I get it ok, it's really tough to make it in the online world. These days it seems like everyone and their grandma has a podcast and there are some really good ones out there that probably, very few people are listening to and it is really tough for them to get the word out that they even exist, let alone develop a consistent following. I think one of the cheesiest and most annoying ways of getting your word out is to pay to hijack the podcast of someone that already is popular and hope that the viewers are too lazy to "change the channel" in a way.
It's a tough game, I get it. Every industry is tough. But if you use this devious tactic I am one of the many customers out there that will make a point to not just change the channel but I will make a note of who you or your product is and make certain that I never have anything to do with it EVER in my life.
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It happened to me recently. I, like most people in the world, listen to The Joe Rogan Experience. His broadcasts are too long for me to listen to them for 3 hours in a row and honestly, I admire his work ethic that he is able to bring guest after guest on there and actually have things to say to them for this amount of time. Yeah yeah, I get that he is being paid a ludicrous amount of money to do this and we shouldn't necessarily admire his work ethic because hell yeah you will work hard when someone is paying you tens of millions of dollars to do something.
What makes Joe unusual is the fact that it wasn't like he was handed an already popular format and made the host of it like Trevor Noah was handed the already wildly popular Daily Show. Joe Rogan, by his own admission did the podcast for YEARS before he ever broke even. He was losing money on making the show and was cutting into his wages that he already made doing other things in order to get it off the ground. Now he has the most popular media anything in the western world. He deserves this because he put in the work and stuck with it for a very long time because he enjoyed doing it and was willing to sacrifice his own money in order to make it happen.
Today, I was out on a walk and one JRE episode ended and I was hit with the expected advertisement that happens between episodes because I do not pay for Spotify, nor will I ever. Instead of just the usual advertisement about some guy's podcast that I almost certainly wouldn't listen to it was in fact hijacking the playlist to redirect me to this guy's podcast.
I did a little research and found out that if you want to advertise on JRE, that it is estimated to cost a minimum of $1 million. So suffice to say it will cost you a pretty penny to get Joe to have anything to do with your product or service. I think that most people don't pay much attention to these ads but this new form of advertising is really annoying. This particular person, being a comedian, maybe got a special deal with Joe in order to have his show featured at the end of a particular episode. His name is Marc Maron and I had to look him up to find out who he is.
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The thing is, Marc might actually be an awesome person and his podcast called "WTF" might actually be really good but I was not going to listen to it because of the devious tactic that he used in order to force me to listen to it. Had I encountered him more organically I might have actually listened to it but because of the devious manner in which he approached me as a potential audience, I went out of my way to make sure that I will never listen to him.
I've seen people talk about this in a lot of ways such as how they will make a list of products they are forced to watch ads for on YouTube and go out of their way to make sure they will never use their products. To the people out there that are doing this I say to thee Use Brave Browser and you will never see a YT ad ever again. With Spotify the product placements are getting a bit more unavoidable and its getting to the point that even people who pay for Spotify are being subjected to advertisements. Well, I am the type of consumer that hates advertisers and I am one of the ones that your attempts to lure me to your product will backfire badly in that I will make certain that I never use your product or service if you interrupt what I am enjoying doing and be forced to watch or listen to you try to sneak your way into my wallet.
I don't think I am the only one out there that is like this either.
Hijacking a show via an advert that redirects you away is morally wrong and should never be allowed even if the show is decent. Personally no other podcasts should be allowed as adverts anyway as that is just not classy.
I can't imagine that this works out for very many people who engage in it. There is an entire subredit dedicated to pointing out businesses that engage in this sort of practice and all the users actively decide to avoid their products and services. I think this is the only way to teach advertisers a lesson.
I must admit I have been stunned by their actions and have not checked any online complaints out, but there must be.