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HBO Promotes Via Podcasts
Mike Shields
MARCH 07, 2006 –
HBO has elected to use a relatively small medium to generate buzz for its new series Big Love. The pay cable network has signed a deal to run ads within 31 podcasts via Podtrac, a startup company which sells ads within 1,300 podcasts and tracks podcast audience size.
HBO’s campaign for Big Love, a drama that follows the travails of a family of polygamists, will run on a wide range of podcasts, including those focused on relationships, women and entertainment.
The HBO deal is the biggest Podtrac has executed, according to company CEO Mark McCrery. Among the noteworthy podcasts included in the campaign are American Cliché, the Associated Press Celebrity Focus, Catfish Show, Entertainment as I See It and Wine for Newbies. While some 30-second audio spots have been produced for this effort, individual podcasters are being paid to read an HBO-produced script at the start of their shows aimed at enticing listeners to tune in for Big Love, which premieres on March 12.
The HBO campaign, which began on Monday, will run for two weeks. Most of the podcasts selected for the buy are produced either once or twice a week, so HBO would reach a mostly active podcast-listening audience, according to McCrery.
While this effort is small by HBO’s typical media-spending standards, the Big Love buy is big for podcasting, which is still in its earliest stages in terms of advertising. “What it shows is the tremendous targetability of the medium, and that you don’t have to fall back on a run of network type of buy,” said McCrery.