Jeff Umbro: Lemonada Media Moves to Stitcher’s Midroll for Ad Sales, an interview with CEO Jessica Cordova Kramer

by Jeff Umbro

In this week’s column, Podglomerate CEO Jeff Umbro provides news and commentary about Lemonada’s ad rep move, Joe Budden’s apparent separation from Spotify, Audible’s new plan, Joe Rogan and Apple … and an interview with Jessica Cordova Kramer. Continue Reading

NBCUniversal was July big ad spender (Magellan)

Magellan AI has posted its Top 15 spenders, movers & shakers list for July. NBCUniversal is perched as the biggest advertiser, mainly for Peacock, its new streaming TV app which launched on July 15 — $668-thousand was spent across 69 shows to promote Peacock. Click through to hear one of its ads. Turner Broadcasting and Quibi also received spotlight treatment from Magellan. Continue Reading

Echoverse podcast network launches with Whalerock funding and plans to extend into TV/film

We received a notice that Lloyd Braun’s Whalerock Industries has founded a new podcast network: Echoverse, which will be devoted to science fiction, supernatural, and fantasy programming. No podcasts are live yet, but nine are planned. CEO Mark Stern has a deep background in TV and film. Accordingly, Echoverse will serve as both a podcast network and an incubator of extensible content for film and TV. Click through for details. Continue Reading

Adwizz’s AudioGo launches from public beta, offers easy audio ad buying

We’ve been writing about AudioGo, the audio  advertising buying platform from AdsWizz, for over a year, as  it moved through a public beta. During this  time the service added testing partners including Entravision and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. Today the company announces that the service is emerging from beta into a full-on ad-buying service available to all. The platform now has several new features designed to support smaller buyers looking to capitalize on increasing audio consumption. The cost of entry is surprisingly low. Continue Reading

IAB Podcast Upfront: Schedule and speakers released

In the first online-only version of the annual IAB Podcast Upfront, the virtual format is allowing a greatly expanded version of the event. The 2020 edition of this podcast showcase to advertisers expands from one day to three days. While past years have spotlighted 12 podcast networks at most, this year will feature 20. The speaker list is loaded with celebrities. Click through for details. Continue Reading

Google advances its programmatic audio buying tools

Google has raised its game in programmatic audio. Google’s broad digital advertising platform, Ad Manager, is getting audio programmatic for the first time. Additionally, Google’s DV360 is enhancing its existing tools. DV360 is the abbreviated brand name of Display & Video 360, formerly called DoubleClick. The systems stumbles over RSS feeds, perhaps slowing adoption ion podcasting, though independent distribution platforms like Spotify and Pandora work fine. Continue Reading

Targetspot brings in Mario Cabanas as COO, and two more executive hires

Through its parent company AudioValley, Targetspot has announced the hiring of mario Cabanas as Chief Operating Officer. The notice comes with confident language around Targetspot’s resilience during and following COVID-19. Two other directorial hires accompany the announcement. Furthermore, AudioVally lists 15 open roles located in Europe on its jobs page. Continue Reading