by Gavin Gaddis

Reset Your Thermostat by Tom Webster

Tom Webster writes from Content Marketing World in Denver, which is taking place alongside LIONS and The Market Research Event with a shared expo hall. He notes that nearly every booth in the shared hall was selling an AI-augmented product. LLMs are built to produce the most probable, and thus most average, output. As such, they should be used to replace the average work that gets in the way of exceptional work. Webster points to routine podcasting tasks like show notes, transcripts, chapter markers and ad operations as examples of automate-able routine work that does not suffer from being averaged out. What automation can’t replace is the decidedly human, exceptional work. Most notably, host-read ads and show content itself. The intimacy listeners feel with a host is an advantage an average machine cannot fake at scale. Webster will be back with another presentation next week on Tuesday, Oct. 13., co-hosting a webinar with ADOPTER Media CEO Glenn Rubenstein. The two will present a new Podcast Atlas analysis of podcasting's heaviest buyers named The Super Spenders: Who Really Buys From Podcast Ads.

Global advertising spend surges 11.9% to $1.34trn this year despite consumer caution

WARC Media forecasts that global ad spend will grow 11.9% to $1.34 trillion in 2026. That follows 10.0% growth in both 2024 and 2025. WARC credits corporate AI investment and events like the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup and the US midterm elections. Social media, search and retail media will make up 66.4% of spend this year. Social is growing fastest of any channel at 21.3%. Growth is expected to slow to 8.4% in 2027 and 7.9% in 2028. Alphabet, Amazon and Meta will take 59.7% of spend outside China this year. WARC also says AI assistants are becoming new places for brands to advertise.

A new tool called Pod Is Life

Podnews covers a new service called Pod Is Life, which combines podcast charts from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Castbox and Pocket Casts. The result is one overall chart encompassing the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Germany, Brazil and Mexico. Each show gets a Pulse Score out of 100 that rewards strong placement across several charts. Podnews reporting notes that the charts measure different things. Even so, the combined scores seem to reflect the biggest shows in each country.

Appeals Court Gives FCC 48 Hours To Act On Political Ad Rates

The Fourth Circuit has ordered the FCC to decide by noon Friday, Oct. 9, whether to uphold its lowest unit rate policy. The policy extends discounted rates to qualifying party-coordinated ads and joint fundraising committees. Four Democratic candidates have challenged it since April. In a 2-1 ruling, Judges Robert King and James Wynn accused the FCC of delaying a decision to avoid judicial review before the Nov. 3 election. They wrote that its "gamesmanship must end." Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson dissented. The ruling changes no rates for now because a Supreme Court stay of an earlier decision remains in effect. It could still send the dispute back to court before the election.