PodMov Daily: Wednesday, January 15

Episode 121: Your Midweek Update

Pandora's Test & Tune: Ad Efficacy Feature in Open Beta

Pandora has announced the first product of its Insights Lab. Test & Tune, a “new suite of measurement capabilities for advertisers,” analyzes the efficacy of advertising campaigns based on listener behavior.

Test & Tune has been rolled out in open beta. Per a company post, it’s the platform’s “control testing capability to support brand sentiment and sales lift questions.” The feature identifies a control group from a “randomized portion of a brand’s targeted audience” that have not heard a certain ad. Exposing the ad to a subgroup allows study of “causal effects.”

Per a company post the project has been in development for over three years. The stated goal is to “turn the keys over to advertisers and start understanding how their audio advertising resonates with audiences.”

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PM's Weekly Community Recap: Keynotes and PM20 Proposals

This week’s PM community update introduces two new keynote speakers for Evolutions. Taking the stage will be Misha Euceph, producer and host at KPCC Los Angeles, and James Altucher, author and host of The James Altucher Show.

Time is of the essence — until midnight tonight, tickets are available for over $100 off the at-the-door rate. In other event news, a Bonus Stage located in the Expo Hall will host sessions open to all ticket holders. Come learn from speakers like Jamie Muskopf of SO Unbecoming and Teri Yuan of en(gender)ed.

Interested in speaking at PM2020 in Dallas this August? The call for proposals is now open and accepting submissions.

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The AV Club's Bestcasts: Serious Fun with “Podcast: The Ride”

The latest from Bestcasts, an AV Club series about podcasters’ most memorable episodes, is a rollercoaster. Marnie Shure interviews the theme-park obsessed creators of Podcast: The Ride.

Comedians Mike Carlson, Scott Gairdner, and Jason Sheridan are obsessed with theme parks. Each week on their show, they “select a theme park ride to discuss in often uncomfortable depth.”

“What keeps this podcast going is that we truly love this stuff,” Gairdner commented. “We want to goof and do riffs and let you know who we are on the edges, but the root of it is that we just love talking about theme parks very much.”

A doomed, Hard Rock Café-themed park (2008-2008, RIP) is just one detail of their entertaining conversation with Shure. Mike Carlson describes one episode as “a good representation of another element of the show: true earnestness that might be coated in sarcasm or irony.”

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Here's what else is going on:

• Offer up: Per an exclusive Podnews report, premium podcast streaming platform Luminary has announced “a significantly cheaper monthly plan: down from US$7.99 to $4.99, and a new annual plan at US$34.99 (about $2.99 a month).”

• Gilded age: In Entrepreneur, Carlos Gil explains why marketers should avoid impulsively “chasing new platforms,” like TikTok, and instead focus on effective social media messaging. As shown by podcasters, “quality tends to win out.”

• Early bird: Broadcast veteran Seetal R. Iyer describes how WorldSpace Satellite Radio in the 2000s was “the precursor to the modern podcasting boom in India.” Diverse, in-demand programming proved “that talk radio could be customised for niche audiences.”

• peak freely: At McGill University in Montreal, Ox Tales writer and producer Anna Sigrithur led a pragmatic and encouraging Feminist Podcasting Workshop. Sessions focused on brainstorming ideas, executing content, and equipment essentials. ”