Podcasts a new advertising avenue

Podcasts for iPods and other MP3 devices are growing at such a rate that some people are losing sleep trying to keep up. Picture / Reuters

As soon as new media are developed, advertising is sure to follow - and podcasts have proved no exception.

Podcasts, a type of on-demand audio accessed via the internet to play on iPods and the like, have their first advertiser here with the launch of "podmercials" from credit card company MasterCard.

The advertisements are running on all podcasts downloaded from website www.thevoicebooth.com this month (link below).

The podcasts have a short commercial break part-way through and an advertising tag runs at the beginning and end.

Grant Hyland, media manager of Universal McCann, which has the MasterCard account, says the deal is a way for MasterCard to talk more personally to consumers and increases the frequency of its message to the niche market of podcast listeners.

He says "podmercials" have a place in the increasingly fragmented media landscape, where time-poor consumers want information on demand.

"People are moving online, people have less time in their days so they are looking for shorter and more-to-the-point information - and that's what I think podcasting is," he says.

The results will be tracked based on the number of downloads.

MasterCard's spending on "podmercials" is minuscule. Hyland says they make up 1 per cent of May's total advertising spend for the MasterCard account and 10 per cent of the month's online investment.

The figures mirror the wider advertising spend here, of which online advertising made up 2 per cent of last year's $2.2 billion total spend.

The Voice Booth co-founder, Dave Dunlay, says the deal is a huge step forward for podcasting because the website's podcasts are free and advertising makes the service more sustainable.

Dunlay says MasterCard will decide at the end of May whether to continue the advertising.

"Because they are such an early adopter, there's not really any case studies for them to follow."

More than 250,000 podcasts have been downloaded from The Voice Booth - a collection of online recordings - website since it launched in August.
The most popular was a one-off of Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard's economic address in January and other popular downloads include variety shows and film reviews. Podcasts are increasingly common on websites here and their popularity is rising.

Government-funded Radio New Zealand tested podcasting by posting two shows since February and announced last month that it would extend the service with more shows.

Radio New Zealand website manager Richard Hulse estimates about 10,000 podcasts a day are downloaded from the website, saying the number is growing by about 20 per cent a week. The broadcaster has no plans to try to make money from podcasts.

Media commentator Russell Brown says advertising is common on podcasting overseas. An alternative is to charge for content but that is a barrier to many potential listeners.

He says local record label Loop Recordings uses the technology as a marketing tool by creating free, weekly "Loopkasts" to showcase new music.

"I don't buy the idea that it [podcasting] is going to replace radio. We listen to radio for a live experience - you are not going to find out what's happening on the Southern Motorway by listening to a podcast.

"It's just one more piece in the media environment."

What is a podcast?

* Podcasts are audio files that can be downloaded via the internet to a computer, iPod, MP3 player or other portable media device.

* Podcast software can be used to subscribe to a podcast, meaning new episodes download as soon as they become available.

* Unlike "streaming" audio, that can only be heard live, podcasts can be downloaded so listeners can play them whenever they want.