34 PODCASTING Profile
WE HAVE MORE CONTENT THAN EVER AND IN SO MANY NICHES. BUT IT IS HARDER NOWTO GAIN THAT AUDIENCE SHARE
The company can sit down with customers (often virtually, online) to analyse how they might improve their in-house audio workflows for better distribution, or help develop tools to solve specific workflow or distribution challenges. ADS FOR EARS Martinez notes that, though the medium isn’t anything new, there are now technologies and services that can bring podcasting into the world of modern digital content distribution. “People were doing podcasting even before it was called podcasting – it was just ‘on-demand audio’. But now we are able to offer all kinds of new features like server-side ad insertion, which allows our customers to start monetising the content they’re creating.” StreamGuys gives customers the ability to insert mid-roll markers in their existing content, which allows ads to be inserted at those points dynamically. Being able to insert ads dynamically based on insertion points, rather than having them baked into the podcast, means that content – and that content monetisation – can remain evergreen. A podcast could be listened to months, or years, after it was produced, with fresh ads inserted, and with the ads tailored for a specific user at a specific location. “The ads sales teams of our customers really enjoy that, because you can get really granular with the messaging,” adds Martinez. All of the StreamGuys infrastructure is owned and operated by the company itself, with direct connectivity to a Tier 2 provider. “We don’t sit on top of AWS or any other service,” explains Martinez. “So that allows us another level of granularity from a network monitoring and infrastructure perspective. It allows us to do additional things we wouldn’t do with a traditional public cloud deployment.” THE CROSS-POSTING FUTURE The company is continuing to research and develop new tools for the cross-posting of content. One of the options StreamGuys is
PODCASTING PROGRESS Podcasts are becoming ever more popular. Now, even traditional broadcasters are producing them
offering is the ability to turn an audio clip into a video clip, which can then be shared on social media platforms. The company has seen a lot interest in the ability to add video clips featuring, for example, waveforms or transcriptions for social media publishing. Martinez explains the appeal, saying: “You can take your audio clip and turn it into video and publish it to social. We see that getting a lot of popularity. You see companies like Headliner already offering those services. It can help bring those listeners back to the podcast.”
With online distribution a constantly transforming landscape, StreamGuys is keen to advise its customers on what is coming down the digital pike. “One of the things we think is most important is what we call ‘maintaining your trusted voice’,” explains Martinez. “Some people jump into the podcasting space and decide to do ad insertion, and they may have a set-up where they do programmatic ads, for example, where they’re getting ads placed as pre-rolls. Our recommendation would be to take a look at that strategy. You have spent so much time as a podcaster
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