From the Association for Downloadable Media:

“Please join the ADM as we present the results of our recently concluded Podcast Consumer Attitudes study. Together with Edison Research we surveyed nearly 5,000 regular consumers of audio and/or video podcasts and we will be sharing those results in a public webinar.

This free webinar is scheduled for Thursday, January 28th at 3:00pm EST, 2:00pm CST, and Noon PST. Interested participants can register here.

This groundbreaking look at the attitudes and behaviors of these active podcast consumers, presented by Edison’s Tom Webster, will include:

• A comparison of the effectiveness of advertising approaches across various new and traditional media channels;
• An examination of post-exposure purchase and trial behaviors for consumers exposed to podcast advertising;
• A quantification of the “halo” effect of podcast advertising for prospective brands and sponsors;
• A look at the rapid adoption of mobile audio and video consumption; and
• The effectiveness of pre-recorded advertisements, sponsorships and host-read messaging in podcasts.”

PodcastingNews.com has covered Edison Research’s annual report on podcast consumers since its first study in 2006. Previous articles on the subject can be found at this link.

Startup digital advertising and technology firm VoloMedia (formerly known as PodBridge) has  announced today a free metrics and analytics service that helps podcasters track the activity of the programs they publish to iTunes.

VoloMedia founder Murgesh Navar described the service in a post today on the Association for Downloadable Media blog:

“Bridge-to-Google Analytics is a plug-in to the iTunes Media player, now installed with over 100,000 iTunes consumers in the US…. Publishers are free to use this free service if it meets their needs, i.e. collect anonymous usage statistics regarding usage of their content on iTunes, and to analyze them using Google Analyics: a free and robust industry-standard platform. If you have ever used Google Analytics, then you are familiar with “GA_ID – Google Analytics ID”. With a simple modification of the RSS feed to incorporate the GA-ID the publisher can start flowing aggregated play and download data to their Google Analytics account.  More information is on our website: http://www.volomedia.com”

Navar also pointed out that podcasters can use the metrics and analytics service whether or not they are VoloMedia customers, insisting, “this free service does not require any relationship, contractual or otherwise, with VoloMedia.”

Podcasters will also have access to the API for VoloMedia’s iTunes plug-in (now available for PC and Mac). The plug-in gives the audience tools for sharing podcasts via email or social bookmarking sites and provides the podcaster with a place to display supplemental content or advertising/sponsorship messages, along with a way to track data on whether the audio/video file is played.

Reed Kavner, Associate Marketing Manager at VoloMedia, elaborated on the benefits of the service: “It’s a cool move for VoloMedia, as previous products and services were only available to top-tier publishers who had partnership agreements. And while we will continue to offer enterprise-level services, this is VoloMedia’s first offering to publishers of any size without any business development paperwork. And it’s free.”

The Association for Downloadable Media and Edison Research are pairing up to present a free online Webcast covering the latest reasearch on the audience for podcasts.

Tom Webster from Edison Research will present The Podcast Consumer Revealed – 2009, on May 21, 2009, at 1:00 EST. In the Webcast, Webster will discuss the fourth iteration of Edison’s podcast research. The event is free, but requires pre-registration at this link.

Edison’s latest report offers some good news for podcasters, including proof of podcasting’s steady growth:

• Awareness of podcasting has increased from 37% to 43%; and
• The percentage of Americans who have ever listened to an audio podcast has grown to 22%.

“If you are in the business of creating downloadable media, this is key, significant research that you won’t want to miss,” says Webster, “This report and webcast will look at demographics and usage, key audience behaviors, content preferences, and attitudes towards advertising and sponsorships.”

The webcast will last one hour and will include time for your questions. Participants will also be able to download the presentation prior to its wider public release.

Details on the webcast are available at http://www.downloadablemedia.org.

Image: Ronan_tlv

The industry group formed around the nascent podcast industry, The Association for Downloadable Media (ADM), has announced the release of two sets of recommended guidelines: ad unit standards and audience measurement guidelines. The recommendations released today grew from feedback and discussions of proposed standards, which were first unveiled in April at the ad:tech conference in San Francisco.

The Download Measurement Guidelines and Advertising Unit Standards are available now at http://www.downloadablemedia.org.

In The Podcast Consumer Revealed 2008 study, derived from the Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet and Multimedia study, podcast consumers are attractive advertising targets. The downloadable media industry is seeing a notable surge in listeners who actively seek and select a program (rather than passively consuming whatever is available via traditional media), downloading it and potentially moving it to a portable device.  This enhanced level of engagement with the programs and hosts of the shows they select may translate to an increased credibility and level of trust for the show’s sponsors and advertisers.

The ratified guidelines have been accepted by the fourteen-member ADM Ad Council, a special  interactive advertising agency liaison group, which acts as a sounding board for the ADM committees.

The specific recommendations for advertising unit standards and guidelines for audience measurement follow after the break.

From today’s ADM announcement:

The Advertising Unit Standards include three kinds of formats -  Insertions, Content Participation and Collateral. The units outlined in the document are the most common set of existing formats in use today by sponsors and content producers. The ADM has plans to innovate new formats in the future, but this initial version of the Standards serves to organize the common set to make it most available to buyers industry wide.

INSERTIONS

Definition:  A separate ad file that is attached, inserted, or edited into an audio or video podcast.
Time: Up to :10, :15, 30 or :60 seconds
Location: Pre-roll; mid-roll; post-roll

CONTENT PARTICIPATION

Definition:  When an advertiser’s message is included as part of the audio or video podcast content.
Examples:
1. Underwritten Sponsorship
2. Scripted Live Read
3. Talking Points
4. Host Endorsements
5. Product Placement / Product Discussion
6. Sponsored Interstitials
7. Special Episodes
8. Advertorials / Interviews
9. Infomercials

COLLATERALS

Definition:  All the other real estate that a podcaster has that may be included as part of an advertising or sponsorship package, or as separate items a lá carte.
Examples:
1. Show notes on podcast website
2. ID3 tags in podcast episode file
3. Album Art Cards
4. Link and banner in enhanced audio podcasts
5. Overlays, underlays in video podcasts
6. Web banners, buttons, text links, hyperlinks (using IAB standards)
7. Email sponsorships
8. Press Releases
9. Product sales (CDs, DVDs, merchandise)
10. Signage/Outdoor (for retail)
11. Brochures, flyers

Audience Measurement: Because there are two ways a content creator can get access to audience data, the ADM guidelines encompass two types of effective measurement techniques, Native Server Measurement or Third Party Measurement. Both are approved by the ADM in providing accurate data when complying with the standards parameters:

Native Server Measurement (NSM)
The Native Server is the actual end point where the media is hosted. Native Server Measurement refers to the log files derived from the Native Server. It may include the amount of data that was transferred in each log entry, and therefore may provide information to derive more than simple download statistics.

Third Party Measurement (TPM)
A Third Party server is the intermediary between the Native Server and another Third Party Server. Third Party Measurement refers to the files measuring the initial download requests as received by a third party server to be delivered to the requester. Because the Third Party server is a constant, it may uniformly measure download statistics across multiple hosting services.

Podcast network blubrry has introduced a new service for podcasters, Premium Podcast Statistics:

Many of you using our Podcast Statistic service have asked for a wide variety of additional reports.

While our basic stats package will remain free, we want to bring you a much richer data set in the plus package which will be priced at $5.00 a month (three month minimum) or $50.00 a year.

Current features include:

• Full Report of Clients
• Full Report of Referrers
• Full Report of Operating Systems
• Full Report of Geographical Data
• Daily Email Summary
• Episode Trending by Month
• Country Map Reporting
• Audit of Uncounted Request
• Export to Excel Files
• Create Guest Account

Podcast host Libsyn reports that they are updating their stats engine to address some ongoing issues with it and add new features:

We know stats accuracy is an ongoing issue and that libsyn users have had to exhibit a lot of patience and swallow a lot of frustration as we’ve worked through the problems over the years.

We took the first step of identifying and fixing the issues with the current libsyn.com stats (mainly, some episodes published after July 2007 not showing up in the system, or suddenly stop reporting downloads). We sifted through the code that processes the raw data into data we can use in the reports we provide to you, and believe we have identified the root of the problem, as well as the fix for it.

We’ve set up a test environment, applied this fix, and are now in the process of re-processing the raw data from Summer 2007 forward and verifying that this “fixed” data is accurate. Depending on how that verification goes, the reprocessing could be finished in as soon as 7 – 10 days.

We are working on a plan that will provide scalability, flexibility for us in terms of administrating the application, and will give us the ability to continue to store historical data indefinitely.

Libsyn note that, while they are reprocessing the older data, stats updates will happen less frequently.

Full details at the Libsyn blog.

A new podcasting and new media industry group, the Association for Downloadable Media (ADM) generated a great deal of discussion in the podcasting community when it was announced in July.

I caught up with two of the ADM’s founders earlier this week to get an update, and what I found out may surprise you. Susan Bratton, the acting chair of ADM, is the CEO of Personal Life Media and the host of the Dishy Mix. Mark McCreary is CEO of podcasting advertising and metrics firm Podtrac, and is shepherding the nominations and elections process.

I asked for some background about what the group has done so far, and about how the nomination and election process is going……

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Tell me about what the ADM is and how it got started.

Mark McCreary: (laughs) “Funny you should ask. It started out as Susan’s brain child. She got it rolling.”

Susan Bratton: “Back around 1996, I was on the initial board of the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau). Ten years later, I saw a similar need for bringing downloadable content to the Internet in a positive way. I didn’t see anything like that out there for the podcasting space, so I just started calling people, contacting people, kind of randomly. And those people [in turn] recommended other people I should talk to, to talk about developing standards for advertising and looking at audience size and reach.

“So we came together in May for a stressful first meeting. I think I talked for an hour before people started to ‘get’ what I was talking about! [laughs] At the end of the day, there was unanimous agreement to form an industry-wide organization. In June, we met and secured the ADM name, and divided up responsibilities for getting the group going.

“One thing we all agreed on: competitors must band together to scale the industry.”

Elisabeth: Why is there a need for a group like ADM?

Mark: “For any industry to grow, there should be standards they acknowledge, and develop services accordingly. How many people are watching? Listening? What kind of formats should there be for advertising? There should be a standard infrastructure for creating, distributing, measuring.”

Susan: “For all of us, it’s a matter of scale. My company, Personal Life Media, has twenty different shows. Mark deals with, how many? Nine thousand Podtrac shows. A media buyer should be able to buy easily, across the whole industry, and keep track of numbers across the industry… have portable content.”

Elisabeth: Who do you think ought to become involved in the ADM? What do members get as benefits of membership?

Susan: “Anyone who wants to monetize their work, anyone who makes downloadable, episodic content ought to become involved. As far as what members get from ADM, they’d be able to offer a standard advertising format, and real measurement of the ad’s effectiveness. Especially useful for smaller companies, would be templates for media kits, terms and conditions, ad insertion forms — nice to not invent that from scratch.

“And the knowledge base, statistics, and audience metrics from across the organization will be extremely valuable to our members. We’re also looking at creating quarterly revenue reporting information. ”

Elisabeth: There’s a perception that the ADM is only interested in making money. How do you respond to that?

Susan: ADM is only interested in making money; not for the ADM, but for its members. We are solely focused on monetizing content.

Elisabeth: At the ADM meeting at the Podcast and New Media Expo, you introduced some of the candidates for the ADM’s elected seats. Nominations were to close October 8, with elections happening after. Can you give an update on that process?

Mark: “We’ve had an amazing response to the call for nominations. As the October deadline came up, we were swamped with calls and inquiries, so we extended the deadline for nominations to the end of this week [11/2/07]. Anyone who is a member of the ADM can nominate or be nominated for a seat.

“There are 20 spots up for election: four officers [chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer], five committee chairs [Advertising Standards, Measurement, Outreach & Education, Terminology Standardization, Membership], and eleven board of directors positions.

“So far, forty people have been nominated for the twenty positions, and the nominees are from a wide variety of businesses. We’ve got representation from senior folks within the podcasting space, service providers, and established [old] media and big-business representatives, like Microsoft, NPR, and Discovery, among others.”

Elisabeth: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know, either about the Association for Downloadable Media, or about the upcoming elections?

Susan: “If anybody’s on the fence about getting involved, this is the perfect time to join. ADM members will be voting on the twenty board members from November 10 – 23. Once you’re a member, there’s also a Yahoo! discussion group, and committees are forming right now.”

Mark: “As I get to know the people who have joined the ADM, I’m seeing a beautiful combination of just this incredible creative talent, and this amazing technical acumen. I encourage people in the industry to join us. Right now is a great opportunity to become involved in one of the committees right from the very start. ”

Members of the Association for Downloadable Media are invited to nominate people (including themselves) through the end of this week. Membership information is available here, and information about the nominees and the voting process will be posted on the ADM website in the coming week, in advance of voting November 10 – 23.

Podcast¬†hosting provider¬†Wizzard Software¬†announced today a partnership with Nielsen//NetRatings to offer certified download data. According to Wizzard, certified download numbers will bring “a new level of accountability to podcast ad sales.”

“Our adoption of the Nielsen//NetRatings solution….will elevate our participating publishers‚Äô podcasts to an entirely new level of consideration by advertisers and agencies as a viable, measured tool for reaching highly targeted, opt-in consumers,” said Chris Spencer, chief executive officer, Wizzard.

“In the few months that we have been meeting with agencies and advertisers, we have repeatedly heard that they want to see reputable, third-party measurement of podcast downloads,” said Jim Else, vice president of sales, Wizzard Media. “Measurement via Nielsen//NetRatings‚Äô SiteCensus addresses these concerns in a big way, and we believe it will have a very positive impact on our podcast ad sales efforts.”

“Third-party measurement is absolutely essential to the future of podcast advertising,” adds Page Thompson, chief executive officer North America for ad agency OMD. “From a media planning standpoint, it is critical that we have credible data from a known source. This will help us evaluate podcast advertising alongside other forms of measured media.”

According to Wizzard, the company handled more than 85 million download requests in July.