So you want to start a podcast or a webinar series? If you want to do it because everybody else is doing it, you can stop right now, writes marketing strategist Ryan Phelan in a new article for MarTech Today. “(P)odcasting and webinars are low-barrier entries to live events, but they aren’t Field of Dreams. You can build it, but the people won’t come unless you give them something in exchange for their time. Building a listener-worthy program takes time, budget, discipline, and connections.”

There are key questions every marketer should be able to answer before jumping into the tempting waters of the podcast (or indeed vidcast, webinar, or similar events). Does it fit your broad marketing startegy? Can you cut through the noise by adding value for your prospective audience? Do you have resources? Can you bring in quality guests?

“Everything we do as an individual or business either adds to or subtracts from brand equity,” writes Phelan. “That’s why starting an endeavor like a podcast or vidcast is a double-edged sword.  If you succeed, fantastic!  If you fail, could that harm your brand?” Just because you can do a podcast doesn’t mean you should — not unless it contributes to the goal of making people better informed through the shared experience.

Read more here.

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Last week, Google doubled down on the FLoC initiative emerging from the Chrome Privacy Sandbox (essentially a way of tracking online behavior by like-minded cohort rather than by individual) and also said it would not build or use alternate identifiers for tracking. A line is being drawn with Apple, Google, and the proponents of first-party-data-based identifiers on one side; Facebook on the other. 

We’ve had a lot of comments come over the virtual transom. Here are just a few:

“This is going to fuel the next generation of ad tech solutions trying to find alternative solutions to find audiences at scale without 3rd party cookies. This fragmentation, which is already happening, will take time to evaluate the effectiveness. Marketers will likely be confused and will need to run lots of experiments to find what gives them comparable or better ROAS than targeting solutions based on 3rd party cookies. Google seems pretty confident in FLOCs, we’ll see.” Patrick O’Leary, founder and CEO, Boostr

“Google’s announcement today is a wake-up call for marketers to break their third-party data addictions and instead turn to review the data strategies within their organizations. First-party, privacy-friendly datasets are richer and more impactful when it comes to improving campaign performance. They also stand the test of time while strengthening the trust between the customer and the business.” Gregg Johnson, CEO, Invoca

“Adtech finally saw the other shoe drop with Google announcing it won’t use or develop alternate third-party tracking methods. Collectively, Apple and Google’s privacy moves leave Facebook on its own lamenting the old ways of tracking, while adtech innovators developing workarounds for third-party cookies now face a siloed future. More important for brands, today’s news means that both marketers and advertisers will increasingly rely on first-party and zero-party data that customers willingly provide in the course of their direct interactions.” Mike Herrick, SVP of Technology, Airship

Herrick also points out that there’s no reason, based on the logic of its announcement, that Google shouldn’t follow Apple’s IDFA move by forcing consumer opt-in for app activity tracking on Android devices.

Read about the Google announcement here.

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