Turn Ad-Skipping From A Problem Into An Opportunity

Steven Perlberg wrote a great article in the Wall Street Journal, titled “Podcasting Has An Ad-Skipping Problem, Too.”

Perlberg explains how the 15-second skip button is being used to bypass unwanted advertising and undermine the business model for many podcasts.

This is not surprising: in a survey Pacific Content conducted this spring, we found that 81% of respondents said they regularly skipped podcast ads.

My personal experience is that I have become so attuned to the timing and placement of the commercials in some of my favorite podcasts that I know exactly when, and for how long, to skip.

Sometimes there is an ‘ad music’ mnemonic that lets a listener know, “here comes the advertising — this is no longer the original content you have been listening to.” And I start skipping until the ads are gone.

Sometimes there is a HUGE block of host-read ads close to the top of the show — ahem, Tim Ferriss and Marc Maron — that forces me to jump to somewhere between the 4 and 9 minute mark of an episode (which is a LOT of advertising and a LOT of skipping) to get to the parts I actually want to listen to.

There is also often a post-roll set of commercials at the end of the show where the content producers have essentially wrapped everything up but promise a preview of next week’s episode after the ad break. That is the exact point where I don’t skip anymore — I just stop listening entirely and move on to a new episode.

I posted Perlberg’s article on social media and one of my former colleagues replied with a screen cap from his phone showing that he has skipped over 13 hours of ads. 13 HOURS!

There are so many problems with the model of advertising — and not just in podcasts.

First and foremost, the original deal audiences made with advertisers — we will agree to have the content we want interrupted by ads in order to get the content for free — doesn’t work anymore. Every media platform has some version of the 15-second skip button — technology that allows the listener to take control over their own experience. We can now skip the parts we don’t want and only listen to the parts that we do want. And people skip over ads a lot… because they don’t like them.

This article by Kirk Cheyfitz nails it beautifully — the interruptive model of advertising is dead:

“Blocking ads is the most visible and (to the industry) most terrifying symptom of the powerful phenomenon at the heart of the Internet: audience control. The Internet has exploded across the globe primarily because it gives audiences unprecedented and irreversible control to choose the media they will consume — how, when, from whom, and in whatever form they wish.”
Kirk Cheyfitz

Scott Donaton also recently wrote a great article about ad-skipping in Ad Week:

“We now consume only what we want, when we want, where we want and how we want it. And if we want it. That’s a good thing for audiences.
But it hasn’t been a good thing for advertisers because it diminishes a brand’s ability to interrupt the content we’re trying to consume so they can tell us how great they are.”
Scott Donaton

This brings us to the problems for advertisers. Can you imagine pitching this business model today?

1. You pay agencies to make things that people hate. These things that people hate will be their primary experience with your brand.
2. You then pay media companies to rent their audiences.
3. The purpose of renting the audiences is to insert the things people hate (that represent your brand) in the middle of things that they love.
4. By the way, the audience has the ability to skip over the thing you paid for. And they will likely skip it because they hate it…
5. The goal of all this is to make people love your brand and buy your products and services.

Who would sign off on putting significant money behind a strategy like this? And even worse, who would base their entire business model on brands agreeing to spend money this way?

And THAT brings us to the problem for media companies — their business model is broken. Traditional media is built on selling these interruptions that people don’t want (and don’t have to suffer through anymore). The more people skip, the lower the ad rates (because there are fewer people exposed to the ads), and the fewer advertisers that are going to buy ads (because fewer and fewer people are watching them). I would be petrified if my business model was based predominantly on this model continuing to be profitable.

Pretty bleak.

Or is it?

Here is a solution that’s a win for all parties involved:

Brands should stop making interruptions that people don’t like or want and start making content that people love.

It’s remarkably simple. Create value.

Make content that is aligned with your brand’s voice, but first and foremost, design it to make audiences happy.

The perks of taking this approach?

For audiences — as strange as it might sound initially — branded content is a far better listening experience. If you do your job well, you’ll produce a great show with no interruptions at all. There will be no need to use the skip button. Audiences will thank you for making it and reward you with loyalty, trust, and their ongoing time and attention.

For advertisers — it’s a unique chance to tell stories that reflect the values of your brand, a chance to own mindshare of your market, a chance to build your own audience instead of renting someone else’s, and an opportunity to build long-term relationships with potential customers who are voluntarily and happily tuning in every time a new episode is published… because they LOVE it.

Or, put another way by Kirk Cheyfitz:

“If you don’t create stuff that really matters to people — stuff they actually want to see and hear — you will be ignored, avoided, and blocked.”

Finally, for creators — branded content is also a fantastic solution. It’s a sustainable business model that allows you to create quality material and that guarantees you’ll get paid. All the skills and experience that creators have used in traditional media models are suddenly relevant in entirely new industries. Creators can deliver real value to brands and get paid for it.

Not to overstate my case, but to me, this is clearly the future of marketing AND the future of media.

Whether it’s free content like Red Bull’s YouTube channel and Slack’s podcast, or if it’s ad-free subscription models like Netflix and Audible’s new Channels, audiences are voting with their eyes and ears.

I’ll give the last word to Scott Donaton, who sums it up best:

** This post originally appeared on LinkedIn Pulse.

Sign up for the Pacific Content Newsletter: audio strategy, analysis, and insight in your inbox. Once a week.