Day Two of The IAB Upfronts: Slate & Brands: Vox & Values: Home Teams & Locked On

 Day two of the IAB Podcast Upfronts held a lot of surprises and twists and turns.

 From May 10-12, the IAB Podcast Upfronts are held via a digital conference forum. It's the podcast version of "you show me yours, and I'll show you mine."

 What is the IAB? The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is an organization that works with publishers to foster the growth of advertising on the internet.

 Every year, the IAB holds a three-day virtual conference This is a special marketplace designed for brands, agencies, and media buyers to preview the latest in innovative podcast programming. Leading audio and podcast networks showcase their brand and announce new shows.

On day two, host Franchesca Ramsey went solo without a co-host (which she didn't need on day one) and still kept the presentation flowing and used her high-wattage smile to extend attention spans.

Sony Music gets five stars for its opening presentation with its "one voice" motif. Kudos to the graphics people and sound designers at Sony. 

Sony's upcoming "The Bedtime Stories" podcast with Adam McKay sounds strangely soothing and intriguing.

Slate introduced branded mini-features, which are, in essence, branded micro-documentaries within podcasts. Slate spotlighted the  real-estate company, Century 21 and its branded podcast, which started in 2019 in collaboration with the podcast group of Slate.

Vox's Are You Sleeping podcast is a perfect example of a branded podcast, with Mattress Firm sponsoring a limited podcast series about sleep. Everybody needs to sleep and, unless you sleep in a hammock or wrapped up in a weighted blanket, you'll need a mattress. Lock meet key.

Next up, AdsWizz went deep on podcast ads and then put on a crisp presentation that I can best summarize for podcast fans as: true-crime is the most popular podcast genre.

SXM Media was introduced by Conan O'Brien with his trademark snarkiness and good humor. SXM has done some ingenuous podcast chemistry blending podcasts and satellite radio. One area of concern is SXM promoting Audiochuck, a podcast studio that has sustained numerous charges of egregious and ongoing plagiarism. 

Cumulus Media has done a nice job rebranding from Westwood One to Cumulus. During its presentation, Rich Eisen, interviewed by his spouse Suzy Shuster, the host of the Just Getting Started podcast, made perfect sense about the move from TV to podcasting. 

Cumulus gave specific shout outs to several of its podcasts, including one of my favorites, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. Dan Bognino also got a verbal thumbs up during the presentation, which is odd, considering that the conservative fire-breather has been threatening to quit the network since December 2021 because of the vaccine mandate set by the company. I guess that resignation letter must have been lost in the mail.

The vibe at Vox was a lot more calm and collaborative.

Nilay Patel, host of The Verge's Decoder, made key points about Vox not chasing celebrities, but "thought leaders."

 In an interview with two podcast hosts who joined the Vox family of podcasts, a common theme surfaced.

Phoebe Judge, who owns Criminal Productions, said she joined Vox because it is a "value-driven organization."

Prett Bharara, who owns Cafe Studios, noted that Vox was attractive as a business partner because it "does stories that make people think."

Since Vox is NPR-adjacent, it made sense that Today, Explained, its flagship podcast, is now broadcast in more than 60 public radio stations. Both networks share a similar audience.

Vox also discussed branded podcasts with JBL and Switched On Pop co-hosting a live podcast at JBL's NYC store. 

Locked on is a smaller network (again, nice touch that IAB inserted smaller networks, so the giants didn't dominate) that delivers sports podcasts via team-specific, league-specific, and city-specific podcasts.

The danger here is that Locked On does not become the podcast version of the crazy-fan, scream-fest sports radio shows where fans care more about an NFL team's draft choices than the human tragedy in Ukraine or spending time with their kids. 

Locked On is introducing daily, home-team, city-specific podcasts. Here's why their podcasts are different --and ultimately better -- than sports radio. With the natural migration patterns of Americans, millions of fans find themselves in new areas and struggle to keep up with their life-long favorite teams. Therefore, if you moved from New York to Florida because you hate Disney and CRT, you can still follow the New York Mets via Locked On podcasts. 

It was an excellent presentation for a smaller network. Well done.

KAST delivered, by far, the funniest intro that tweaked podcasting and its ubiquity --"Everybody has a podcast!" KAST made singular key points about simulcasting with YouTube, Netflix, and HBO Max.

Upcoming shows like Vigilante by Allie Conti, who is also a licensed private detective, look promising, as does Lost Girls Of Panama.

Finally, another smaller network (LSN -- loudspeakers network) scored big with a sparkling presentation. Started in 2013, LSN specializes in laser focusing on its audience, which is serving people of color, which has been an underserved audience, even in podcasting. LSN's audience is 70 percent is African American and 60 percent women. 

Dustin Ross, host of The Friend Zone podcast, knitted together a seamless presentation. Ross explained with facile ease how LSN connected with a sponsor that shares the same audience as the network. Bevel is a black-owned company that makes grooming supplies, which offers the podcast network and the company a win-win business solution.

What will happen on day three? There are big players on deck tomorrow, including Wondery. I wonder what will happen? See what I did there? I know, it's lame. TTYL