We usually take into consideration podcast promoting by way of manufacturers promoting their merchandise on podcasts, however an rising podcast promoting development is looking into query what a podcast truly is. Slightly than promoting on podcasts, manufacturers are beginning to promote as podcasts. Making use of the phenomenon of podcast clips going viral on short-form video platforms, some manufacturers are launching ghost podcasts as advert inventive. Normally, this includes two or three folks sitting in entrance of microphones having a dialog in regards to the model. Usually, these podcasts don’t truly exist off social media, which begs the query….

What’s a podcast?

In principle, a podcast is an audio file that sits on an RSS feed. In observe, it may be a lot greater than that, because the technicalities of audio supply don’t matter to customers as long as the person expertise is fast and handy. Video recordings of podcasts on YouTube, for example, should not technically podcasts, despite the fact that the audio from the YouTube video is nearly indistinguishable from the audio delivered through RSS feed on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Nonetheless, the typical shopper possible thinks of those movies as podcasts.

To most listeners, a podcast is on-demand spoken phrase audio that usually includes two or extra folks having a dialog. Though there are exceptions (equivalent to academic podcasts), dialog appears to be integral to the format, whether or not it’s a New York Occasions journalist interviewing one other journalist or recurring co-hosts riffing on the episode subject. Consequently, when customers see two or extra folks having a dialog with microphones in entrance of them, it instantly indicators “podcast”, making the ghost podcast development a doubtlessly profitable technique of promoting on-line.

Ghost podcasts can resolve considered one of digital promoting’s largest challenges

Paradoxically, at a time when the podcast trade is considering higher monetise podcasts, manufacturers have discovered a manner — and all with out releasing a single episode. Capitalising on shopper heuristics, i.e., fast assumptions about what constitutes a podcast, manufacturers can movie three folks in a studio, put microphones in entrance of them, and provides them advert copy to learn, taking part in it off as if they’re having an off-the-cuff dialog. It helps that podcasts are one of many codecs with the bottom limitations to entry. As customers scroll by means of their short-form video feeds, they may possible understand this advert inventive as natural content material reasonably than a sponsored put up, which is a large win for advertisers.

One of many largest challenges in digital promoting is that social media customers are sensible. Most know instantly when they’re being offered one thing, and this tends to harm promoting efficiency. The extra natural advert inventive seems — particularly on short-form video platforms — the higher it tends to carry out. Provided that greater than half of podcast customers uncover podcasts by means of YouTube or TikTok clips, in line with MIDiA’s Q3 2023 shopper survey, manufacturers can faucet an viewers that’s desperate to convert. Whether or not or not touchdown on an advertiser homepage as a substitute of a podcast feed leaves a nasty style in folks’s mouths is one other story.

What do ghost podcasts imply for precise podcasts?

Podcast-inspired advert inventive is the results of modern digital promoting technique, and it additionally serves as a mannequin for the way podcasters can promote their very own manufacturers. Many podcasters possible consider podcasts as an audio format, which it’s. In some ways, nonetheless, podcasts defy format categorization altogether, opening the door for different mediums to broaden the which means of what a podcast is. 

One consequence of that growth of which means is the specter of dilution. Fluidity could make podcasts distinctive, however that lack of definition will even make it troublesome for the trade to develop if manufacturers and video content material creators proceed to hybridise mediums. How does an trade set up the foundations of monetisation and not using a clear sense of what the trade truly is?

However, embracing podcast fluidity also can make the trade extra nimble on the subject of adapting to new consumption developments. Brief-form video is right here to remain, so podcasters must also start thinking about the social media format as a medium for podcast consumption in its personal proper. Slightly than an audio-first format, podcasts could evolve right into a video-first format, which means the podcast trade should prune RSS technicalities to be able to nurture new development.

Both manner, if a model can efficiently promote a podcast that doesn’t exist, then podcasters should not have any downside promoting their very own high quality content material to a content-hungry viewers. The demand is there in a single type or one other; it’s only a matter of delivering the provision in the appropriate format.