Podcast Measurement Guidelines Published
July 28 2008
In the US, the Association for Downloadable Media (ADM) has released the first ad measurement standards and guidelines for podcasts and other distributed digital content.
The guidelines aim to help advertisers and sponsors of audio and video podcasts, and distributed digital content including web and mobile downloads, to accurately and consistently measure listener and viewer numbers; and to organise and assess campaigns running the same creative across many individual shows and various networks.
The Standards include three kinds of format:
- Insertions - defined as a separate ad file that is attached, inserted, or edited into an audio or video podcast;
- Content participation - where an advertiser's message is included as part of the audio or video podcast content; and
- Collaterals - other ad space a podcaster may include as part of an advertising or sponsorship package, or as separate items a lá carte, including for example show notes on a podcast web site, ID3 tags in a podcast episode file, overlays and underlays in video podcasts, web banners and buttons, merchandise, brochures and flyers.
Brian McMahon, Chair of the Advertising Standards Committee and National Podcasting System founder and CEO, says the standards 'provide publishers, advertisers and agencies with a solid footing and shared vocabulary for value and monetization opportunity.'
The ADM recognizes, approves and defines guidelines for two types of measurement technique, Native Server Measurement and Third Party Measurement. The former relies on log files on the server where the media is hosted, while the latter measures files as they are downloaded to a separate server, potentially from a number of native servers hosting different downloadable media.
The guidelines and standards can be found at
www.downloadablemedia.org .
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
