Ads in podcasts with higher recall value; IVM Podcasts acquired by Pratilipi; Spotify goes shopping again and a mixed bag of podcast recommendations
Ever wondered why some ads read out in a podcast stick with you long after? Don't miss out on the additional list of podcast suggestions at the end of the newsletter
Take any popular podcast and there would be a high probability for the podcast to begin with a Rolodex of advertisements which you generally skip through, before starting the pod. Some such as the Tim Ferriss Podcast or Joe Rogan Experience have 5-8 mins of just advertisements at the start.
But mid-way through the podcast, when you are in the middle of a run or driving or just commuting in a Mumbai local, there is no way for you to take out your phone and skip the ads. If it’s a host-read ad in the middle of an interesting section of the podcast, you are more than likely to listen to the entire ad so as to not miss out on any part of the podcast episode.
Over the years, I have come to the realisation that I have heard more advertisements on podcasts than I have seen on YouTube (YouTube Premium ftw) or video ads on Twitter or on websites (unless they force me to disable Ad Blocker Plus). Another realisation: I am more likely to listen to an ad read out by the host of the podcast than a well-produced sterile advertisement by the maker of the product or service. Some ad reads by hosts such as Kara Swisher (yeah, she’s my favourite) give the advertisement a personality of their own. Of course, this works only if the product being placed resonates with the subject of the podcast or areas that the host is influential in.
Such is the power of audio ads that I can still remember MailChimp as being one of the advertisers of Serial or ZipRecruiter being an advertiser on Recode Decode. Sadly, I don’t remember any product ad that may have been host-read or compelling enough on an Indian podcast so far. In fact, a lot of podcasts I have heard are sponsored by a brand, so the ad segments don’t have any creative inputs from the host.
Long story short, if the podcast sticks with you long after you have heard it, there are high chances the host-read ad will stick as well. There is a high probability that your trust in the podcast will have a halo effect on the product or service being advertised in it. I don’t know the science behind it, but it definitely worked for me. I did look up some products and services after hearing about them on podcasts.
As for what happens inside your brain when you listen to a meditation, comedy or true-crime podcast, this story has some insights.
Important developments in India
One of the most recognisable names in the Indian podcasting scene, IVM Podcasts, has now been acquired by publishing company Pratilipi. There have been no numbers being shared regarding the price of this acquisition. IVM Podcasts has been around since 2015 and has pods across various genres. Here’s their entire show list. Pratilipi is a publishing platform with its focus being content published in 12 Indian languages. According to news reports, IVM Podcasts will continue to create podcasts under the Pratilipi banner and there are plans to even explore more languages and genres.
Regional podcasting platform, Khabri, conducted a survey among its 100,000 listeners and 50,000 influencers to release some findings.
18-24 age group sees the most users of Khabri
Male to female listener ratio is 4:1
Of the 81 percent of the male influencer podcasters, the majority are from Lucknow
Phones by Xiaomi and Vivo are the most popular handsets on which Hindi podcasts are heard
According to this IANS report, “Since the six months following the lockdown, the app has recorded an average of 2.3 posts per day, between the months of April to September.”
Important developments globally
Apple Podcasts is finally letting you embed a podcast when sharing it on the web. What that effectively means is that the podcasts will be playable from the embedded widget, rather than having to go to the Apple Podcasts website to play your podcast (but it looks like Substack is yet to enable Apple podcast widgets, as it doesn’t seem to be working for me). It’s good to see Apple waking up from its slumber while Spotify is making tectonic shifts in the podcasting world.
Another piece of podcast-related news speculated that Apple is showing interest in buying out podcasting network Wondery which is behind podcasts such as Dirty John (which was adapted into a TV show), WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork (already slated to be adapted into an Apple TV+ original) and many other limited-episode podcast series which are ripe for adaptation.
Blinkist is a German startup that is renowned for compressing key takeaways from non-fiction books into bite-sized audio chunks called Blinks. The idea is to distil the important points from books for those who don’t have time to read books. Given the unlimited supply of non-fiction podcasts which delve into specialist subjects but go on for over 45 mins to an hour, it was a sitting duck opportunity for Blinkist to bank on.
“Each Shortcast runs around 15 minutes. Shortcasts are produced in direct collaboration with the podcast creators, with hosts adding valuable context and a fresh perspective,” reads the release.
Author Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History, will be part of the launch cycle of Shortcasts. It’s a win-win for the podcasters as well, as they get access to Blinkist’s audience which could get them more subscribers.
Given the upfront investments Spotify has been making in the podcasting sector, it isn’t surprising to know that Spotify is testing a paid subscription model for podcasts only. Nothing is official yet and this news was thanks to a tweet shared by someone who was answering a Spotify survey. The survey hints at plans going from $3 to $8, with or without ads, and so on. I wouldn’t be surprised if Spotify goes ahead with this and then locks some of its exclusive podcasts behind this paid tier, making the Netflix-isation of podcasting a reality. This is an interesting read on why Spotify wouldn’t go ahead with a premium podcast service.
In an earlier edition of Indian Podcasting, I have spoken about Kara Swisher’s new podcast and why she is one of my favourite podcast personalities. Her podcast which got me interested in documenting my podcast listens on Twitter was called Recode Decode. After her moving to NYT Opinion and starting Sway, Recode Decode was just republishing some older pods. From now on, Recode Decode will be called Decoder with Nilay Patel and will see fresh weekly episodes. Patel is the editor-in-chief of technology website, The Verge, and quite a well-known personality in the tech circles himself. He is filling in big shoes and it will be interesting to see how he takes forward the legacy left by Kara Swisher.
It had been a while since Spotify went shopping. This month, it did just that and acquired podcast hosting platform Megaphone. The speculated cost of $235 mn makes it the most expensive acquisition by Spotify since it started aggressively shopping to expand its podcast-related investments. Megaphone started off as a podcast network called Panoply, and it now helps podcasters with tasks such as production, targeted advertising and audience-related metrics. Spotify already has Streaming Ad Insertion tech, which targets listeners based on demographics and their listening behaviour. With this acquisition, Spotify now has access to the Megaphone’s targetted marketplace.
According to The Verge, “With Megaphone, Spotify now owns a fully rounded-out podcasting ecosystem: a network of exclusive shows, a podcast player, podcast creation software, a hosting company, and its own ad sales team.”
The major takeaway of this acquisition is the potential for more ad dollars for Spotify.
Indian podcasts in focus
She says she’s fine
This is a women’s health podcast, hosted by Dr Munjaal Kapadia, a Mumbai-based gynaecologist. It features frank conversations on a lot of topics concerning women’s health and related issues, in ways that are educational and informative. Dr Kapadia, along with his guests, also does a lot of myth-busting of various social taboos, normalises conversations around women’s health, and tries to eliminate doctor-patient hierarchies. This podcast wouldn’t be half as effective if it didn’t have the guests discussing their personal health issues in detail and how they deal with them in their day to day, how they are perceived by their doctors, workplace attitudes, how lifestyle changes could have triggered some issues, how society tends to try and keep these issues under the carpet and the need to have better sex education right from school. I can’t help but express gratitude to the guests and Dr Munjaal for making me a lot more informed than I was before listening to this pod. There are 25 episodes out, and I sincerely hope there are more coming in the near future.
Some episodes of She Says She’s Fine that I liked:
PCOS Feat. Pallavi Pundir and Supriya Joshi
What’s Up Doc? Feat. Anu Menon and Rohini Ramanathan
Menopause Feat. Deepanjana Paul and Viji Venkatesh
Thriller Factory
If you have been to any railway station in India (pre-Covid19), you may have noticed the AH Wheeler book stalls packed to the gills with newspapers, magazines and books. A major component of these shops has been regional pulp fiction novels, with colourful covers. One name in the Hindi pulp noir genre that stands out is Ved Prakash Sharma. In his lifetime, he penned over 175 novels and 10 of those stories have been adapted by Audible Suno for the 10-part Hindi anthology called Thriller Factory. Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has directed each of these episodes and has used voices of famous actors including Nawazuddin Siddique, Tabu, among others to tell certain stories. The 70s and 80s audio aesthetic accompanying each story and the wonderful narration thanks to the veteran actors make this a perfect listening companion when just about to go to bed. The immersive quotient is quite high. But it’s preferable to listen to this podcast with headphones on, as the language in some stories is not exactly kid-friendly.
Some episodes of Thriller Factory that I liked:
Apne Qatl Ki Supaari narrated by Nawazuddin Siddique
Neel Palace ka Shraap narrated by Sachin Khedekar
International Podcasts for the fortnight
I stumbled upon an episode from this podcast on 99 Percent Invisible and was instantly hooked on it. I binged through three- four episodes that caught my fancy from the titles. The concept of the podcast is shining a light on cultural aspects and intriguing stories behind some of the most popular brands in the world. Did you know the stash of business emails made public after Enron imploded in 2001 were used as training material for AI algorithms, fighting terrorism and more? What connects the cocktail Cuba Libre (rum and coke, for the uninitiated), Bacardi and Fidel Castro? How did a very capitalist American brand such as Pepsi break into the communist USSR market? You have surely heard of most brands in this podcast, but these stories are easter eggs.
As is evident from the name, this show is about the dark underbelly of the internet with stories focussing on cybercrimes, hack attacks, data breaches, shady govt activities, you get the picture. It’s well-produced and is a mix of narration and interviews with atmospheric music which keeps things interesting for a topic which can otherwise only interest the nerds. As each episode unpacks some of the most outrageous cyber attacks, it also makes you all the wiser. You can pick and choose the episode that you find interesting. Recommended episodes: Olympic Destroyer, Shadow Brokers, The Indo-Pak Conflict, Elliot. And did I mention, the website has kick-ass artwork for every episode?
We are all always working towards building something and you could come across many roadblocks on that journey. Chances are also high that someone else has already gone through those teething troubles you are facing. How I Built This goes behind the scenes of some of the most successful companies and startups. The podcast features conversations with the founders themselves who don’t really shy away from addressing their failures as well. Right now they have a special edition of episodes called “How I Built Resilience” which addresses how founders are dealing with the Covid19 curveball and realigning some of their strategies to mitigate the effects of the disruptions caused by Covid19. Raz’s interviewing style makes each episode fun to listen to. There are definitely many takeaways from every few episodes.
In addition to the recommendations I have provided above, I thought of sharing this list of award winners and nominees from this year’s Discover Pods Awards. It has some familiar names and I was thrilled to see Ologies with Alie Ward as the winner under Technology/Science podcasts. I had recommended that podcast here in one of my earliest newsletters. Please check out this list for a wonderful bunch of podcasts to discover.
That’s all for this week’s newsletter. As always, it would be great to hear your feedback. Till then, have a great week ahead and happy listening. If you liked this issue, do consider sharing. If you didn’t like it, please feel free to let me know:)
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