The market is all over the place at the moment. Nobody knows for sure where advertisers and podcasters will meet, and a lot of people are experimenting both with price-points and models. One model is good old eBay. Selling podcast advertising spots on eBay isn't new (heck, I've done it), but opening the starting big at $12,000USD is certainly new.
Tech Nation, one of IT Conversation's podcasts, is selling a month's intro and outro spot for $12,000. I tried to break that down into a per-download number, but the details of the auction make that pretty hard to do. There's a lesson to be learned here in how to speak to advertisers. If you were interested, would this information help you? (my comments in italics)
- Sponsorship message in the intro and outro of programs published every Thursday (at least 10 programs)
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- TechNation publishes at least 10 shows each Thursday? Heck, that might be right but it needs more explanation
- Audience reach:
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- more than 200,000 impressions. What's an impression when we're talking about audio?
- more than 140,000 listens. Per show? Per the aforementioned ten shows? Per month? What are we talking about here?
- In order to retain our non-profit IRS 501(c)(3) status our sponsors may not receive any “substantial return benefit” in exchange for their underwriting contributions. While this is clearly explained in the eBay post, if I was an advertiser this wouldn't sound very good to me. The whole reason I'm thinking of dropping $12 grand on advertising is specifically to get a "substantial return benefit"
When you're talking to advertisers about sponsoring your show. Give them hard numbers. Using words like "impressions" when talking about audio and giving listener numbers without any other quantifier just makes you look like you're trying to pull a fast one. Or at least it does to me.
If you don't know your numbers, be honest - give your best guess and maybe a rationale on how you came to that number. If you do know your numbers then state them clearly and quantify them with some other meaningful measure like "per show" or "per month" - whatever is more appropriate to your situation.
My prediction? This auction will close with no bids. See you in 7 days to check if I'm right!
Thanks for the interesting read. Any predictions here Jon?
Posted by: Ellen Weber | April 13, 2006 9:06 PM | Permalink to Comment