Female-focused podcast advertising platform Ossa Collective has launched a new program to connect underrepresented podcasters with potential advertisers, the company has announced.
Ossa aims to connect podcasters with brands that reflect their identity and values. The newly-launched Podcaster in Residence program, which is exclusive to members of Ossa’s platform, identifies underrepresented podcasters with a large audience and growth potential that can have value for brands, and supports them through sales representation, ad operations, free hosting on Spreaker, and monetisation opportunities like premium programmatic ad sponsorships.
The Podcaster in Residence program is invite-only; in addition to being part of Ossa’s platform - which requires at least 50% of their listeners to be female - podcasters must have over 50,000 monthly listeners in order to be eligible. Podcasters that take part in the program are free to monetise via other platforms, but have to commit for a minimum of three months, and must migrate their show to a free Ossa-provided Spreaker account.
Each podcaster who takes part in the Podcaster in Residence program will gain access to a dedicated member of the company’s audio production team, who will be responsible for ad-related audio tasks. The podcasters will also have to permit a minimum of two programmatic ad spots per episode and may not opt out of programmatic ad opportunities - although they have the freedom to reject any other ad opportunities presented to them.
As part of its launch announcement, Ossa has revealed the first group of podcasters to take part in its Podcaster in Residence program through a billboard in Times Square, which includes Black on Black Cinema, Cubicle to CEO, Kat on the Loose, Serial Napper, Talk About Gay Sex and Untold Italy.
“As a media platform dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices in business media (particularly women and women of colour founders and CEOs), I resonated with Ossa’s focus on connecting female-driven brands with female-hosted shows,” said Cubicle to CEO host Ellen Yin.
“Ossa has an impressive roster of advertising clients - many of whom were already on our list of dream brands we wanted to partner with - so it was a no-brainer to join Ossa’s Podcaster in Residence Program and have the opportunity to be instantly plugged into that ecosystem.”
During this year’s IAB UK Podcast Upfronts, a number of podcast creators across platforms like Sony Music Entertainment and Wondery spoke about the importance of forming connections and working collaboratively with brands in order to run effective and authentic podcast advertising campaigns. A number of studies such as SXM Media and Edison Research’s Black Podcast Listener and Latino Podcast Listener reports have also shown that audiences connect more with advertisements from hosts that reflect their identity.
