Episode 186: Matt Drengler on Why Ari is Wrong About Podcasting

Jeremy Bloom (0:00)

Oh, hello, I'm Jeremy Bloom, co-founder and CEO of Marketecture Media. And boy, do I have news for you. Marketecture Live is back. And if you've been watching from a distance thinking, that looks phenomenal, but a trip to New York is just a bridge, or several, too far, we've got great news for you. We're bringing Marketecture Live to the beating heart of AdLand. That's right. On September 23rd, 2026, Marketecture Live is coming to Chicago. We're going to be bringing the same sold out energy, sharp insights, and industry defining conversations to the center of advertising's biggest transformations, from media and commerce to AI, tech and modern marketing. This is where the people shaping what's next for the ad industry will be, want to be, and need to be. Early registration is live now. So lock in your ticket at chicago.marketecturelive.com.

Again, lock in your ticket at chicago.marketecturelive.com.

Disclaimer, I live in Chicago. It's not Chicago, it's Chicago.

SPEAKER_2 (1:18)

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Ari Paparo (1:52)

Welcome to the Marketecture Podcast. This is Ari Paparo. I'm here with Eric Franchi, and our guest today is Matt Drengler, the head of partnerships for Podscribe. I invited Matt on because a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece in the Marketecture newsletter, really saying that podcasting is a giant mess, and it's hard to measure, and it's difficult to deal with, and you can't do attribution, all that stuff. And Matt's sort of an expert in this stuff, so he's going to come in and give us his perspective on the state of podcasting, how the measurement works, whether you could do attribution, and that whole kind of thing, because it really is a mess.

Ari, you invest a bit in podcast tech, right?

Eric Franchi (2:32)

We have one investment, yeah, in, our investment made, gosh, in 2018, 2019 in a company called Red Circle. And a lot of the thesis behind that investment was just the things that are still challenges today. So we haven't been a prolific podcast investor, partly because the market has not grown the way that everybody thought it might. Like it's a couple of billion dollars in the US, it's seven, eight billion dollars.

Check around that one internationally. But it is a channel that I think has massive influence, number one, and then number two, is a little bit of a call option on the future being like creator driven. And you could imagine that this is still the early days of podcasting, it does become a $50 billion market. But yeah, it's a thorny one.

Ari Paparo (3:23)

It's a tough one to invest technically. I have a couple of angel investments, but investing time, I mean, you and I spend an hour a week, every week doing this, plus prep time. You know, it's like a pretty important part of the communication strategy out there, right? But you know, whether you can build ad tech, standalone ad tech, and how it fits in is really an open question. So hopefully, Matt will shed some light on that stuff.

I want to talk about Marketecture Live. So we're coming to Chicago on September 23rd. You've probably heard about that. It is going to be a great show. One day, focused on brands. So we are going to be talking about visibility in an AI world, creator economy, our agencies really becoming platforms, some of the callouts there. Tickets are going fast, so we would suggest that you buy a ticket. It's a one-day event, chicago.marketecturelive.com, September 23rd. And lastly, if you're a qualified brand or agency professional, you can get a complimentary ticket. You just have to apply and pick that ticket type and we'll confirm you're a real person and not just some rando trying to get a free ticket. You know how it is. So I hope to see you all there. I'll be speaking there and doing a live podcast. We're not doing a startup showcase, though. You got to wait till March for the next Marketecture show for the startup showcase. But otherwise, it should be a fantastic show. So looking forward to seeing everyone there.

With that, let's get into it with Matt Drengler.

All right. Welcome Matt Drengler. Matt, how have you been?