Podbridge aims to bridge together podcasters and advertisers (as the name sort of suggests) and serve as an advertising network for audio advertising in podcasts. Podbridge is aiming for an exploding space with podcast growth being huge and advertising growth on the web and in rich media particularly being large.
The service for publishers and advertisers they have recently launched allows them to track not just how many times their podcast has been downloaded, but how many times it has actually been listened to. It does this through software on the client side that the listener must install once the first time they listen to a Podbridge-wrapped podcast. This has long been a long problem for both parties and previously advertising in podcasts has been sold on estimated numbers based on the number of downloads.
How Podbridge works is the publisher wraps their feed in Podbridge code that will allow it to sit in between the publisher and the listener. From the listeners perspective when they download the Podbridge add-in the first time they will be asked a few questions so that advertising can be better tailored to them (how users will react to this I am not sure).
Podbridge can already point their advertisers to a number of big media podcasters which it counts as clients with publishers such as Sports Byline USA, the BBC, Military.com and a few others. Podbridge’s new and updated service is hoping to appeal to all podcasters who wish to get some income for their efforts. Podbridge makes it easy for the publisher to signup, as well as allowing them to know a lot more about who their listeners are. The business model is a straight-forward revenue share between Podbridge and the publishers.
For advertisers, they are given a portal (much like Adsense) where they can specify to whom they wish to advertise to (demographic and geographic information) as well as other options such as daily budgets. They can then upload an MP3 advertisement and have it pushed out onto the Podbridge network of podcasts.
Podbridge solves some previous problems that publishers and advertisers have had, while at the same time providing an easy way for publishers to integrate intelligent advertising into their podcasts while letting the technology that Podbridge has take care of what advertising to server to who. This space is really heating up and it will be interesting to see if the Podbridge solution will appeal to more and more publishers. A solution like this should mean that I won’t have to listen to as many appeals for donations or Paypal donation buttons on the podcasts that I listen to.
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“From the listeners perspective when they download the Podbridge add-in the first time they will be asked a few questions so that advertising can be better tailored to them (how users will react to this I am not sure)”
Oh surely you must know - yes we don’t like appeals for donations and we’re all grown up now that we don’t mind tolerating targetted advertising - but having to tolerate being asked questions so we can be subjected to advertising? I’ll turn off - unless it’s something like plugging into an open public profile like TypeKey where Podbridge could access it and so could anybody else. AdKey?
I don’t think I would fill it out - not to listen to a podcast. I have asked them if it is optional. If it isn’t I now have no doubt that it should be
I was just thinking that the world needed more spyware…
This doesn’t provide real metrics, it provides metrics on the subset of the population that wants to use it.
So why should I, as a listener, install the podbridge spyware?
Erik I believe you will have to if you want to listen to the podcast but I may be wrong. I am getting answers to some of these questions (which I should have thought of if I wasn’t so tired) and post an update
Nik,
Your first link is missing a ‘w’. The ‘Podbridge’ link in the first paragraph is linking to ww.podbridge.com
Thanks for the great content.
Hi Nik,
I am the founder of Podbridge. I hope I can provide some clarification below.
1. Some background. When we first started exploring podcasting in 2004, we felt for mainstream mass consumers to realize the benefits of digital subscription delivery (RSS) the new podcasting medium had to closely mimic old radio and television in three significant ways.
a. It had to be a completely passive experience. Shows would get downloaded on a periodic basis, ala Tivo recording, for time and space shifted consumption.
b. The content had to be of repeatable quality produced on predictable schedules.
c. The content had to be free. How many paid subscription services can an individual consumer handle?
2. From our conversations with media companies who produce content of repeatable quality to large audiences we heard:
a. They needed a way to extend their “profitable” content business before they could get excited about podcasting
b. While subscription fees and paid downloads have been popular with digital consumers, content owners who pour lot of sweat to produce these shows can get excited about making their content available for free to consumers, while being paid by advertisers
3. We know in our deepest gut this new medium is all about the consumer. It has to be. We designed our plug-in to media players (ex. iTunes) to work similar to Macromedia flash for the browser. The plug-in provides an infrastructure for podcast media players similar to cookies for the browsers. Just as web browser cookies provide consumer convenience functions beyond advertising, our plug-in will do the same as extend new consumer benefits of our service.
4. We do collect data - basic anonymous demographic information (age, gender and zip). We do not know who the listener is. We have no identification information - no name, email or other registration data. We could know for example - “50% of the listeners to a particular show are male”. Do you “have to” provide this anonymous basic demo data? Currently not. But this is not a decision we are making. Our content partners will make this call. We provide them a way to make such collection mandatory, or not.
5. Will there be ads? How many? Again, we do not make these decisions. Our content partners will make this call. We provide them a simple way to extend their RSS feed with information indicating number, frequency and insertion point/style of the ads. The content providers dictate categories of acceptable advertising. We intend to extend this control to the individual consumer who can also guide advertisements in their own content.
5. In the end, we do not want to be party to any technology or service which compromises the consumer. It does not make any business sense. This new exciting medium is all about the consumer.
I am happy to see your analysis. I am sure we will be in conversation as we launch new services in our mission to bring great content into podcasting, free of consumer fees.
I don’t like the PodBridge idea as a listener or a podcast producer. Podcast listeners have a right to personal privacy. The installation of a tool to track a person’s habits violates that right.
Once podcast producers begin using proprietary formats, DRM and consumption tracking software they will see a large drop in demand for their podcasts. Users don’t want or need to deal with this kind of stuff.
The next thing that needs to be addressed is this obsession with guaranteeing that someone has fully consumed a podcast. Do advertisers know if someone sees an add in a magazine? Does everyone watch all the commercials in all the shows they watch on TV? No and no. So why should the standard for podcasting be any different?
I completely lost interest when I got to the sentence that said: It does this through software on the client side that the listener must install once the first time they listen to a Podbridge-wrapped podcast.
I can’t see this taking off.