Minimizing turbulence along the supply path – The Short Stack
Friends,
Welcome to 2025!
A new year represents a fresh opportunity to shout out to all of our compatriots in this space who are continually helping to raise the ship for audio. It’s been said quite a bit at this point – despite the unique value that podcasts, radio, and other digital audio formats bring to listeners and advertisers (which has been proven time and again), many still need convincing that audio should play a primary role in every media plan.
One recent example of the effort to sway buyers targets business travelers (many of them brand and agency execs) flying in and out of LAX. While people might more commonly see/hear an ad for a particular show, this campaign, courtesy of RadioActive Media, aims to punch the power of the audio format itself as a great buy, with compelling messaging across 163 electronic billboards at the airport. It’s advertising to (potential) advertisers— they should be receptive!
The technology we all build often works just as hard to make the audio skies friendly for ad dollars. Take, for example, supply path optimization. With a more direct route to listeners and shows that bypasses a lot of intermediaries, buyers spend smarter, ensuring as much of their budget as possible goes directly to who and what they really want connected to their brands. It also means transparency – a clear view of what you’re really getting so you can make more informed decisions on the right way to go forward.
From another angle, when audio publishers forge more direct programmatic connections with buyers, they get to keep more of the revenue they earn from their incredible content. The more they earn, the more they get to keep making shows that people love. That creates more loyal listeners and, in turn, more potentially great consumers of those brands. You see the FLYwheel here. Ok, over and out, airport puns.
This obviously just skims the surface – lot’s to talk about here, and we’re going to be talking about it a lot more in the coming months.
We wish you all a fine start to the year, and we wish everyone who has been affected by the devastating fires in L.A. as fast a recovery as possible.
Best,
Jon Stephenson , CEO 
An evening of music and solidarity featuring Billie Eilish and Finneas, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gracie Abrams, Green Day, and more. The FireAid benefit concert will be held at Intuit Dome and Kia Forum on January 30th, dedicated to rebuilding communities that have been devastated by wildfires.
True crime fans spend about seven hours per week with podcasts, compared to six hours for other listeners. That extra hour might not sound like much, but multiply it across 42 million listeners and you start to see why this audience matters. More importantly, though, is how integrated podcasts are in their daily lives.
Like we always say, our people are just as important as our most innovative products. With that, we’d like to welcome John Morris as Chief Product Officer! As many of you know, John has over 20 years of building world-class streaming/podcasting platforms, ad servers, and programmatic SSPs. He’s been fundamental in some of the leading companies in audio – from Abacast to WideOrbit to Audacy – and he’ll be just as fundamental to the development of the amazing products and features we have coming down the pike.
Whether you’re a media planner or a marketer or podcast network, if you’re making smart, strategic decisions, you’re using data to do it. But, no great mystery, that data has to be reliable, and many in the space still aren’t completely convinced. Our own CSO Rockie Thomas sits down with Edison Research President Larry Rosin for a chat about how to rectify that.
Podcast Movement Evolutions 2025 takes place on March 31-April 3 in Chicago. See you at the show!