At the start of an AM&P Lunch and Learn talk that Chris Blose, VP of content for Imagination, gave here a couple weeks ago, he asked the audience of about 30—a fairly diverse group in most categories—how many had listened to a podcast that day.

With soft music and staff writer Ryan Ermey's clear voice, Kiplinger launched its first podcast series, Your Money's Worth last week. The first episode was titled, How to Score Holiday Deals on Black Friday and All Season Long, and features an interview with Andrea Browne Taylor, online editor at Kiplinger.com.

"As you develop a podcast concept, expect it to morph and change. 'Our original thought with the podcast was to fill a gap in how IBM Cloud educated sellers and partners about new features,' say the hosts. 'We were going to do episodes on the new stuff. We quickly realized that 1) we couldn't keep up, and 2) episodes about new capabilities were really boring; like Ian and Steve fell asleep.'"

Matt Priest, president and CEO of Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, would attend events throughout the world and have entertaining, informative, off-the-cuff talks with cool people in the industry. It made him think. “If we can just take these conversations we’re having with executives and bring them to other people who aren’t CEOs, we would have something special.” Thus the Shoe-In podcast came to be. More than 100 episodes later, and the weekly "shoe" is going stronger than ever. Described as “covering the ins and outs of all things footwear, from sneakers to heels, loafers to slippers and every type of shoe in between," it’s hosted by Priest and a longtime friend. “My host is a little off the walls,” Priest said. “Who knew two suits from D.C. could be so funny?” Though he admits to it being “a little out of my comfort zone,” Priest also said it’s “a huge creative out ...

According to a new study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the American podcast industry brought in an estimated $314 million in advertising revenue in 2017, up 86% from the $169 million reported the year before. It beat projections established in the previous revenue study, which predicted that the ad business would grow to around $220 million in 2017. The study further predicts that podcast advertising will hit $659 million by 2020.   Other findings from IAB's podcast study:   Pre-produced ads make up a third of all ad types among the companies doing podcasts. Host-read ads make up the dominant remainder. In the podcasts that I've listened to, those host-read ads come off very effective. Usually they're at the beginning when the music has just ended, some playful banter has begun, and the atmosphere feels breezy—but in a good-content-to-come way.   Branded podcasts grew from 1.5% to 6.5% of all ad revenue between 2016 and 2017, disp ...

Podcast numbers keep growing—about 35% of Americans ages 18-54 now listen in. "People are adding more podcasts to their media diet [each month]," said Edison Research in their April survey and subsequent webinar. And what's great about podcasts is that they don't have to be huge productions.   Witness CampWire, the podcast of the American Camp Association (ACA). It has aired 10 episodes so far, and the last one on staff training drew the biggest audience. Camp directors tune in, and it was May, so no surprise there.   Sam Hirt, communications data specialist at the ACA, launched the podcast and offered some tips in an article in Associations Now. We add some SIPA notes to it.   Know your audience and what they care about. "What do [listeners] want to hear about?" Hirt asked. "Can we talk for 40 minutes to an hour about it? And who is going to be the right voice for it?" Said Stephanie Williford, CEO, EB M ...

Answering a question posed recently on the SIPA Forum about video vs. podcasts, Stephanie Williford, CEO, EB Medicine, wrote, "We haven't done a formal test, but I think the old 'know your audience' adage applies well here. For ours (emergency physicians, who are notoriously ADHD), they can't stand to sit still and watch an educational video for more than a few minutes, but they love podcasts because they can listen and learn while doing something else too."

I can't tell you the number of conversations I've had lately where someone recommends a podcast to me—The Weeds, The Moth, My Favorite Murder, Slate Political Gabfest. And the numbers back this up. According to Nielsen, the number of avid podcast fans has risen from 13 million in the fall of 2016 to 16 million in the same period of 2017 in the U.S.

"Vox, right now, is really focused on loyalty, and rewarding that loyalty," said Vox social media manager Julie Bogen. "After seeing the success of the Obamacare [Facebook] group, we sort of said: What if we carve out this space where we can give our most loyal fans, our podcast listeners, access to our journalists, access to me, and the freedom to talk with one another."

If done well, podcasts, quizzes, contests and live seminars can add levels of engagement to a website. To get a flavor for what SIPA members are doing, I visited some of their websites and took a quiz on Literacy Instruction—don't ask my score—listened to advice on painting indoors this winter—that could come in handy!—and entered a contest for Creative Kids—my friend sent me a video of his daughter painting a superhero mask.