Media Week-in-Review, Podcast Edition: Pepsi, Politics & Paying for YouTube
Being absolute media junkies here at TVREV means we consume a lot of podcasts each week. And if you ask TVREV collaborators, no one consumes more media podcasts in a week than me (I’m a 1.5x speed kind of guy). It’s been suggested to me that I try my hand at curating the top media podcasts, so here’s my first crack at a Media Week In Review: Podcast Edition. Enjoy. Recode Media with Peter Kafka -- Kafka kills it, and he always leads my weekly podcast playlist. This week Peter was with Studio71 CEO Reza Izad discussing the differences between YouTube and traditional TV. Studio71 is a great example of a digital media network (born from the YouTube network/MCN model) that’s reinventing itself, leaning into the digital video divide across platforms and helping popular online video stars extend their reach beyond YouTube.Wall Street Journal Media Mix -- Suzanne Vranica and Jack Marshall from WSJ’s CMO Today team discussed the Pepsi debacle along with other recent ad controversies at Fox News and Google. Minus WSJ’s insistence on citing Networked Insights data (basic positive/negative/neutral) sentiment instead of richer emotion analytics (like what Canvs offers), I really enjoyed this podcast.The Digiday Podcast -- Digiday's editorial chief Brian Morrissey has a must-listen podcast for those who care about the business of media and the shifting economics of publishing. This week’s episode particularly interested me as Brian sat down with Jim VandeHei, founder of Axios, a recently launched media company that’s gaining a lot of trust for its rigorous coverage of politics, tech and business. Jim explained to Brian “the jig’s up” for publishers worshiping scale, emphasized focusing on niche verticals and shared a bunch more great insights. VentureBeat Engage Podcast -- I began listening to this podcast just this past month, it’s more focused on the ad tech weeds of marketing but in (relatively) layman terms. It’s hosted by VB Insights’ director of marketing tech Stewart Rogers and “chief marketing technologist” Travis Wright. This week’s podcast was fascinating. Among other things, Stewart and Travis had a compelling chat about how machine learning identifies narcissists, and also discussed when/how/why live video makes sense.Adweek ‘Yeah, That’s Probably an Ad” -- The Adweek team has a solid podcast game, but they aren’t migrating the audio over to text and showcasing it on Adweek.com (like Recode does so well, for example). You’ll have to visit iTunes to check it out (the above hyperlink will take you there). Here’s a quick heads up of what’s in store over there: 1) a breakdown of Adweek’s 2017 Political Power Players, a recap of this year’s best April Fools’ brand pranks and a discussion about advertisers fleeing Bill O’Reilly’s show; and 2) a bonus episode about “Pepsi’s Baffling Ad Disaster” (as Adweek puts it).AdExchanger Talks -- This is for the hardcore ad tech/data geeks out there. AdExchanger’s Zach Rodgers spoke this week with John Lee, chief product and data officer at Merkle, the CRM and digital media agency that Dentsu acquired for $1.5 billion. Lee spoke in depth about “the data and connectivity power plant that serves all of the agencies.” Pretty compelling and important stuff if you think data is at the center of advertising's future (and, um, yeah, it is!).Hit me back with feedback if I missed any. This podcast junkie is always hungry for more.
