1. How is the convergence of audio and video formats influencing the approach to content creation and distribution in the podcasting space?
This convergence is pushing creators and publishers to rethink production workflows, team structure, and monetization models. Creators are increasingly building studios that support both high-quality audio and video capture, while platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are becoming essential not just for discovery, but as primary consumption channels for younger audiences. This shift is also influencing content length and format, with many shows now designing for “chapterized” consumption to better fit social and algorithmic distribution. It also increases the burden of production costs and quality, and makes some folks who valued the freedom of audio only less motivated to produce for the eye, rather than the theater of the mind, audio’s strong suit.
From a monetization standpoint, this blurs the lines between podcasting, influencer media, and digital video, opening up new revenue opportunities—but also complicating measurement. Brands want cross-platform attribution, and the industry still lacks a standard integrating audio and video performance into a single, trusted framework. As a result, advertisers are growing more experimental but also more cautious, especially when assessing brand safety and suitability across diverse formats.
2. What strategies are being implemented to adapt to the changing definitions and consumption patterns of podcasts, especially with the rise of platforms like YouTube and Spotify?
The first step is defining the space itself. Without clarity around what a podcast is, it’s nearly impossible to measure it, monetize it, or scale it responsibly. That’s why we’ve pushed for industry-wide standardization—not to gatekeep, but to create shared ground rules that reflect the evolving reality of podcasting across RSS, YouTube, Spotify, and beyond.
For brands, strategy varies widely. Some are leaning into video, willing to trade precision for reach. Others are opting out entirely, frustrated by the lack of attribution and the fragmentation of formats. Many are stuck in the middle: open-minded but uncertain, unsure how to invest without reliable data or common benchmarks.
Ironically, in the absence of trustworthy measurement, some marketers are reverting to analog tools—like post-purchase surveys—to get even a directional sense of impact. Until we have a unified measurement protocol that works across platforms, strategies will remain fragmented, and growth will be harder to sustain.
3. In light of the identified identity crisis in podcasting, how is your organization working to build clearer value propositions for advertisers?
We’re addressing the identity crisis head-on by creating clarity where the market has confusion. That starts with segmenting our offerings—not all “podcasts” are the same. We differentiate between audio-only, video-first, influencer-led, and hybrid formats so advertisers can make informed, strategic buys based on their specific objectives.
We’re also building integrated, cross-channel solutions alongside top talent and platforms to ensure campaigns are designed with both content and context in mind. On the measurement front, we’re working to estimate and separate video impressions from audio downloads, so brands can understand what they’re actually getting.
And beyond campaign delivery, we’re investing in research to better understand responsiveness—what drives action in each format, not just what gets views or listens. The goal is to reduce guesswork and give advertisers confidence to scale, even in a fragmented landscape.
4. What role does AI and data analytics play in understanding listener behavior and optimizing content delivery across various platforms?
As an ad agency, we’re not in the content delivery business—but AI and data analytics are foundational to how we analyze content and drive smarter media buying decisions. We use AI to assess content suitability and brand safety at scale, scanning across vast libraries of shows to ensure alignment with a brand’s values and risk tolerance.
We also leverage billions of dollars in historical performance data to derisk media buys—helping brands avoid costly guesswork by identifying which shows, hosts, and placements are most likely to deliver results. From analyzing audience responsiveness to measuring ad creative effectiveness, AI gives us the edge to optimize campaigns in real time and tailor strategies to shifting listener behavior.
While publishers use AI to optimize how content is delivered, we use it to ensure the right messages are placed in the right environments—so every dollar works harder, and every campaign is grounded in insight, not assumption.
5. What initiatives are in place to improve attribution and analytics to better demonstrate ROI for podcast advertising campaigns?
Improving attribution is one of the most urgent challenges in our space—and we’re not waiting for someone else to solve it. We’re actively developing a Private Marketplace (PMP) designed to bring greater accountability, transparency, and standardization to podcast measurement.
We’re working directly with data providers and platforms to enhance the pixel ecosystem—advancing key capabilities like ID resolution through more sophisticated identity graphs, adapting to IPv6 traffic, and filtering out problematic IPs. These upgrades are essential to making attribution more accurate and ROI validation more credible.
In addition, we’ve implemented attribution compliance scoring across the properties we buy. This helps clients understand the quality of signal they’re working with—not just at the channel level, but down to the individual show. It also enables a smarter triangulation strategy, combining deterministic and probabilistic data for a clearer picture of performance.
Ultimately, our goal is to build a measurement environment brands can trust—because when attribution improves, investment follows.
6. How is your organization leveraging technology to bridge the gap between traditional audio podcasts and emerging video podcast formats?
We’re building the connective tissue advertisers need to navigate an increasingly fragmented landscape. Internally, we’ve developed systems to catalog and differentiate between podcast-only shows, audio-video simulcasts, and standalone influencer content—so brands can clearly understand what they’re buying and how it performs.
These systems integrate with third-party data to track impression delivery and audience behavior across both audio and video platforms. This enables smarter sequencing: campaigns can begin in cost-efficient, audio-only environments to validate messaging, then scale into higher-reach video and influencer ecosystems with more confidence.
It’s not just about media planning—it’s about building a performance-informed path from podcasting’s roots to its newest frontiers, and giving brands the tools to invest strategically at every stage.
