Phil Windley reported on a keynote Leo Laporte did at Podcast Academy and notes that having Dell and Visa advertising on the show means that big companies are already starting to see the effectiveness of podcasts as an advertising medium.

PodZinger is hitting that right on as we see podcasting (or any kind of online media) to evolve into a major advertising medium pretty soon. Windley adds:

“Advertisers still think they need to reach large, broad audiences. In the next 3 or 4 years, they’ll realize that narrowcast media delivers better results.”

eMarketer recently released the findings of the study, “The AOL Latino 2006 Hispanic Cyberstudy” conducted by Synovate. Interestingly, the study found that there are more than 16 million Hispanic Americans online. (55% of the total US Hispanic population)

This is music to our ears, as we offer full-text search of all the audio and video podcasts created in Spanish with PodZinger en español. With more Hispanics going online to learn about brands, make purchasing decisions, chat with friends and read blogs, advertisers are beginning to take note of this influential population. The U.S. Hispanic population alone has an estimated purchasing power of over $700 billion.

In general, more Americans, 40 million according to the Pew Internet Life Survey, go to the web simply for entertainment. All of this translates into online advertising potential for marketers and advertisers. As more consumers continue to devote their free time surfing the web and searching for interesting content, online advertising budgets will simultaneously increase. Yet, marketers and advertisers still struggle with how to best target these audiences.

PodZinger enables advertisers to tie their messages to relevant content in audio and video and effectively deliver their brand messages. With our technology, advertisers are able for the first time to mine multimedia search data and leverage usage and topic filters to arrive at a better understanding of how consumers are interacting with content. For consumers, this means a more enjoyable search experience as ads directed to them are based on stated interests. For the Hispanic population, this gives more reason to visit PodZinger en español.

The trend of online advertising has steadily increased as companies continually recognize its value. Just this week, eMarketer reported that U.S. Internet advertising will increase more than 33 percent in 2006 from a year earlier, which is the fastest pace this decade. In addition to that, marketers are developing new, innovative ways to advertise online, such as placing ads within video clips, creating ones that are less intrusive and more user-interactive, allowing for heightened viewer responsiveness.

Online competitors Google and Yahoo! released new advertising campaigns last week, unveiling video user-integrated strategies of their own. While Google’s, takes the user on a cyber car shopping experience, Yahoo’s integrates a 15-30-second commercial after each viral video, making it the first time it has incorporated advertisements with user-produced material.

It’s exciting to see what other search engine providers are developing on the video advertising front, especially as we are in the process of completing our own platform, which we think adds unique benefits to advertisers and content publishers. Stay tuned for details on the launch of ours shortly!

The New York Times technology section today featured an article, “Some Hot Recorders for Those Cool Podcasts.” Reporter Larry Magid discusses how podcasting has created a need to expand the market for high-end portable audio gear. Today, top of the line recorders now use the same flash memory used in digital cameras and can hold up to 130 hours of compressed monaural audio. The catch? The high-end devices can cost up to $500.

We think it’s great these devices are being promoted, however for those not wishing to spend hundreds of dollars Magid did mention a couple of less expensive digital flash recorders such as the iRiver T30 for $40. There is always the option of simply using a computer microphone and audio-editing software!

We look forward to seeing future developments in portable audio gear, but ultimately what is important for a podcast is not how it is made, but who listens to it. What is the point of spending $500 to produce an immaculately sounding podcast, if no one hears it? As always, we encourage all podcasters to make sure their podcasts are registered with us and to do so if they aren’t. That way even if someone doesn’t know they are looking for your unique insight on Aardvark social dynamics, they will find it for the important research they are doing on termite eaters.

Podcamp Boston was a huge success and Henry had a lot of fun presenting and meeting some really amazing people.

If you have missed the show, check out what others have said. We found a total of 57 podcasts within our PodZinger search.

Update: Podcamp NYC , Philly and San Francisco are already in the works and we just want to give a shout out to the un-organizers for making the event such a success.

The Massachusetts state primaries are today, and although Chris Gabrieli and Attorney General Tom Reilly have spent millions of dollars on television advertising campaigns, Deval Patrick is the leading Democratic candidate, according to several recent polls.  Gabrieli ranks second, with Reilly trailing at third.

While the numbers favor Patrick, there are always the last minute, dormant participants who vote on Election Day, often dramatically shifting the official count.  And now that information is so readily available through the Internet with blogs, podcasts and videos, voters have instantaneous access to uncover the latest details on candidates’ opinions, views and backgrounds.

We have been encouraging voters to utilize our technology to quickly research candidates based on the information that is important to them.  Just yesterday I wanted to know Reilly’s position on healthcare, so I “Zinged” the two terms and was taken directly to where they were mentioned, saving me the time of listening to the entire WBZ NewsRadio broadcast. 

Here are some other podcasts that discuss the candidates and upcoming election:

In the Studio with Paul Sullivan – Senior Political Analyst John Henning and CBS4 Commentator/Debate Moderator Jon Keller provide their opinions on the Democratic candidates after the final debate before the primary.

WRKO - Scott Allen Miller - Scott Allen Miller interviews Chris Gabrieli and Tom Reilly one week before the primary election.

WBZ NewsRadio Headlines – Get a recap of the final debate between Tom Reilly and Deval Patrick, discussing issues such as health, education and taxes. 

For more information on the gubernatorial elections or Political Analyst John Henning’s opinion on which candidate he views to have had the most successful final debate, check out PodZinger.

Last week, Leo Larporte announced on his blog that he launched a new advertising network for his TWiT podcasts. His first two sponsors are already big names – Dell and Visa.

The ads have started running at the beginning of all the podcasts and there have been considerably more mentions of Dell and Visa in the podcasts. For example, in one of the episodes of the Daily Giz Wiz show, Leo and Dick talk about the Excalibur Motorized Pool Lounger and Leo chimes in to say how he usually uses his Visa card to make his purchases online because it’s the safest way to buy online.

Check out the Visa’s and Dell’s mentions in the shows with PodZinger’s search.

There have been a lot of mixed responses by the listeners. Although some complain that big advertisers might affect content, most listeners understand that advertising will help finance the production of the podcasts and for podcasters to devote more time and efforts for the content. We have our thoughts on the best ways to insert advertising in audio and video content, and will tell you more about them soon!

In the Wall Street Journal today, editor William Bulkeley wrote an article entitled, “Surfing the Internet for Spoken Words:  New Technology Allows Searchers to Scour Online Audio, Video to Target Advertising,” and included PodZinger as one of the leading industry experts.  The article explores how online audio and video search engines are becoming a tapped resource for targeted advertising. 

“Audio and video have been a black space that cannot be discovered by traditional search engines,” Bulkeley quotes our CEO Alex Laats saying.    

Bulkeley discusses that, similar to targeted advertising with text-based searches such as Google and Yahoo!, PodZinger is utilizing viewers’ key word searches to enable advertisers to create relevant ads that are specifically tied to those queries.

Watching television as a little girl, I remember thinking how cool it was that no matter what show I watched, there were always commercials for my favorite toys.  It took me a few years to realize that that was just targeted advertising.  Boy, it’s amazing how far technology and advertising have come since then!

I went the first part of the first day of PodCamp Boston today, and it was a fantastic unconference. PodCamp is modeled after BarCamp, where it’s not formally organized, and anyone can put on a session simply by adding it to the schedule.

I went to Steve Garfield’s morning session where he talked about getting started podcasting and demonstrated a few of his tools by putting up a few audio and video podcasts right there (one including an introduction to PodZinger - as captured on video by Beth).

The next session I attended was put on by Casey McKinnon and Rudy Jahchan of Galacticast, where they talked about how they got started, all the different equipment they used, and the software tools they use to produce their series.

I gave a session about how PodZinger works, and had a lot of great questions from the group. [Doug Haslam from Topaz Partners had some nice things to say about my session.]

There were a lot of other people there, including Rocketboom creator (and PodZinger partner) Andrew Baron, Rocketboom producer Sherng-Lee Huang, from whom I learned how to tie my shoes, Rocketboom producer Elspeth Rountree, an old classmate of mine David Tames, and former Rocketboom host Amanda Congdon.

I wish I could have stayed past lunch on the first day, but I had some prior family commitments.

Check out a few more photos in the PodCamp Boston 2006 photo album I posted.

Amanda Congdon and Henry Houh

The first game of the NFL kicked off last night with the Dolphins vs. Steelers.  Although the polls predicted Miami to win, Pittsburgh came through with a triumphant victory of 28-17. 

Living in New England, it’s pretty hard not to have at least some idea as to what’s going on with football.  If you’re not particularly interested in it yourself, you probably still hear your co-workers, friends, family members, grocery bag boy or someone else talking about the Patriots.  Fans feel that it is the Pats’ year to win the title again.  I mean, they have won the Super Bowl three of the past five seasons.  They are bound to win it again soon.  Right?     

I myself am not a fanatic fan, but I do like to catch the highlights here and there, and with my busy schedule, it’s easier to listen to podcasts on the go.  I’ve included some of my favorite NFL ones below.

Sports Podcast Network - NBA, NFL, MLB, NASCAR, Boxing, Golf, Tennis, and More Sports Radio On Demand!
Around-the-clock sports coverage through blogs, podcasts and message boards.

Gridiron Grumblings Live! Football Show                                                                                        A live internet broadcast with Gridiron Grumblings and sidekicks Roy ‘The Instigator’ Cankosyan and John ‘Statmaster’ Rakowski.  Discusses news of the week in football, and provides some fantasy strategy, tips and more.  Airs live every Friday evening at 9:05PM ET.

The Fantasy Football Guys
Hosts in-depth discussions on the NFL in general, and Fantasy Football in particular.  

If you want to discover the most talked about teams and players or more podcast suggestions, visit PodZinger’s Zing Index at PodZinger.