If your goal is to measure impressions, then accept downloads as an indication, and not a guarantee of impressions. You can get a reasonable risk adjustment by looking at download growth. If people aren’t watching or listening to what they download, fewer are going to come back to download again. Advertisers make ad buys in print based on circulation, when there’s no guarantee that every reader is going to open their newspaper that day, much less turn to page A16 to view their ad. Advertisers make ad buys on television, knowing that users hold the remote and use TIVOs. There are negotiations and adjustments that shape how metrics relate to the pricing of space, and those shake out over many seasons.

If your goal is branding, than accept what advertisers have done for years, and go out and do some brand awareness measures before and after a round of podcasts. Is this realistic? Well, small companies have never been able to afford such measurements, but that hasn’t stopped them from accepting the effectiveness of advertising based on the studies of larger companies.

I suspect this is more about getting across the chasm–getting the mainstream to accept the change to a new medium, and providing them with the ass cover they need to justify their ad spending. The truth is, the metrics for podcasting are not likely to be more effective than metrics have been for television or print, at least until we can embed a chip in people’s brains to measure cognitive acceptance of a delivered message. And the tactics for getting close enough to a metric for the relative effectiveness of different podcasting channels will look a lot like they have for decades. Offer some bait, and see who takes it.

Bottom line – advertisers want a sure thing

Realty – in life there are very few sure things (sun rising in the east, stuff like that I wouldn’t bet against, but most other stuff is a gamble)

Reconciliation between the bottom line and reality is to test, assess, adjust, “and so it goes,” (attribution Ellerbe)

As long as the majority of people and dollars flock to “more” media and by more I mean whatever show has larger numbers than another show, so that means Rocketboom over something else for the purpose of this thread, then the system values quantity above quality.

In podcasting the quest to monetize has allowed some parts of the podsphere to fall into the mass (or more) media trap. So, as I’ve feared most of my life, size does matter. This of course explains the majority of the emails I receive.

Scoble’s point of audience engagement is an excellent measure and should be one of several measures that will give advertisers confidence to test and take calculated risks. But, having spent time in politics and as a journalist, the engagement assessment is a
”Snapshot” of the audience at the particular point in time at which it is taken.

In Scoble’s case he cited a situation where listeners of a podcast were asked to call in for a free download of software. OK that measures interest in free software. That metric assesses interest, but is not quite a true measure of value which is what dollar amount would they willing to pay to satisfy that interest. The engagement index does however, generate interested leads and that’s a milestone for direct engagement.

The Rocketboom Baron’s got a good thing going, generating excitement, advancing the medium and providing some metrics in the process, while others are wringing their hands and arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. At the end of the day at this point this specific discussion it’s about generating excitement. On that measure, Rocketboom has done it and we are all benefiting.

Marketers don’t push too much for absolute metrics. The closer marketing gets to a formula, the less valuable you become.

* If the user has not played an episode in more than 5 “download sessions” (there may be > 1 episode downloaded per session)
AND
* There have been more than 5 days between the first session and now,
THEN
* iTunes unsubscribes from the feed.

So, “engagement” and “influence” are all fun metrics to define, hoist and chase… at the end of the day an advertiser simply wants to know their money was well spent. ROI reigns supreme.

PodTech is developing a ROI return on influence principle as well..

Great post.

considering 10 comments were from “drew” and ten more from some regulars who were around when BoomBoom was there, that takes that ratio to about 1 in 14, 500.

compare that to LR

barron has proven himself quite the bullshitter in the past.
if ze is the war planner i think he is, he may already “know” the real number and is just drawing out his opponent.