're talking about with the art gallery stuff.Julia sends us home with a story about a New Year's Eve from the early years of the 21st century that lives on in infamy to this day. If you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We're also on Patreon if that's your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Happy Spooktober! We wanted to give you a special Halloween treat, so please enjoy this bonus episode, which was previously locked to our paid subscribers! We originally recorded this for New Year’s, having NO IDEA the horrors that 2020 was waiting to unleash upon us. Now? Well, we thought everyone might enjoy a little more fun distraction to get through this week. If you love this one, our bonus for paid subscribers coming out tomorrow is Bride of Boogedy! We also did some special Spooktober episodes on Casper the Friendly Ghost and Garfield’s Halloween Adventure. If you do decide to subscribe, you can listen to all of them! Okay, Who’s ready to Boogedy?This is a 45 minute long made for TV spooky and silly movie, which you can watch on Disney Plus if you so desire. Geoffrey remembered loving this one as a kid. Julia saw it once at school and was scared of it. If Julia had written a summary, it would have said, “A family goes to a house and it is scary and there’s a man there and he’s really scary.” But this was Geoffrey’s pick, and his summary is much more detailed!Here’s Geoffrey’s Summary:“A man who sells weird gadgets and his family buy a new house. But it's haunted! A long time ago (Pilgrim times?) there was a nasty old man who sold his soul to the devil for a magic cloak because he hated everyone and his face was all messed up This gave him magic powers. They called him Mr. Boogedy. He haunts the house, and so does some lady and a boy named Jonathan. At the end, I think they suck the cloak up in a vacuum cleaner to save the day.”Geoffrey’s summary was waaaayyy more correct, but it missed a couple of key points.One: Mr. Boogedy’s face didn’t get gross until after he had the cloak and tried to cast a spell that backfired and instead blew up his house. Two: The dad sells practical jokes. And plays practical jokes. So many practical jokes. Including these trick glasses. Image Description: A still from Mr. Boogedy showing a child wearing fake glasses with uncanny eyeballs in them, possibly the scariest prop in the entire film.This movie has a bunch of notable people, and we get into some interesting conversations about stuff like Sean Astin’s family tree, The name of Geoffrey’s first crush, and our theories on what would actually have happened in the 1600s if someone tried to use a devil cloak to magically force a widow to marry him… Opinions vary! Send us your own theory if you like!Happy Halloween!If you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll get Bride of Boogedy tomorrow! If you’re not, your Halloween treat is this one, but we’re going to put the original After These Messages episode for this movie up for you as our first regularly scheduled November podcast! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Happy Spooktober! We wanted to give you a special Halloween treat, so please enjoy this bonus episode, which was previously locked to our paid subscribers! We originally recorded this for New Year's, having NO IDEA the horrors that 2020 was waiting to unleash upon us. Now? Well, we thought everyone might enjoy a little more fun distraction to get through this week. If you love this one, our bonus for paid subscribers coming out tomorrow is Bride of Boogedy! We also did some special Spooktober episodes on Casper the Friendly Ghost and Garfield's Halloween Adventure. If you do decide to subscribe, you can listen to all of them! Okay, Who's ready to Boogedy?This is a 45 minute long made for TV spooky and silly movie, which you can watch on Disney Plus if you so desire. Geoffrey remembered loving this one as a kid. Julia saw it once at school and was scared of it. If Julia had written a summary, it would have said, "A family goes to a house and it is scary and there's a man there and he's really scary." But this was Geoffrey's pick, and his summary is much more detailed!Here's Geoffrey's Summary:"A man who sells weird gadgets and his family buy a new house. But it's haunted! A long time ago (Pilgrim times?) there was a nasty old man who sold his soul to the devil for a magic cloak because he hated everyone and his face was all messed up This gave him magic powers. They called him Mr. Boogedy. He haunts the house, and so does some lady and a boy named Jonathan. At the end, I think they suck the cloak up in a vacuum cleaner to save the day."Geoffrey's summary was waaaayyy more correct, but it missed a couple of key points.One: Mr. Boogedy's face didn't get gross until after he had the cloak and tried to cast a spell that backfired and instead blew up his house. Two: The dad sells practical jokes. And plays practical jokes. So many practical jokes. Including these trick glasses. Image Description: A still from Mr. Boogedy showing a child wearing fake glasses with uncanny eyeballs in them, possibly the scariest prop in the entire film.This movie has a bunch of notable people, and we get into some interesting conversations about stuff like Sean Astin's family tree, The name of Geoffrey's first crush, and our theories on what would actually have happened in the 1600s if someone tried to use a devil cloak to magically force a widow to marry him… Opinions vary! Send us your own theory if you like!Happy Halloween!If you're a paid subscriber, you'll get Bride of Boogedy tomorrow! If you're not, your Halloween treat is this one, but we're going to put the original After These Messages episode for this movie up for you as our first regularly scheduled November podcast! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

We don’t know about you, but we needed something comforting in the midst of everything going on right now, so we decided to dive way back into the 80s to visit the first episodes of The Simpsons. Image Description: Homer Simpson in a Santa suit looks uncertainly at Santa’s Little Helper, a failed race dog who has jumped into Homer’s arms. Here’s Julia’s summary:“This was ridiculously popular, but I wasn’t allowed to watch it, so most of my early simpsons knowledge comes from t-shirts and butter finger commercials. It wasn’t until I was in college that I regularly saw any episodes. I assume Bart Simpson is always saying, “Cowabunga Dude!” and, “Don’t have a cow, man!” and Homer is always saying, “D’oh!” I also feel like my mom thought it was very crass?”Bart doesn’t say either of those things, though he does say “Eat my shorts” at one point in the second episode, so there’s that. We talk about the evolution of the Simpsons from the 80s to today, the weirdness of hearing their voices in other languages (especially Marge’s French voice), about other animated prime time hit shows, and honestly, we just have a nice time talking about a thing we like because we figured that’s what we really needed right now, and maybe you do, too! Next week we’ll have our After These Messages episode, and it’s gonna be all Simpsons commercials, clips from their Tracey Ullman show debut, Matt Groening comics, and stuff that’s basically nice. Unless you’re Julia’s mom, in which case, you probably hate all of this… (sorry, Julia’s mom. We think The Simpsons is good!)We hope you’re doing okay. If you have a favorite Simpsons episode, let us know what it is! And let us know if you have any requests for things you would really like to see us cover. You can always comment on our sub stack post, send us a tweet, or email us! If you’re having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We’re also on Patreon if that’s your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we’re @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

We don't know about you, but we needed something comforting in the midst of everything going on right now, so we decided to dive way back into the 80s to visit the first episodes of The Simpsons. Image Description: Homer Simpson in a Santa suit looks uncertainly at Santa's Little Helper, a failed race dog who has jumped into Homer's arms. Here's Julia's summary:"This was ridiculously popular, but I wasn't allowed to watch it, so most of my early simpsons knowledge comes from t-shirts and butter finger commercials. It wasn't until I was in college that I regularly saw any episodes. I assume Bart Simpson is always saying, "Cowabunga Dude!" and, "Don't have a cow, man!" and Homer is always saying, "D'oh!" I also feel like my mom thought it was very crass?"Bart doesn't say either of those things, though he does say "Eat my shorts" at one point in the second episode, so there's that. We talk about the evolution of the Simpsons from the 80s to today, the weirdness of hearing their voices in other languages (especially Marge's French voice), about other animated prime time hit shows, and honestly, we just have a nice time talking about a thing we like because we figured that's what we really needed right now, and maybe you do, too! Next week we'll have our After These Messages episode, and it's gonna be all Simpsons commercials, clips from their Tracey Ullman show debut, Matt Groening comics, and stuff that's basically nice. Unless you're Julia's mom, in which case, you probably hate all of this… (sorry, Julia's mom. We think The Simpsons is good!)We hope you're doing okay. If you have a favorite Simpsons episode, let us know what it is! And let us know if you have any requests for things you would really like to see us cover. You can always comment on our sub stack post, send us a tweet, or email us! If you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We're also on Patreon if that's your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Hello, friends! This week is a special week. Under normal circumstances this would be our paid subscribers only week, but since we are all in quarantine right now, we figured it would be nice to share this as widely as possible in case anyone stuck at home or commuting to an essential job (for which we thank you!) wants a little disturbing childhood trauma to comfort them! We are joined by Joe Szaf of Golden Age Radio and Improv Boston's The Family Show to discuss a movie he fondly remembers watching with his mom: Drop Dead Fred!Image Description: Phoebe Cates as Elizabeth and Rik Mayall as Drop Dead Fred all dressed up for the wine gala in a purple dress and a green suit. This one was a lot. Like Troll 2, the text was a rich source, and led to a a lot of discussion, but it was also traumatic to watch. We did learn that Joe would love to eat mud, though. So there's that. Listen to find out what the strongest kind of tape is (not duct tape, it turns out!), which technical fastener brand was thanked in the credits, and what show one of the actors was in that Geoffrey was delighted to learn about! All this AND MORE!!!And look out for our next episode, the After These Messages with Joe, which will also be free for everyone instead of locked behind a paywall, because we're locked behind too many walls already! Take care of yourselves, and stay home if you can!If you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We're also on Patreon if that's your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Hello, friends! This week is a special week. Under normal circumstances this would be our paid subscribers only week, but since we are all in quarantine right now, we figured it would be nice to share this as widely as possible in case anyone stuck at home or commuting to an essential job (for which we thank you!) wants a little disturbing childhood trauma to comfort them! We are joined by Joe Szaf of Golden Age Radio and Improv Boston’s The Family Show to discuss a movie he fondly remembers watching with his mom: Drop Dead Fred!Image Description: Phoebe Cates as Elizabeth and Rik Mayall as Drop Dead Fred all dressed up for the wine gala in a purple dress and a green suit. This one was a lot. Like Troll 2, the text was a rich source, and led to a a lot of discussion, but it was also traumatic to watch. We did learn that Joe would love to eat mud, though. So there’s that. Listen to find out what the strongest kind of tape is (not duct tape, it turns out!), which technical fastener brand was thanked in the credits, and what show one of the actors was in that Geoffrey was delighted to learn about! All this AND MORE!!!And look out for our next episode, the After These Messages with Joe, which will also be free for everyone instead of locked behind a paywall, because we’re locked behind too many walls already! Take care of yourselves, and stay home if you can!If you’re having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We’re also on Patreon if that’s your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we’re @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

This podcast has a dent in it. And another one here. Another one here. Join the Dead Beat Film Society as we discuss the meticulous world of Wes Anderson, the flat acting style, the symmetrical modern retro look and feel, the incredible soundtrack, redemption, family, processing pain, Owen Wilson's contribution, the pain of divorce, daddy issues, casual racism, Wes Anderson's insistence on killing animals, Elliott Smith, sticking to your artistic vision even when no one else understands it, hiding the Statue of Liberty, pissing off Gene Hackman, and having a really hard year. Hide in your tent and press play for an in depth The Royal Tenenbaums film analysis! (Special Guest: After These Messages) Click here to listen and subscribe to After These Messages podcast!  

What would brands say about themselves if they had to tell the truth? What constitutes "fast casual dining"? What the heck is going on with Golden Corral? Andrew and Vieves try to answer these questions and more in this week's After These Messages.

Anna from Adapted with Anna and Sam (you can also find them on Twitter!) joins us this week to talk about a movie she remembers liking as a kid: Batteries Not Included!Image Description: A little electronic alien creature with blue light emitting from its eyes and undercarriage hovers in a kitchen at night. Here's Anna's hazy summary: "What I remember is that there are these little flying aliens that look like small flying saucers, but although they are made of metal they are sentient. They befriend the various inhabitants of a city apartment building. I think there's an old couple, a pregnant woman, and some other characters who blur together. The UFOs don't talk but they learn to communicate with the humans. At one point the female gives birth, and one of the little baby UFOs seems to be still-born, but one of the humans is able to bring it back somehow? And there are villains...are they property developers? I think that someone is trying to get the residents of the building to move out for some reason. The little UFOs help them. I seem to recall that one of the bad guys attacks and almost kills one of the UFOs with a baseball bat. And I think the humans repair him, maybe?" How close was Anna? Pretty close! Anna’s podcast is also super fun, and if you want to try it out, Anna’s favorite episode is The Hunt for Red October. The movie adaptation for The Dark Is Rising came out in 2007. It has a rating of 14% on Rotten Tomatoes.Julia was wrong about there being a female rat in Ratatouille. There are none. The bumbling grandma was a human. But the rest of Julia’s memory about that was accurate. The problematic fight scene happens at about 16:20, right after Remy runs past an artist painting a sexy woman (we only see his canvas, not the model) in his studio, which is full of paintings of nude women in sexy poses. Some important questions to think about:Could Geoffrey actually be a dog?Can we get Rian Johnson to make a Gritty reboot of this movie?How long is 5 seconds in robot time?Scheduling change notice: We’re moving to one episode per week on most weeks from now on. We’re doing this to make sure we can sustain the show on a lasting basis because it takes a lot of time to research, watch, record, and edit episodes for each movie we choose. We love the work, but it’s a lot, and we have other things to do in our lives, too! So from now on, free subscribers will get two main episodes and two After These Messages episodes every month. Paid subscribers, you’ll still get two extra episodes every month, same as before. This means that there won’t be an After These Messages episode on Thursday this week. Instead, you’ll get to hear Anna’s commercial viewing picks next Tuesday! If you’re having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We’re also on Patreon if that’s your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we’re @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Anna from Adapted with Anna and Sam (you can also find them on Twitter!) joins us this week to talk about a movie she remembers liking as a kid: Batteries Not Included!Image Description: A little electronic alien creature with blue light emitting from its eyes and undercarriage hovers in a kitchen at night. Here's Anna's hazy summary: "What I remember is that there are these little flying aliens that look like small flying saucers, but although they are made of metal they are sentient. They befriend the various inhabitants of a city apartment building. I think there's an old couple, a pregnant woman, and some other characters who blur together. The UFOs don't talk but they learn to communicate with the humans. At one point the female gives birth, and one of the little baby UFOs seems to be still-born, but one of the humans is able to bring it back somehow? And there are villains...are they property developers? I think that someone is trying to get the residents of the building to move out for some reason. The little UFOs help them. I seem to recall that one of the bad guys attacks and almost kills one of the UFOs with a baseball bat. And I think the humans repair him, maybe?" How close was Anna? Pretty close! Anna's podcast is also super fun, and if you want to try it out, Anna's favorite episode is The Hunt for Red October. The movie adaptation for The Dark Is Rising came out in 2007. It has a rating of 14% on Rotten Tomatoes.Julia was wrong about there being a female rat in Ratatouille. There are none. The bumbling grandma was a human. But the rest of Julia's memory about that was accurate. The problematic fight scene happens at about 16:20, right after Remy runs past an artist painting a sexy woman (we only see his canvas, not the model) in his studio, which is full of paintings of nude women in sexy poses. Some important questions to think about:Could Geoffrey actually be a dog?Can we get Rian Johnson to make a Gritty reboot of this movie?How long is 5 seconds in robot time?Scheduling change notice: We're moving to one episode per week on most weeks from now on. We're doing this to make sure we can sustain the show on a lasting basis because it takes a lot of time to research, watch, record, and edit episodes for each movie we choose. We love the work, but it's a lot, and we have other things to do in our lives, too! So from now on, free subscribers will get two main episodes and two After These Messages episodes every month. Paid subscribers, you'll still get two extra episodes every month, same as before. This means that there won't be an After These Messages episode on Thursday this week. Instead, you'll get to hear Anna's commercial viewing picks next Tuesday! If you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We're also on Patreon if that's your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Geoffrey and Julia watch some commercials related to the Care Bears. Care Bears Care-a-lot playset with rainbow rollers.1984 Care Bears Share Bear and Champ BearGeoffrey regales us with the history of Share Bear, and we also learn a bit about how apparently Luck Bear didn’t bother to show up for Geoffrey when he should have to give Geoffrey some good dating luck in college. We also talk some about Typhoid Mary. If you have vaguely heard that name but don’t know the history, it’s pretty wild!1983 Care-a-Lot PlaysetNo bears included, which is pretty sad. This led to a run of playlet reminiscence and a couple more playlet commercials.1981 Castle Grayskull We agree this is the coolest, and Geoffrey actually had it!1985 My Little Pony Dream CastleJulia had this one, which did actually come with a pony. Care bears 2014Geoffrey thought this was very 80s. Julia felt it was more 2010s feeling than any actual 80s commercials, but we’re clearly in the waves of 80s and 90s nostalgia time… The Story of Rainbow Heart BearThis answers a bunch of our Care Bears reproduction/creation questions. And it also led us to talk a bit about toxoplasmosis and other parasites. We also compare the bio horror of Rainbow Heart Bear to the Soulless Abyss Eyes of the new Teddy Ruxpin. If you don’t know what that’s all about, we recommend revisiting the After These Messages we did with Christa Carmen about Teddy Ruxpin and Puppy Surprise. We also wished there was a fanvid of “Cold Hearted” by Paula Abdul with clips of Professor Coldheart in it. If you know of something like this, or if you’ve made one yourself, let us know!If you’re having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We’re also on Patreon if that’s your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we’re @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Geoffrey and Julia watch some commercials related to the Care Bears. Care Bears Care-a-lot playset with rainbow rollers.1984 Care Bears Share Bear and Champ BearGeoffrey regales us with the history of Share Bear, and we also learn a bit about how apparently Luck Bear didn't bother to show up for Geoffrey when he should have to give Geoffrey some good dating luck in college. We also talk some about Typhoid Mary. If you have vaguely heard that name but don't know the history, it's pretty wild!1983 Care-a-Lot PlaysetNo bears included, which is pretty sad. This led to a run of playlet reminiscence and a couple more playlet commercials.1981 Castle Grayskull We agree this is the coolest, and Geoffrey actually had it!1985 My Little Pony Dream CastleJulia had this one, which did actually come with a pony. Care bears 2014Geoffrey thought this was very 80s. Julia felt it was more 2010s feeling than any actual 80s commercials, but we're clearly in the waves of 80s and 90s nostalgia time… The Story of Rainbow Heart BearThis answers a bunch of our Care Bears reproduction/creation questions. And it also led us to talk a bit about toxoplasmosis and other parasites. We also compare the bio horror of Rainbow Heart Bear to the Soulless Abyss Eyes of the new Teddy Ruxpin. If you don't know what that's all about, we recommend revisiting the After These Messages we did with Christa Carmen about Teddy Ruxpin and Puppy Surprise. We also wished there was a fanvid of "Cold Hearted" by Paula Abdul with clips of Professor Coldheart in it. If you know of something like this, or if you've made one yourself, let us know!If you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We're also on Patreon if that's your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Nick and Dyer present NW NERD's annual Festivus special before the holiday podcast break with special guests, including: Genevieve Haas with After These Messages and The Grapes of Rad fame; also Aaron Mason, co-host of KIRO Nights and also of Grapes of Rad fame (and he also did a podcast called The Leap Home: A Look Bakula).There will be airing of grievances -- both for people in the room, and for pop culture in general. And there will be feats of strength -- a quiz designed by Associate Producer Brandon Haddix. And of course, there will be Festivus miracles ... Monorail! (Listen to the episode to find out what that's about)Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/nwnerd)

Friend of the pod Katy is back to talk commercials related to Troll 2! With a movie obsessed with pumping iron and special Nilbog milk, our commercial viewing choices were obvious.Image Description: A still from Troll 2 showing Nilbog Milk, Vitamin D Milk. As the shopkeeper says, “Special milk, high in vitamins.” We started with a milk commercial from the 80s, which Geoffrey was uncomfortable with, but which the person who posted this on YouTube thinks is GREAT. The YouTube description is literally: “The best commercial with my name!”Somehow this led to a discussion of whether the reader is supposed to think that the character of Julia in George Orwell’s 1984 is cool and great, or weak and disappointing. Surprise! You thought you were here for pop culture and instead we delivered some assigned homework reading chat??? We also watched this commercial with a young boy trying to attract the attention of an older girl. While we thought there was a possibly nice reading of the first commercial, we’re afraid this one is just about a photo-MRA. However! It led us on a tangent where we explain some of The Richest Cat in the World to Katy. If you like that discussion, do consider becoming a paid subscriber and listening to the whole episode, and its associated After These Messages one!Okay, enough with the milk. What about working out?Image Description: A still from Troll 2 showing Holly pumping iron. There are so many workout commercials to choose from! We started with Cher.We wondered if Cher was wearing “hind tights” from Northwest Fitness… We also watched a Soloflex commercial.And The Power Stretch.Did you know who “Superfoot” was before we made this episode???And of course, the Barbie Workout Center.Among the things we touched upon after this were: a discussion of Katy’s childhood Dorothy Hamill haircut, an ASMR interlude, LSD trips (which none of us know anything about firsthand, but which Geoffrey has Opinions on), and kids’ workout shows. Did anyone out there actually enjoy Mousercise?And if you really want Katy to recommend you some books in which people get eaten alive by rats, let us know, and we’ll make sure she gets the message!If you’re having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We’re also on Patreon if that’s your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we’re @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Julia and Geoffrey realize they totally forgot to discuss the Garfield’s Thanksgiving songs in the main episode for this week, so they start there before moving on to commercials and … other things. First, the opening theme.Because the more you eat, the more grateful you will feel… Next, the song that plays while they actually eat, “Thanksgiving Everyday”Geoffrey calls this a glurge. Julia points out that Dr. Liz is a terrible vet, because dogs should never eat corn cobs. They can’t digest them and end up with intestinal blockages. Image Description: Dr. Liz puts a corn on the cob on Odie’s plate. Is that a murderous gleam in her cartoon side-eye?One instance of Lasagna Cat, which, as Geoffrey notes, is kind of hard to explain. You can find more by searching Lasagna Cat on YouTube.And Julia also mentioned Garfield Minus Garfield, which led Geoffrey to bring up Square Root of Minus Garfield (though he didn’t quite remember the name).Of course this wouldn’t be After These Messages if we didn’t also watch commercials, so here’s the Peanuts MetLife Thanksgiving Commercial from 1989.Of course, half of the kids are dressed in appropriative Native American costumes, which is a shame, but also ever pervasive. If you want to read more about why this sort of dress up isn’t cool, here’s an article by a Native visual artist named Valerie Reynoso about costumes. It’s framed as a Halloween article, but the practice applies to this sort of situation as well. As Reynoso explains, “…appropriation trivializes the brutal history of colonization of the Americas and its legacy today. When European colonizers settled in the Americas, Native peoples of these regions were forced to assimilate into European cultures…” and, “[Appropriation] sustains the Western idea that Native attire is only acceptable when worn by a white person and when viewed under a colonial gaze.”Reynoso also highlights some Native designers and their work, which is pretty cool! Anyway, this commercial was basically a bunch of cartoon Peanuts characters singing a Thanksgiving song … which Geoffrey actually knew! Geoffrey called it “Harvest Home” though “Come Ye Thankful People, Come” may be the actual title. Julia had no idea this song was a thing. But this did lead Julia to reminisce about a song from a middle school winter concert called “Feast of Lights”, here performed by the Stanford Intermediate Chorus. Did any of those kids go home feeling like this was their favorite song of the winter concert?This then led to Julia and Geoffrey arguing about whether “O Come O Come Emmanuel” is a gorgeous song (Julia) or just the worst (Geoffrey). Who do you stand with on this, the most important issue of 2019?Other songs discussed include “Here Comes Santa Claus” (which Geoffrey says is too religious, while Julia apparently never actually paid any attention to the lyrics) and “Santa Baby” (whose utterly charming composer is Jewish, and also Julia’s mother met him once on a train).Okay, we know. You didn’t come here for the extended examination of holiday seasonal music. You came for the commercials! Here’s some commercials from Thanksgiving 1989, which featured a bumper Geoffrey remembered from the Muppet Babies! We watched through three commercial breaks (about 6 minutes and 20 seconds), which included Precious Places, a sweet Hot Wheels Car Wash, Honeycomb cereal, a Ghostbusters play set, and a commercial for the movie The Little Mermaid, which was in theaters! If you listened to this week’s main episode, you’ll understand why this excited us so much. Ursula the sea witch is Jon Arbuckle’s grandma!The kind of crab Geoffrey was thinking of was not a hermit crab, but a fiddler crab, by the way. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Julia and Geoffrey realize they totally forgot to discuss the Garfield's Thanksgiving songs in the main episode for this week, so they start there before moving on to commercials and … other things. First, the opening theme. Because the more you eat, the more grateful you will feel… Next, the song that plays while they actually eat, "Thanksgiving Everyday" -- Geoffrey calls this a glurge. Julia points out that Dr. Liz is a terrible vet, because dogs should never eat corn cobs. They can't digest them and end up with intestinal blockages. Dr. Liz puts a corn on the cob on Odie's plate! Is that a murderous gleam in her cartoon side-eye? Lasagna Cat, as Geoffrey notes, is kind of hard to explain. You can find it by searching Lasagna Cat on YouTube.And Julia also mentioned Garfield Minus Garfield, which led Geoffrey to bring up Square Root of Minus Garfield (though he didn't quite remember the name).Of course this wouldn't be After These Messages if we didn't also watch commercials. We checked out the Peanuts MetLife Thanksgiving Commercial from 1989. Of course, half of the kids are dressed in appropriative Native American costumes, which is a shame, but also ever pervasive. As Native visual artist Valerie Reynoso pointed out in an article about costumes, "…appropriation trivializes the brutal history of colonization of the Americas and its legacy today ... [and] sustains the Western idea that Native attire is only acceptable when worn by a white person and when viewed under a colonial gaze."Anyway, this commercial was basically a bunch of cartoon Peanuts characters singing a Thanksgiving song … which Geoffrey actually knew! Geoffrey called it "Harvest Home" though "Come Ye Thankful People, Come" may be the actual title. Julia had no idea this song was a thing. But this did lead Julia to reminisce about a song from a middle school winter concert called "Feast of Lights"This then led to Julia and Geoffrey arguing about whether "O Come O Come Emmanuel" is a gorgeous song (Julia) or just the worst (Geoffrey). Who do you stand with on this, the most important issue of 2019?Other songs discussed include "Here Comes Santa Claus" (which Geoffrey says is too religious, while Julia apparently never actually paid any attention to the lyrics) and "Santa Baby" (whose utterly charming composer is Jewish, and also Julia's mother met him once on a train).Okay, we know. You didn't come here for the extended examination of holiday seasonal music. You came for the commercials! We watched some commercials from Thanksgiving 1989, which featured a bumper Geoffrey remembered from the Muppet Babies! We watched through three commercial breaks (about 6 minutes and 20 seconds), which included Precious Places, a sweet Hot Wheels Car Wash, Honeycomb cereal, a Ghostbusters play set, and a commercial for the movie The Little Mermaid, which was in theaters! If you listened to this week's main episode, you'll understand why this excited us so much. Ursula the sea witch is Jon Arbuckle's grandma!The kind of crab Geoffrey was thinking of was not a hermit crab, but a fiddler crab, by the way.

Dan Seitz of Marvel’s Flying Monkeys (a podcast where they discuss every Marvel movie minute by minute) joins us to discuss one of his personal childhood faves, 1987’s The Chipmunk Adventure. Image Description: Alvin, in just a loincloth, tooth necklace, and red baseball cap, faces off against Brittany, who’s wearing a pink harem outfit. Their stature is small, but their egos are extremely large.This one is a WILD ride! We reminisce about USA’s Up All Night with Rhonda Shear, and dive down a bunch of weird rabbit holes related to the production of this movie. If you need a Chipmunk Masseuse (or to be part of a roomful of hotties doing yoga and pilates while Madonna checks out their bodies and knows she’s satisfied), you might want to hire Siri D. Galliano. The music in this movie is written by a bunch of talented songwriters, including Terry Shaddick, who wrote “Physical” (popularized by Olivia Newton John), Donna Weiss, who co-wrote “Bette Davis Eyes” along with Kim Carnes, Randy Goodrum, who wrote a bunch of hit songs, and Barry De Vorzon, who wrote a song for a different movie that later became a top hit as “Nadia’s Theme” after it was used as a background for a montage of gymnast Nadia Comaneci’s performances in a recap of the 1976 Olympics. The song was also used as the theme for The Young and the Restless. Of course The Chipmunk Adventure also included songs originally written by the Chipmunks’ creator, Ross Bagdasarian, father of the current Chipmunks IP owner (and successor as the voice of Dave, Alvin, and Simon). Fun Fact: he named his alter ego David Seville because he was stationed in Seville, Spain during World War II.We also talk a bit about the egregiously racist stuff in this one, from the really horrible lecherous child sheikh and hostile jungle natives scenes to the Mexican festival with a Carmen Miranda number. Carmen Miranda was Brazilian and felt frustrated with the way she wasn’t allowed to break out of a specific stereotype of “Latin culture” in her career. She’s beloved and credited with paving the way for popular tropicalia artists of the 1960s, but it’s complicated, and none of that is something The Chipmunk Adventure acknowledges or engages with when using one of her songs for a scene in a country that is definitely not Brazil. And then also we can’t forget the sombrero shaped Taco Bell kind of establishment plopped in the middle of Mexico city, which Julia thought would fit right in at South of the Border, a roadside attraction in South Carolina with its own complicated race-related history. This Chipmunks journey is a wild ride, and the After These Messages episode coming up in a couple of days promises to be something else, too, since we’re committed to watching part of Malibu Bikini Shop… This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Dan Seitz of Marvel's Flying Monkeys (a podcast where they discuss every Marvel movie minute by minute) joins us to discuss one of his personal childhood faves, 1987's The Chipmunk Adventure. This one is a WILD ride! We reminisce about USA's Up All Night with Rhonda Shear, and dive down a bunch of weird rabbit holes related to the production of this movie. If you need a Chipmunk Masseuse (or to be part of a roomful of hotties doing yoga and pilates while Madonna checks out their bodies and knows she's satisfied), you might want to hire Siri D. Galliano. The music in this movie is written by a bunch of talented songwriters, including Terry Shaddick, who wrote "Physical" (popularized by Olivia Newton John), Donna Weiss, who co-wrote "Bette Davis Eyes" along with Kim Carnes, Randy Goodrum, who wrote a bunch of hit songs, and Barry De Vorzon, who wrote a song for a different movie that later became a top hit as "Nadia's Theme" after it was used as a background for a montage of gymnast Nadia Comaneci's performances in a recap of the 1976 Olympics. The song was also used as the theme for The Young and the Restless. Of course The Chipmunk Adventure also included songs originally written by the Chipmunks' creator, Ross Bagdasarian, father of the current Chipmunks IP owner (and successor as the voice of Dave, Alvin, and Simon). Fun Fact: he named his alter ego David Seville because he was stationed in Seville, Spain during World War II.We also talk a bit about the egregiously racist stuff in this one, from the really horrible lecherous child sheikh and hostile jungle natives scenes to the Mexican festival with a Carmen Miranda number. Carmen Miranda was Brazilian and felt frustrated with the way she wasn't allowed to break out of a specific stereotype of "Latin culture" in her career. She's beloved and credited with paving the way for popular tropicalia artists of the 1960s, but it's complicated, and none of that is something The Chipmunk Adventure acknowledges or engages with when using one of her songs for a scene in a country that is definitely not Brazil. And then also we can't forget the sombrero shaped Taco Bell kind of establishment plopped in the middle of Mexico city, which Julia thought would fit right in at South of the Border, a roadside attraction in South Carolina with its own complicated race-related history. This Chipmunks journey is a wild ride, and the After These Messages episode coming up promises to be something else, too, since we're committed to watching part of Malibu Bikini Shop…

Diana Lu joins us again to watch some candy commercials and discuss our childhood candy memories. We started with Skittles Commercials Through the Years because we figured we should definitely try to see something from when AIDS awareness hero Zelda Rubinstein was the voice of the Taste the Rainbow campaign. Have you got a specific Skittles commercial you remember from your childhood? Also, is Julia right about the second commercial being in the coolest ever place or nah?We then took a detour into Jelly Belly history. You too can be a super cool kid like us and learn all about Ronald Reagan’s connection to these confections.Diana brought up Dave Chapelle’s Purple Drink bit after we discovered that the original Skittles flavors were lemon, orange, strawberry, lime, and … purple. We also decided to watch some other candy commericials. First we checked out a Twix soul commercial that I had never seen. And then we watched one that Geoffrey and I both did remember. OH YEAHHHHH. Finally, we decided we needed a break. Off of a Kit Kat bar! We also talked about some other candies including Butterfinger, Jolly Rancher, SweetTarts, and Smarties (which are different in the US than in the UK and Canada). This discussion made us SUPER HUNGRY for Halloween candy. Luckily, it is actually Halloween! We don’t have to wait, or pretend to have a diet that isn’t mostly made up of fun size candy bars! Which kind is your fave? And hey, here’s an extra special Halloween treat for you: subscribe for free today (the 31st of October 2019), and we’ll give you three months of paid access for free! That means you’ll get two bonus episodes (one regular and one After These Messages) each month in November, December, and January! FREE! And yes, for all our earlier adopters, you’re definitely in with the in crowd. We love you! But come November 1st, this offer ends. We won't be offering three free months after October, so tell all your friends to sign up today! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to our first After These Messages episode! In these episodes, we watch and discuss commercials from the past, often related to the movies we watched, or chosen by one of us or our guest. This time we're in for a wild ride with some of Christa Carmen's favorite childhood toys, Teddy Ruxpin and Puppy Surprise. And then Christa told us all about how she and her sister used to play Littlest Pet Shop with LIVE BIRDS! Thanks for listening! If you liked this episode, tell all your friends, and PLEASE rate and review us on the podcast site of your choice!

Welcome to our first After These Messages episode! In these episodes, we watch and discuss commercials from the past, often related to the movies we watched, or chosen by one of us or our guest. This time we’re in for a wild ride with some of Christa Carmen’s favorite childhood toys, Teddy Ruxpin and Puppy Surprise. The spoooooky Teddy Ruxpin commercial with a Dracula and Frankenstein themeThe show and tell classroom with mean kids who are too snobby for teddy bearsNew Teddy Ruxpin Instruction VideoPuppy Surprise from 1992UK video comparing 90s version and 2015 version of Puppy SurprisePuppy Surprise sleepy versionAnd then Christa told us all about how she and her sister used to play Littlest Pet Shop with LIVE BIRDS! And we have pictures to prove it! How fun is that?Image description: Christa’s Parakeet Cashiers at The Littlest Pet ShopIImage Description: Tiny Christa and her sister, playing with their birds!Thanks for listening! If you liked this episode, tell all your friends, rate and review us on the podcast site of your choice, and consider becoming a paid subscriber or patron. You can get two bonus episodes (one movie and one After These Messages) each month, plus your support helps us make this show! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

NW NERD joins Andrew Walsh and Genevieve Haas with After These Messages for a live podcast recording onstage at ACE Comicon in Seattle. The two podcasts combine forces to discuss the commercials that make us nerds, then Dyer tries to stump the other three on stage with a NW NERD style trivia quiz.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/nwnerd)

A stroll through the analytics for After These Messages revealed the surprising fact that this podcast has a significant number of listeners in Schenectady, NY. So this week, Andrew and Genevieve produced a show just for them. Plus, Shaquille O'Neal has a new gig, and Idris Elba lip-syncs his way into Andrew's heart.

We cured racism! Join the Dead Beat Film Society as we discuss the many controversies surrounding the Academy Awards, the best picture nominees, Mahershala Ali, Viggo Mortensen, The Farrelly Brothers, institutionalized racism, learning to eat fried chicken, buddy comedies, Doctor Shirley, discrimination in the deep south, white savior, pitfalls of the working class, find the few bright spots in this film and run through the different ways it could have been improved. So grab your lucky rock and a bucket of KFC and hit play for an in depth Green Book film analysis! (Special Guest: After These Messages) Click here to listen and subscribe to After These Messages podcast!  

Each week we bring you the best off air discussions in podcast form. "After These Messages..." takes you behind the curtain during commercial breaks on The Midday 180. This week's episode Chad has a Facebook stalker, maybe, with a substance abuse problem, probably, and Paul doesn't want to talk about it.

Each week we bring you the best off air discussions in podcast form. "After These Messages..." takes you behind the curtain during commercial breaks on The Midday 180. This week's episode features Paul's take on the hiring of Freddie Kitchens in Cleveland.

It's the season of giving....but maybe more importantly: Buying. Andrew and Genevieve look at this year's crop of holiday ads. Plus, listeners begin submitting possible slogans for After These Messages.

This week we conclude our look back at last month's concert by After These Messages, a weird new band (Kevin is the lead singer, sort of) that only plays TV theme songs, and may never play again. (You're welcome!) The second half of the concert included plenty of classic sitcom themes (such as Happy Days, Three's Company, Silver Spoons, and WKRP), another ridiculous duet (Family Ties), a Billy Joel cover (thanks to Tom Hanks in a dress), a Schoolhouse Rock medley, an eerily accurate Peter Brady impression, and a song that no one could possibly remember (unless they're a Flopcast listener). It was a magic night. There were no survivors. Also: We celebrate National Grouch Day, we receive a surprise turxt, and we agree upon the stakes of our Fish Heads bet. The Vegas oddsmakers must be freaking out.

Genevieve and Andrew catch wind of an After These Messages conspiracy...and it goes all the way to the top! Plus, the man behind some of the most iconic advertising characters of the 1980s has passed away.

That show we'd been plugging for months finally happened, and the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts will never be the same. Kevin (your Flopcast co-host) was joined by Ed (his tricky partner from The Sponge Awareness Foundation), Mike (from Vortex, Tricycle, and more), and Carl (from Duck Duck, The Shods, and even more). Together, for one night only in late September, they formed a supergroup (well, a group) known as After These Messages. And they subjected The Lasting Room in Haverhill to a silly evening of TV theme songs, performed live, along with trivia, prizes, and a killer Edith Bunker impression. Kornflake was there too, lost in the crowd of screaming superfans (well, fans) (well, humans). So this week, we run through the set list from the first half of the show and discuss. Some of our band's live versions were pretty faithful to the TV versions (The Jeffersons, Perfect Strangers, Diff'rent Strokes), while others were a bit longer, with extra verses never used on TV (Golden Girls, Growing Pains, Facts of Life). In fact, a few of these songs have unknown verses that range from weird to downright problematic (Cheers, All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore). We also tackle the eternal Gilligan's Island theme song question: "And the rest" or "The Professor and Mary Ann"? Plus: Happy Birthday to Chevy Chase (a Griswold, an Amigo, and a golfer among gophers). Next week: The rest of the After These Messages set list. It was a long night.

Andrew endeavors to make good on his promise to produce the best After These Messages ever. So of course, there's a quiz involved. Plus, Thomas Middleditch's alter ego issues a cry for help about those damn Verizon ads.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? Why eat Apple Jacks if they don't taste like apple? Would you even know that you can pizza anytime without a catchy song?! In the second installment of "After These Messages," Natalie and Maren discuss some of the standout food-related commercials of their time. And this week in fangirling: "Ocean's 8" glam rock power suits, Toni Collette's haunting performance in "Hereditary" and Maren FINALLY starts "Stranger Things 2."   ***    Fangirl Merch: https://fangirlfridayspodcast.threadless.com/ Instagram: @fangirlfridayspodcast Facebook: @fangirlfridayspodcast Twitter: @fgfpodcast

In this season’s tenth Round Table episode, hosts Nick Jarin and Dyer Oxley are joined by Genevieve Haas and Andrew Walsh of After These Messages, a podcast about TV commercials. Together, the four discuss the concept of a guilty pleasure TV show or movie in an era when nerd culture is pop culture and there’s too much good TV for any one person to watch. Now that online communities are waiting with open arms for you to nerd out on whatever show it is that you’re into, what’s left to feel embarrassed about? The gang discuss and offer up some of their guilty pleasures along the way. Things get...vulnerable. You’ve never heard Nick and Dyer like this.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/nwnerd)

In this season’s third Round Table episode, hosts Nick Jarin and Dyer Oxley are joined by Genevieve Haas of After These Messages and the Grapes of Rad podcasts. What do you do when you’re outraged every time you check your social media feed, but you just can’t stop yourself from looking anyway? The gang talk about some Twitter self-care and how social media platforms are designed to be habit forming, even addictive for their users.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/nwnerd)

Take out your Bluetooth® and adjust your tone, sir, because it’s time to sit and politely listen to LRB’s latest Phirst Phriday Phyllis Phave Edition! Phyllis joins Bobby for a listen back to two clips from September 2008 when Jen’s resolve to be the change (in manners) she wants to see in the world is put to the test, would-be Azteca appetizer-scammers be damned. Plus, Phyllis gives us the bittersweet low down on her SUPER EXCITING NEW JOB as National Public Radio’s newest bureau chief, a gig that will only be a stepping stone to an on-air national host position if Bobby’s scheme works. She also told the folks over at After These Messages (never heard of it) about it this week, if you’re into that kind of thing. While you’re listening, be sure to go connect with (link with?) Phyllis on LinkedIn, and endorse her for stuff. That way in a few years she’ll have a faint memory of us little guys she left in the pod-dust.

Take out your Bluetooth® and adjust your tone, sir, because it’s time to sit and politely listen to LRB’s latest Phirst Phriday Phyllis Phave Edition! Phyllis joins Bobby for a listen back to two clips from September 2008 when Jen’s resolve to be the change (in manners) she wants to see in the world is put to the test, would-be Azteca appetizer-scammers be damned. Plus, Phyllis gives us the bittersweet low down on her SUPER EXCITING NEW JOB as National Public Radio’s newest bureau chief, a gig that will only be a stepping stone to an on-air national host position if Bobby’s scheme works. She also told the folks over at After These Messages (never heard of it) about it this week, if you’re into that kind of thing. While you’re listening, be sure to go connect with (link with?) Phyllis on LinkedIn, and endorse her for stuff. That way in a few years she’ll have a faint memory of us little guys she left in the pod-dust.

In this very special episode of After These Messages, it's a battle royale between the biggest names in advertising mascots. Who will win, who will die? Plus, Genevieve and Andrew reluctantly give credit to the ad industry for some pretty good April Fool's Day campaigns.

Mike and Bobby take a break from a Wives With Knives marathon to talk with TenVer Patricia Lopez about legendary Walsh-troll Golfman, and whether or not Mike’s comments on our last episode make him a misogynist. (Spoiler Alert: He insisted we pay her 70% of what we give our usual guests.) Our TBTL flashback from 2013 includes a 2.5 American Pie tangent on the FreeCreditReport.com commercials in what we are just realizing now was probably a backdoor pilot for After These Messages. High Zeros!

Mike and Bobby take a break from a Wives With Knives marathon to talk with TenVer Patricia Lopez about legendary Walsh-troll Golfman, and whether or not Mike’s comments on our last episode make him a misogynist. (Spoiler Alert: He insisted we pay her 70% of what we give our usual guests.) Our TBTL flashback from 2013 includes a 2.5 American Pie tangent on the FreeCreditReport.com commercials in what we are just realizing now was probably a backdoor pilot for After These Messages. High Zeros!