Hugo Schotman

Podcast advertising: more effective

A Bizreport article showed up in my Google alerts with some numbers that support what many Podcasters have been saying for some time: Podcast audiences respond well to the advertising that is tailored to them.
Some of the reasons mentioned: niche audiences that actively choose to subscribe to particular podcasts and audiences that follow and trust hosts/presenters.

Adam Curry's Podshow... Eh... Mevio among others was built with the goal of doing advertising the right way for podcasting and avoiding the failures of traditional media. Although, failures... perhaps inefficiency is a better word. Returns are harder to measure and audiences harder to target in 'traditional' media.
I think that the current good results are partly due to the 'newness': a large percentage of early adopters in the audience, podcasters who are really passionate about their content and advertisers who are in tune with the early adopters (and who are early adopters themselves).

Some things that may happen over time:
- Audience grows: on average less engaged, majority adoption -> more difficult to target.
- Podcasters (sources of content) diffuse: on average less engaged, less passionate, less niche -> more difficult to target. Example: CNN 'Now in the News' podcast.
- Advertisers have more choice: more chance to spend money on less effective podcasts.

Advantages of podcasting over TV/Radio/Print that will remain are:
- Improved measurement of effectiveness
- Potential for easier targeting of audiences
- Potential for Personalisation
- Lower financial risk: lower production and distribution costs

Podcastconsultant.net : Excellent podcasting resource

At Barcamp2 Boston in March I met Adam Weiss. He creates 2 podcasts himself and shares his podcasting knowledge on his website and as a consultant.
See: podcastconsultant.net

I visited Adam at his studio in the Museum of Science a couple of weeks ago and we talked about all things podcasting. He has broad knowledge of podcasting and is very practical and down to earth in his solutions and recommendations. Highly recommended if you're looking for a consultant.

Attention for Podsafe music, or: freeing music

The current system(s) of licensing music are not compatible with Podcasting and other 'new' ways of promoting music.
To get things moving a bit, one initiative is sure to draw some attention to alternative licensing.
"Bum Rush The Chart" aims to make one song from an independent music artist storm the iTunes charts on March 22.

See:


Let's hope that this will get a lot of attention so that we get a step further to modernizing content licensing.

TED Podcast : Jimmy Wales on how and why Wikipedia works

There is a recurring discussion about the value and trustworthiness of Wikipedia.
Watch this video podcast of the founder of Wikipedia - Jimmy Wales - and you'll probably be much more confident the next time you use Wikipedia:

http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=j_wales

TED Podcasts : Extremely high value

TED is a conference.
Traditionally there is one 'TED' each year in California but last year there was the first Global edition - aptly named TEDGlobal - in Oxford, UK and more are to follow.

There are thousands of conferences each year but this one really is different.
Just take a look at one of the talks held at TED and changes are you're immediately hooked.
You can do this right now because they are made available through a podcast.

Here it is:
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/

Check out Al Gore doing standup comedy (and talking about the climate):
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=al_gore

Ever since attending TEDGlobal 2005 I sure am hooked.
I will gladly save up for the (considerable) expenses and take vacation days to attend another one of these intellectual trips.
(Next one probably TEDGlobal 2007 in Africa.)

Update on the ol' Skype recording issue from Geekbrief

Cali from Geekbrief.tv and Rob from Podcast411 share some Skype recording tips.

They have tried several pieces of software and hardware:
http://geekbriefwp.podshow.com/podcast411/

Petition for 'Podcasters' Rights and the WIPO Broadcast Treaty'

Podcasters have been organizing themselves in the UK, Ireland and Germany and are fighting for the proper rights to use music and other materials.

The current hot topic is a World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) treaty that could severely impact Podcasters' ability to use materials in their podcasts. Apparently this treaty would make it harder to use materials even if they are licensed under a Creative Commons, not copyrightable or public domain.

Here is a petition that asks for a change in the proposed treaty.

Some more background information:
- Wiki: WIPO Broadcast treaty
- Column by James Boyle in the Financial Times: Constitutional Circumvention

I signed the petition because I think it is important that these changes are watched carefully.
It would be nice if podcasters would get proper rights to use materials and easy administration of whatever process is necessary to do so...
... But something tells me this will take some time.

In the meantime you can use Podsafe music of course:
- http://music.podshow.com/
- http://www.tablesturned.com/
- http://www.garageband.com/

Second FirstTuesday podcast on IT Conversations: Music, Innovation & Convergence

The second FirstTuesday podcast is out on IT Conversations.
A series page has now been set up here.

This session is a panel discussion about convergence.
"This panel discussion regarding VoIP closed the thought leadership forum 'The road to convergence' from First Tuesday in Zurich, Switzerland. The panel speakers were Kevin Findlay of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Peter Fischer of the Swiss telecommunications regulatory authority, Stefan Herrlich of Siemens, Paul Hitchman of PlayLouder and Mikko Kukkonen of Nokia. With moderator Bruno Giussani, they discussed VoIP regulation, different forms of convergence and scenarios for the future of communications, network and other technologies."

See also the previous session.

Snowfix video podcast

Negative Gravity from the UK have started a video podcast about snowsports: Snowfix.
The makers are based in Val d'Isere, France but they bring up-to-date information from resorts around the world including weather reports and cool action videos.

More background in an Article from Snowboardclub UK.

Squeezed geek chick: wide screen fix

The first episode of Geek Brief TV I saw after subscribing today was episode #0007. It immediately occurred to me that Cali - the presenter/ International Director - looked a bit skinny! See what I mean:

(Click to enlarge.)

Having worked with video shot in the so-called 'anamorphic' mode I recognized that it might be widescreen video squished into (or pulled out to) the wrong aspect ratio.
There is an excellent explanation in the Apple knowledge database: Final Cut Pro: DV and Widescreen Video Formats Explained.

After fixing the height of the clip so that the aspect ratio conforms to 16:9 widescreen it looks like this:

(Click to enlarge.)

So here Cali is still slender but not squished ;-)

The fix was done by going into the 'Movie properties' in Quicktime player. Select the video track and then uncheck 'Preserve aspect ratio'. Adjust the height of the 'Scaled Size' to 360. (640:360 == 16:9)

(Click to enlarge.)

PS: Looks like there will be a follow-up to podshow GBTV #0007.