• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, July 20, 2006

It may seem like your morning drive-time programming, but don't mistake podcasting for repackaged radio. "Crap on radio is crap on mp3s," says Ron Bloom, co-founder of podcast network PodShow. "I don't believe [audiences] leave radio because they like the content." As Clear Channel, NPR, and other traditional broadcasters pour resources into podcasting, Bloom believes the platform represents the user-generated future. "I believe within five years, 50 percent of media consumed will be created by other consumers."

If so, then podcasting may be the perfect lab to test new ad formats in an age of self-made media. In-show mentions and dialogue about advertisers by hosts have become the hot format at PodShow. Major sponsor GoDaddy offered podcasters discounts on Web tools in return for chatting up the discounts during 60 shows on the PodShow Network.

For AccuVue, it created a show around two teen girls gabbing and promoted it across other podcasts to build an audience.

Call it Advertising 2.0: The hosts not only endorse the sponsor but ponder aloud why the brand would underwrite the program. The ad  if we can call it that any more  becomes as earthy and honest as the amateur content.

Now tagged as the "talking points model," detailed, integrated product mentions have become a podcast staple. For a job recruiting campaign, PodTrac has sponsor T-Mobile supply DailyGizWiz co-host Leo Laporte with an outline of its services.

"Leo has such high credibility that just by talking extemporaneously he is lending credibility to the campaign," says PodTrac CEO Mark McCrery. By delivering a spot in his own way, a host makes it part of the medium's personality.

"Integrating into the flow of the show is key," says Dave Hamilton, president, BackBeat Media, which places clients into podshows like Coverville and Evil Genius Chronicles. "If the ad is always in the same spot, they tune it out."

While Forrester claims only 2 percent of onliners even listen to podcasts, "you have to look at the very human story behind the numbers," says Scott Clarke, account director, Arc Worldwide. Audiences seek out this nano-niche content, so "those [listeners] are fairly engaged and more valuable." For such brand ambassadors, Arc created dog training podcasts for Purina which leverage the brand's history and authority.

Clarke is already contemplating how the platform's mobility helps consumer packaged goods and high-consideration product manufacturers break into the retail walls in the form of "pod-shopping." Consumers could access informational content that deciphers jargon and demystifies the purchase process in-store.

If, as many ad chiefs say, we must start "advertising to the interested," then podcasting may be showing us how to be, well, interesting.