And traditional advertising doesn't do much to create dedicated, long-term customers. In the past, broadcast-type advertising was typically about getting more people to consume more, and more often.  I call it the more-more-MORE syndrome.

 

But advertisers have a new challenge - how do they reach the niche communities of people who are getting smarter about filtering out what they DON'T want to see and hear on TV and radio and the Internet? Who are tired of the same old ads that aren't relevant to them? The consumer's got the control with TIVO, VOD (Video On Demand), PVR (Personal Video Recorders), iPods or MP3 players, and now RSS feeds (for blogs and podcasting). How do advertisers reach consumers with very specific interests?  And I believe these consumers DO want to be reached; just not with the same broadbrush tactics that try to cater to Everyman.

 

Podcasting is most appropriate (for now) as a relationship marketing tool for very targeted markets and, I believe, equally so for business to business and business to consumer.   When you start talking about smaller communities of potentially highly dedicated customers like, say, people who are big into Corvettes, then sponsors are more likely to capture and engage them and grow them over time with more products and services if they're sponsoring bloggers and Podcasters who are into the same topics.

 

You can bet I'll continue talking about this subject.

 

Tom