This is not really Mac related, but partly triggered by the topic about ads in More Power Users. And since there are a few podcasters around here, perhaps they can shed a light on my question.
Compared to traditional media (i.e. radio and tv) podcast ads are quite different. One could say amateurish. On most podcasts, not just the ones on the Relay network, ads are read by the podcast host. Just imagine the news anchor starting to talk about peanut butter during the local news…
I guess this is to make the ads more trustworthy and personal. But even on our (illegal) radio stations in the 80’s ads were already provided by the advertisers themselves. Read by others than the host/deejay.
Some companies advertise (sometimes euphemistically called “sponsor”) on many podcast networks and podcasts. Wouldn’t it be logical for them to keep total control and provide the ads themselves? As ready-to-go commercials?
I think it would also help in getting a much better separation between ads and (objective) content.
It’s a common practice in sports radio. On the Yankees broadcast the announcers will read brief plugs during the game. Like this home run is sponsored by Ford.
Also on WFAN the hosts of the radio show often read an ad before they run the commercially produced ads.
Just a disclaimer: this is not relative to any of the Relay.fm podcasts or hosts or to any of their sponsor. My comment is as much as general as possible.
I think that the answer to your question is here:
We are in the “influencer era” and in the attention economy era, and this is true inside the media and advertising industry (the specific industry of the influencer, who are - to oversimplify - “freelance” advertising service providers) and outside of it so it’s quite natural for companies that sell ads to keep them as “personal” and in a non traditional ad form as possible.
Especially on such a non traditional medium as podcasts are.
Apart from that I guess there’s a cost reduction value: they don’t need an ad agency that create and shoot the commercial with “real” actors and so on…
Edit: removed a pointless analogy that added nothing to the post
Personally, I never listen to canned ads on podcasts/tv/radio. I skip them if I can and mute them if I can’t. But I do listen to most host read ads because they are more amateurish. I can’t think of a podcast that I follow that fails to indicate what is or isn’t an ad read. I good with that.
I think that having hosts read the ads is responding the the medium, not amateurish. Podcast listeners are used to skipping ads, and when they are read by hosts, ads don’t get skipped so much. Well in my small sample at least.
the 30sec jump forward on Overcast 