Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. On the day the annual Infinite Dial results exploring audio adoption patterns in Australia are released, we discuss the planning and buying of podcast advertising.

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‘Too many brands are still thinking about reach when they're thinking about podcast advertising, and a successful campaign being about cheap CPMs.’

A year on from the launch of Australia’s first, and to date only, media agency specialising in the planning and buying of podcast advertising, we check in with the team at Earmax - Andy Maxwell and Ralph van Dijk.

Maxwell and van Dijk linked up to launch Earmax a year ago. Prior to coming to Australia, Maxwell spent most of his career in the UK, working within marketing and podcasting, while van Dijk is adland’s elder statesman of audio, having run specialist radio agency Eardrum for 35 years.

During the podcast conversation with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes, the duo discuss the high engagement levels of podcast listeners, why reach isn’t everything, and the challenges of the specialist agency cutting through in the market.

According to Maxwell: “As a podcast listener, you hear how much wastage there is, you hear how you get served the wrong ads in the wrong environments. When you do get served the right ads it’s powerful.”

Maxwell argues that one of the major errors being made by marketers and planners is making conversations about podcasts one of reach rather than specialisation. He argues: “One of the big issues itself is that people are still thinking about reach and incremental reach, when actually the podcast medium should be about driving consideration and conversions.

“These big brands, you can get your reach from everywhere else, but podcasts, because of the environment, because of how engaged the audience is, you have such a massive opportunity, whether the reach is 100,000 or a million.

“You can find a specific audience interested in a specific subject and get them in an environment where they are so leaned in.”

He adds: “Too many brands are still thinking about reach when they're thinking about podcast advertising and a successful campaign being about cheap CPMs. Five podcasts of 50,000 listeners is more effective than one podcast of 250,000.”

Meanwhile, van Dijk is frank about the pace of adoption of Earmax in the market, saying it has gone more slowly than he anticipated. He says: “I just thought that word would catch on and they'd all be telling their mates and there would be people banging down the door to have us look at their campaigns.

“The reality is that there's structures, processes, arrangements, partnerships in place for both the creative and the media, which a tough decision has to be made to go around that.”

He adds: “There's a lot of politics.”

Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio. We’ll be back with more tomorrow.

In the meantime, don’t forget to join us for The Infinite Dial Australia, in a couple of hours.

I’m hosting a conversation with ARN Media’s Lauren Joyce, Thinkerbell’s Margie Reid, and Edison Research’s Larry Rosin about the state of play in audio.

Have a great day

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella

[email protected]

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