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| Welcome back, Insiders! In this edition of Inside Podcasting, we look at the new U.S. management hires at Acast, the top spending podcast advertisers in Australia, and highlight a unique partnership between The Democracy Group and Tink Media. Keep scrolling to see which hit summer podcast is ending this week and what acquisition will make recording video podcasts more seamless. If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Christopher
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| 1 | | Acast, the largest independent podcast company, announced new U.S. leadership today, as it tabbed Greg Glenday as Chief Business Officer and Ricardo Neto as VP of Sales in the U.S. Acast also promoted Gabriella Gregoris to Group Business Director of National Performance, Tiffany Ashitey to Interim Managing Director, and named Stephen Smyk to the Advisory Board in the U.S. More: - Glenday is the former CEO of Lightbox Video Network and has multiple decades of previous leadership in media roles.
- Neto comes from Spotify, where he was the Director of Client Partnerships for the past five years.
- Gregoris has been with Acast for seven years, working her way up through performance marketing roles.
- Ashitey was elevated from Acast Creative Network Director and has been with Acast for three years.
- Smyk spent more than 16 years as CEO of Performance Bridge before spending five more years as a part of the leadership team after it was acquired.
- "The U.S. remains a key market for Acast's continued dominance in the global podcasting industry," said Acast CEO Ross Adams. "This evolution of our leadership team is a pivotal part in this next chapter for the Acast brand and will play a key role in our path to profitability."
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What the data says: Comedy is the king of advertising spending increase in Q2, as advertisers chose to up their investments in comedy podcasts by 127% between the first quarter of the year and the second in Australia. True crime continues to see massive growth, with another 116% increase. News and Society and Culture podcasts saw a 49% and a 48% increase in spending over the past three months. Overall, every genre for podcasts saw an increase in ad spending in Q2. Relevance: ARN's iHeart and Magellan AI released a report about the top ad spending across podcasts in Australia in Q2 2023. It highlighted the fact that podcast spending in Australia continues to grow, shown by a 64% increase year-over-year. "Podcasts are Australia's fastest growing mass medium, with brands utilizing its soaring engagement to connect with audiences in a more intimate and engaging way. The surge in Australian podcast advertising spending by 64% underscores a compelling shift towards a medium that's as diverse as it is impactful," said Corey Layton, ARN's head of digital audio. More data: The top 15 advertisers were also released, with Amazon retaking the No. 1 spot after it fell behind McDonald's last quarter. McDonald's landed in the second slot, and the nib Group slotted in third. Notable movements included Flutter Entertainment dropping three spots and Vodafone dropping five. | | | |
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| 3 | | Evergreen Podcasts has partnered with Regal to sponsor two of its podcasts that are focused on movies. Evergreen Podcasts, one of the largest independent podcast companies, has teamed up with the movie theater chain for an ad sponsorship deal on Sleepover Cinema and Next Best Picture. More: - The ads will promote the Regal Unlimited subscription package on the two podcasts.
- Sleepover Cinema is hosted by Hannah and Audrey of Too Pink Production and revisits iconic films from the '80s and '90s.
- Next Best Picture is hosted by Matt Neglia, covering the latest movie news and highlighting the newest releases.
- "There are so many ways that movies and podcasts can work together to ignite the passion and fandom of movie lovers across America," said Kelly Hawkins, VP of Loyalty at Regal. "Our goal is to continue to build on our community of loyal movie lovers by connecting movie memories to moments that reach beyond the big screen to enhance their experiences."
- "Regal's reputation in the film industry aligns seamlessly with Evergreen Podcasts' focus on delivering high-quality, engaging entertainment," said Luke Gibbons, Business Development Manager at Evergreen Podcasts. "This partnership provides powerful synergy between our two companies where Regal's customer-focused Unlimited program meets the boundless storytelling of Evergreen Podcasts."
Q: What other cross-platform collaborations would make sense for other genres of podcasts? Give us your ideas here. | | | |
| 4 | | Audacy and its podcast company, Cadence13, announced that it has cut ties with its second-largest podcast advertising client, American Public Media. The deal is ending just about a year before it was slated to end, and neither company disclosed the exact reason why. More: - APM's manager of executive communications, Tsering Yangchen, told The Verge in an email that the companies have mutually agreed to end their partnership on Aug. 31 and that "moving forward, APMG will conduct all sales and brand partnerships of our award-winning slate of podcasts and branded content, as well as manage ad sales for all podcast inventory."
- This comes after the announcement of the strategic partnership in the summer of 2021, as Cadence13 provided ad sales for all of APM's podcasts.
- Audacy is currently struggling for profitability, and CEO David J. Field said in the company's earnings announcement earlier last week that the company exited "an onerous Podcast ad representation contract."
- He said it cost the company roughly $10.9M to exit the deal early, but ultimately he believes that it will benefit the company in the long run.
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| 5 | | Descript, the all-in-one video and podcast editing solution, announced that it has acquired the remote recording studio, SquadCast. The professional remote recording solution is now free as a part of Descript. More: - If you are a SquadCast subscriber, you now have access to both SquadCast and Descript for a lower price than an original subscription to SquadCast cost.
- The acquisition gives podcasters the ability to record video podcasts not utilizing video conferencing tools like Zoom, which provide lower-quality recording solutions.
- With SquadCast being integrated into Descript, creators can now record in 4K and edit the video in one location.
- SquadCast has been serving the podcasting community for seven years and provides automatic backups of recordings as well for creators, so they'll have the files they need when they've finished recording their podcasts.
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| 6 | | The Democracy Group, a podcast network supported by Penn State's McCourtney Institute of Democracy, is teaming up with Tink Media to provide media training and podcast placement services. The partnership will help authors, scholars, and thought leaders practice creating podcasts. More: - Tink Media is a podcast PR company that seeks to provide consulting on how to build up podcasting and help podcasts land ideal guests and hosts.
- The partnership will see The Democracy Group provide 90-minute media training and match up participants in order to craft engaging stories for podcasts. It will then allow those partners to team up for a mock podcast. Tink will then take the ideas created in the training sessions and help the shows come up with pitches and target audiences.
- Participants will receive clips from the sessions that they will be able to share on social media.
- "Media training and guest placement go hand-in-hand," said Jenna Spinelle, founder of The Democracy Group. "I'm excited to partner with one of the best podcast PR companies in the industry to help our clients get their work and expertise out into the world."
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - The AWS Cookbook — packed with practical insights and hands-on examples — is a must-have for your cloud toolkit.*
- LibSyn named Chuck Cargile as its new CFO.
- The final episode of the mystery podcast Blum airs tomorrow.
- RedCircle announced that its host-read ad platform grew 100% YoY and reached profitability this quarter.
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INSIDE PODCASTING LEADERBOARD (30 DAYS) |
 | Freelance Editor | | Christopher Hachey is a freelance writer and editor based in the New York City area. He has spent most of the past 15 years in newsrooms covering all kinds of topics like sports, tech, business, finance, and commerce. He's now returning to his broadcast journalism roots by diving into podcasting news. Reach out to him at chris@inside.com | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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