The advertising industry has developed new and innovative ways to generate cash from podcasts. At this early stage, the ideas are nothing more than substance-free buzzwords; there is a promised “multifront initiative” that features “improvements in technology.” We don’t know what that means to the average podcast listener, but wow, doesn’t it sound exciting? The few concrete ideas that have emerged are unimaginative and dated. From the New York Times:

Ms. Bratton, who is an online advertising industry veteran, said she believes she has found at least one good format for running advertisements within podcasts. In addition to placing a sponsor’s advertisements at both ends of a show, she also inserts an advertisement in the middle.

“Say you’re listening,” Ms. Bratton said. “You’ll hear an ad about sponsoring the show from the Omega Institute at the start. Then you get into the show, and halfway through there’s a commercial break, where you have more detail on Omega’s summer programs. Then at the end of the show the final commercial says, ‘Find out more at eomega.org.’ “

Ms. Bratton added, “I have the ability to not just have a single ad in front and end, but a series of them that’ll tell the story.”

15 companies, including Apple and NPR, will join forces to form a new industry group: The Association for Downloadable Media. Topping their wish list, technology that allows advertisers to dynamically alter and track ads on podcasts that have already been downloaded. As long as we can still skip through the ads, we don’t mind the relatively innocuous privacy incursion.

Are the ads currently on podcasts tolerable? Do you even listen to podcasts? Tell us in the comments.

Podcasters Unite to Figure Out a Role for Ads [NYT]
(Photo: omar_chatriwala)

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