Podcasting Has An Ad-Skipping Problem, Too

The 15-second skip button allows listeners to avoid commercials to skip ahead by increments of 15 seconds on its podcast application. Other podcastapps, such as Spotify AB and Stitcher, also feature a skip button.

Anna Mowry, a 32-year-old podcast fan who listens to about five programs a week,avoids ads through the Downcast podcast-listening app, which has different time-skipping options: 15 seconds, 30 seconds and 2 minutes. “Depending on the podcast I’mlistening to, I know the one I need to click,” said Ms. Mowry, who works at the JamesBeard Foundation, a culinary organization.

Podcast ad formats vary across programs, but the most common two are promotionsread by the program’s host or spots that sound similar to traditional radio ads.

Advertisers prefer the former because they weave marketers’ messages into theprogram and are less likely to be skipped, said Stephen Smyk, chief executive ofPerformance Bridge, which buys ads on behalf of podcast marketers such as glassesmaker Warby Parker and razors supplier Harry’s.

Skipping is “definitely on our radar,” Mr. Smyk said, so he prefers if ads are an oddlength. “Fifty seconds is better than 60 seconds. You don’t want those 15-secondincrements because that 15-second skip button hurts you,” he said.

How much it hurts advertisers is largely unclear. Podcast ads are sold based on howmany people download an episode, but advertisers and producers are essentially blindto whether or not those people go on to listen, let alone whether they hit the skip buttonduring the ads.

Producers have been able to observe the behavior on a small scale. During a recentepisode of the Gimlet Media Inc. podcast “Reply All,” for example, 85% of listeners whobegan the program on Spotify were still listening by the 12th minute of the show, whichcovers internet culture. At roughly the 16th minute, when the ad break started, theaudience dipped to 77% of the original listeners. It then bounced back to about 85% afterthe ad finished. Spotify is a new entrant to the podcast world, so that sample onlyrepresents a few thousand people, said Gimlet co-founder Matt Lieber. Spotify declinedto comment.

“We always assume that people could turn away and listen to something else, and wetreat the ads the same way. We don’t want you to skip them and we don’t want you toturn off the show,” Mr. Lieber said. Ad-skipping isn’t a concern at the company, butadvertisers have sometimes asked about it, he said.

The ad-skipping conundrum taps into a larger issue in the podcast world: Measurementchallenges have kept many big-brand advertisers on the sidelines. “The big barrier to most brands is the measurability and the fact that you have to A) take on trust that apodcast is being listened to and B) that your particular ad has not been skipped overwithin that,” said Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at ZenithOptimedia, a mediaagency owned by Publicis Groupe SA.

About 21% of Americans over the age of 12, or roughly 57 million people, listen to apodcast monthly, up from 17% last year, according to Edison Research.

Podcast companies say that keeping ads entertaining remains the best way to mitigatead-skipping. “Repetition is what leads people to skip over and over again,” said BryanMoffett, general manager of National Public Media, a sales subsidiary of National PublicRadio that is owned in partnership with the Public Broadcasting Service and Bostonpublic media station WGBH.

“One of the key reasons we rely on ‘host reads’ is for this exact purpose,” said LexFriedman, executive vice president of sales and development for podcast advertisingcompany Midroll Media, which is owned by E.W. Scripps Co. “If it’s a comedy show, theads are going to be funny. If it’s a science show, the host is going to nerd out.”

Norm Pattiz, executive chairman of podcast advertising network PodcastOne, said hedoesn’t see ad-skipping as a significant problem because listeners are on the move sooften, either driving or running. “They are not going back to their device and speedingthrough the commercials to save them 18 seconds of listening,” Mr. Pattiz said. “It’s notlogical.”

Jenna Weiss-Berman, co-founder of Pineapple Street Media, which makes shows for adagency Wieden+Kennedy and actress Lena Dunham, said ads in the beginning of a showare more likely to be skipped than more pricey “midroll” ads.

“If it’s 20 minutes in, you’re probably into the story and you’re not thinking about fast-forwarding through the ad,” she said.

QUESTIONS:

1. Explain the article to the class.

2. Why do you think podcasts are becoming popular?

3. How are advertisers overcoming the challenges posed by the 15-second skip button available in podcast apps?

4. Describe an example - real or fictitious - of how a podcast could incorporate an advertising message directly in its content without turning off viewers. (Do not use an example that's mentioned in the article.)

5. Given the fact that technology enables listeners and viewers to skip and bypass traditional commercials, what do you think will happen with media (TV, podcasts, radio, movies, music, etc.) in the future?