Thread by @apollopods

Our livetweets of #PM22 begin! First up, we have Tom Webster with Sounds Profitable to talk After These Messages: a study on Creative Execution of Podcast Advertising! Follow along here for what we expect are going to be some HUGE revelations 👀🧵

After These Messages is a study of 1049 weekly podcast listeners done by Edison Research about the efficacy of different types of ads: live improvised and host-read; scripted and host-read; and the same scripted ad read by a professional announcer (Ashley Hamer) 🧵#PM22

The industry wisdom for some time has been that host-read ads are THE way to go, the only thing that actually gets listeners to pay attention to ads--but is that actually true, or is it just an assumption? Edison's got the actual data for us, finally! 🧵#PM22

Research shows that listeners do say they PREFER host-read ads, especially since they trust podcasts hosts to endorse products that they actually, yknow, endorse. But that's just what listeners SAY. 🧵#PM222

The ads were tested with an interview with Matthew McConaughey by podcast host @JordanHarbinger. Listening to all three ads (improv, scripted, scripted and read by Ashley Hamer) right now 😌👂
🧵#PM22

During this study, 69% of listeners did use supplements in addition to daily meals, and the ad was for Athletic Greens, so they made sure they had an audience match to test how well these different ads worked 🧵#PM22

First question: 85% of listeners did remember an ad

Second question:
68% remembered what the ad was for live read (unaided recall)
55% for scripted host-read
47% for scripted announcer-read

For AIDED recall (some information given)
86% live read
86% scripted host-read
78% scripted announcer-read

For EXISTING listeners to the show, the listeners liked... all three ads! 82% liked the scripted announcer ad
83% liked the scripted host ad
82% liked the improv host ad!

Not a huge difference, which is contrary to the age-old industry wisdom! 🤯
🧵#PM22

The common thread here? Everything fit the show. It's not necessarily about who's reading ads--it's about how it's executed, the fit for the ad with the listeners, and how the host makes room for ads 🧵#PM22

Key quote: "While host-read ads were preferred, all three executions scored positively compared to other forms of advertising"

Pre-existing fans of the show accepted and liked all three ads with relatively little difference! 🧵#PM22

Live reads were overwhelming seen as more informative than other ads. Scripted ads host-read overperformed on being less annoying than other ads. For scripted announcer ads, the data was not that different--especially on how likely the listener was to consider the product 🧵#PM22

One last twist: with unaided recall, people who have listened to the podcast were way lower! This is likely because his listeners were already familiar with the product, meaning it DID work. Just a long time ago, with his first ad, not this instance of the ad. 😂🧵#PM22

Quick observations: live improv host-read ads DO perform the best, especially with new listeners vs preexisting listeners. But well-produced, scripted ads were almost tied with existing listeners. As long as the vibe matches, there's actually very little drop-off! 🧵#PM22

There are benefits to host-read AND announcer-read. Don't like recording ads? Then... don't! That's one job you can outsource without guilting yourself! 💙
Want to see the deck? It's available now in English and Spanish!
qrfy.com/eLV8WQf
🧵#PM22

And that's our first session WRAPPED! Way to start PM with a bang!

And make sure you follow the inimitable @webby2001, who is the king of all things REAL podcast data!

AND be sure to follow @SoundsProfNews of course! We love everything they're doing so much. Genuine, genuine champions of the industry, with their hearts focused on getting creators paid in an industry that often tries to make us go broke! 😂😭