First off Steve, I'd like to say thanks for making Escape Pod all these years. I think you've done a great job so far considering you've done this mostly yourself.
As for advertisements, I have some suggestions.
- Shorter = better. 15 seconds = more than enough. Any longer will just annoy listeners. Ads should be short and sweet about what the product is and why it's so great.
- Have ads at the end, not the beginning. I still listen to ads at the end but for some reason they are less annoying at the end. Also, if they want me to buy some product or sign up for some service, I'm more likely to do it at the end of the podcast and I won't remember if the ad was at the beginning.
- Run ads that EP listeners would find interesting. You're doing a good job on this so far so I won't say anything else about it.
- Don't narrate the ads yourself. Either get an "ad guy" or have the companies submit ads they've already narrated. To understand this, see if you can remember ever listening to the radio, and the host of the radio station promotes some type of crazy weight loss pills, saying, "I lost 20 lbs with this program." Lots of respect is lost for the host, even though it's obvious he's paid to do the ad. Whereas if some crazy weight loss ad comes on during the ad portion of the radio show, no respect is lost for the hosts of the show no matter how much the ad sounds like a scam.
- You can mention the ad in your intro if you have something to say about it, and even briefly thank the sponsors if it's the first week of the ad, but don't go out of your way promoting their product or service. It makes the podcast feel like an infocommercial on late night TV. In my humble opinion, good products and services largely sell themselves once customers know about them, don't beat us over the head praising them.
- On that note, try not to repeat the same ad two or more weeks in a row, if possible. I sometimes listen to Escape Pod stories back to back, and it's annoying to listen to the same ad over and over again. Do something; vary the ad, or put it on a rotating basis like once every three weeks.
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Anyway, I'm excited about the new direction of Escape Pod and the upcoming Pod Castle, so keep up the good work.
Except almost all of what you say concerning ads is broken by TWIT in the podcast realm and Prairie Home Companion in the radio realm. Long ads can work if they're good, and so can ones narrated by the narrator. As for the crazy ad bit it's pretty clear Steve isn't advertising anything he wouldn't buy, which takes care of the crazy weight loss stuff. A long ad/testimonial works fine so long as it's clearly delineated from the content and the audience is sure it's not editorial. And for most companies ad-buys work in blocks, so it would be rowing upstream to try for every-other week. Up front ads bring in more money, and are a lot easier to sell than ones at the end.
Sorry it's taken so long to reply, my internet has been down since last post.
But I wanted to say, I'm well aware of the many issues concerning ads, and why things are done a certain way. I'm also aware of what TWIT and Prairie Home Companion have done, and I'm actually hoping Escape Pod doesn't go down that same path.
I actually stopped listening to the Prairie Home Companion podcast, partly because of that annoying mattress ad that played at the beginning of the podcast every week. Even though I know that Mr. Keillor was paid to do those ads, I still lose some respect for him and his show.
As for TWIT, I'm not really a fan how Leo sneaks ads into the middle of podcast and they end up talking half the show about audible.com. Again, I know it's just an ad but it gets annoying after a while. Also, it feels kind of insulting to the listener, as if the only way anyone would listen to ads is if they are in the smack dab middle of the content.
I just finished listening to episode 149, and so far I think I've liked the way Escape Pod has done its ads. Brief mention (10 sec) of getting a sponsor at the beginning of the podcast, very brief lead in to the ad (4 sec) and a reasonable length ad (1min 5 sec). Mr. Eley rambled a little at the end, but it was mostly about the relationship between podcasts and the publishing industry in general, not directly promoting the product. He let a well-produced narrated ad do most of the promoting, and I think that works the best for everyone.
I'm not usually one to pick apart episodes, but I feel that some methods for introducing ads are clearly better than others without making the ads any less effective. In TV and radio, I think the most effective ads are ones that either make you laugh while promoting a product, or ones that make a product seem really cool. All while not annoying the consumers so we don't harbor a grudge against products with annoying ads. In podcast world, I listen to my podcasts much more closely than I do TV, radio, web pages, or really anything else. That means they can either reach me much easier or annoy me much easier.
