Radio Disney Please Set The Podcast Ad Bar High
03/17/2006
I want! I want! I wants! Sprinkled with a few I need! I need! I needs! Any parent will tell you that is the mantra chant of children.
Marketing messages from broadcast media entice, persuade and encourage peer pressure for the newest, greatest most expensive Game-boy, Barbie or whatever. Parents beware. New media, Web 2.0 ... call is whatever you'd like, presents unexplored opportunities for advertisers. From ads in games to ads in podcasts to ads in online videos. Great for the marketers. Harder for the parents to monitor.
Please don't get me wrong. This is not an anti-marketing post. Rather a shout out to those in our industry who will innovate in this new space advertising to kids.
One of the first out of the box to put ads in children's podcasts is Radio Disney. Starting June 2006, Radio Disney will begin inserting ads into its weekly podcasts. THQ, video-game maker, is among the first to sign on.
In an Ad Age article about Disney's latest strategy, Jeff Minsky, OMD Digital, was quoted: "Kids are more likely to download podcasts from well-known brands. And we know it probably won't be the kids who are doing the downloading. Parents are going to be gravitating toward safe brands,and ...advertisers will, too." Hello Mister Minsky! What planet are you living on?
First, most kids run circles around their parents when it comes to this stuff. Give a kid an iPod or any old MP3 player and watch what happens. I'm betting you an appletini Mister Minsky it won't be "Mommy dearest please download this awesome podcast for me."
Second, it's not so much "well-known" brands but cool brands where kids hang out.
Third, although I love our industry, there are a few shall we say, shysters. So while parents may well indeed "gravitate towards safe brands" this diva is not so sure about the other companies and advertisers who want to tap into 2.0 marketing.
Radio Disney please set the podcast-to-kids ad bar high! If we don't create our own standards I can promise you there will be some action group and government agency that will do it for us.
Sidebar:
Pheedo and BlogAds were ahead of the curve tapping into RSS feeds and ads on blogs. Who will be the firm - or shall I say firms plural - to jump into the ad network podcast and vlog ad games?
