Ear Worthy: Markle Redux; Pod The North Sparkles; Augmented Reality Guidelines

 Meghan Markle podcast -- Part Deux

 "If you don't succeed, try, try again" is a familiar maxim for those who screwed up the first time.

The podcast network, Lemonada, is taking a chance on a second chance. The network just announced a new creative partnership with Meghan Markle, The Duchess of Sussex. As part of their new deal, Lemonada will distribute the first season of the award-winning “Archetypes” for all audio platforms and also develop a new original podcast series as yet untitled hosted by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. 

 

In 2020, Spotify had announced a $20 million podcast deal with Markle. Although the podcast Markle produced and hosted, Archetypes, was generally well-received, Spotify abruptly canceled the deal last year when it discovered to its surprise that its "We will conquer the podcast universe by throwing money at it" strategy failed.

Archetypes has seen over 10 million downloads, averaging nearly a million listens per episode, and debuted as Spotify’s No.1 podcast in 47 countries around the world.

No word yet on guests, but Archetypes didn't have a problem attracting big-name guests, from Serena Williams to Mariah Carey.

_____________________________________________________

 Canada's Finest Podcast Newsletter -- Pod The North

I think it must suck a lot to be America's neighbor. Overlooked, misunderstood, and patronized, Canadians actually do have their own media universe. 

We have Canada to thank for Rachel McAdams, Celine Dion, Michael J. Fox, Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, and many others. Can we return Elon Musk for a full refund?

And guess what, America? Canada is kicking our ass in all kinds of podcast engagement,

 Did you know that 71% of Canadians have listened to at least one podcast at some point, and 29% of Canada’s monthly podcast listeners spend at least five hours per week listening to podcasts?

 Revenue from podcast advertising is expected to reach $127.1 million in Canada in 2023, and brands have seen 89% higher brand awareness after advertising on podcasts. Even more impressive, 51% of bi-weekly podcast listeners have bought a product after hearing about it on a podcast.

And the future is bright for Canadian podcasters because 42% of Canadian monthly podcast listeners are aged 18 to 34 years old, so they'll be around listening for a long time.

If you're interested in podcasting in Canada, be sure to check out the Pod The North Substack newsletter by Kattie Laur.  

Pod the North is a free, biweekly newsletter aimed at uplifting the Canadian podcast ecosystem and fostering community. In each issue, you’ll find ecosystem commentary (to keep you in the loop), podcast recommendations, opportunities for your podcast ($$$ and notoriety!), and digestible interviews with Canadian podcasters who you need to know about. 

Kattie Laur is an Award-Winning Freelance Podcast Producer, Consultant, and Writer based in the Greater Toronto Area.
Last October, Kattie hosted a live anniversary celebration of Pod the North in Toronto. I'm sure they'll be more live events to come.

You can reach Kattie: @Podkatt (Twitter, Spotify, and Goodpods) | @ PodtheNorth (Bluesky)

Here's an example of a Pod The North story. 

"In a press release that came out this morning, Canadaland has announced the launch of CanadaLabs, a hub for the next generation of audio journalists, open calls for short audio stories from across Canada, and applications to become Canadaland’s first Audio Journalism Fellows."

Check out Pod the North if you're a Canadian podcast fan, or an American who realizes that Canada has more to offer than ice hockey, Banff, and maple syrup.  

Guidelines for Augmented Reality in Ads just released

For many, I'm sure this announcement is filed in the "I don't give a s**t" category.

But we should care, because guidelines on the use of any new technology is critically important. Look what happened when we left social media to do whatever the f***k it wanted. We got Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, trolls, Nazis, Chinese bots, "Fakebook," the conspiracy theory of the day, and Donald Trump midnight rage messages.

So here's what is going on.

 In collaboration, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Media Rating Council (MRC) have released their Augmented Reality (AR) Measurement Guidelines to establish clear and consistent definitions and measurement guidelines for ads within Augmented Reality campaigns. The guidelines are open for public comment for a 30-day period until March 9th, 2024. 

The IAB AR Measurement Guidelines Task Force, working with MRC, set forth guidelines for advertisers and marketers to quantify how much media is delivered and gauge how well their media achieved their business objectives within AR media campaigns.

“Brands are increasingly utilizing AR in their media campaigns to connect with consumers in more meaningful and immersive ways,” said Zoe Soon, VP, Experience Center, IAB. “The Augmented Reality advertising market is projected to generate $1.2 Billion in revenue in the U.S. this year. Thus, as an industry, we need to establish a greater consistency on how we define and measure AR advertising to foster fairness and transparency for buyers and sellers.”

To effectively capture the impact of AR campaigns, these guidelines set a framework to establish clear and consistent definitions for ad delivery, viewability, audience, engagement, and performance. The guidelines are inclusive of AR’s interactive and immersive formats, as AR can accrue non-physical interactions with products as well as the physical interactions related to browsing in the context of attribution.

Did you get all that? Good. Now, can you explain it to me.