11 Innovative Ways to Use Simplecast's MAE

We were so excited to release our Moveable Audio Engine, or MAE, for short, out into the world in March. While it allows publishers to dynamically deliver advertisements, we don't call it DAI (dynamic ad insertion) because it can do so much more. Below, check out eleven ways to use Mae you may not have considered.

Fine-tuning Patreon incentives

Plenty of podcast creators use Patreon to support their show. While it’s a pretty intuitive platform, it can take a little while to get your levels and rewards right on Patreon so that they provide value to your supporters but fulfilling them doesn’t get in the way of actually producing your show. If you include your Patreon calls to action using MAE, you can swap them out when you change your supporter tiers and rewards!

Sales on merch

Do you have a merch store? Or fans clamoring for mugs with your podcast artwork on them? You can use MAE to announce the launch of your store, new product offerings, or Black Friday sales!

Live shows

We’ve heard from plenty of podcast creators that live shows are one of the major ways they support their podcast. If you have a show that’s evergreen or serial, or if you have an episode that you know a good chunk of your audience starts at, it’s a missed opportunity to only plug your live shows during the most recent episodes. Plus, if you bake in your ads, you’re occupying valuable real estate with an outdated offer once your tour is over.

Attendance at local conferences

We know: whether a conference or festival is actually happening at all is probably really up in the air right now–as is your attendance.  Depending on when you’re planning on giving that keynote or panel, you might want to plug it using dynamic audio, so that you can replace the message if anything changes.

Updates and corrections

Mistakes happen, cases can be updated, and new evidence can come to light–all of which are great reasons to use MAE to keep your back catalogue fresh and accurate.

Variable storytelling

Want to give different listeners different endings? Welcome to Nightvale used dynamic audio in their episode Are You Sure? to deliver one episode that focused on three different characters, depending on how you listened.

Businesses with job openings

Is your brand or company hiring? Embedding a segment about open roles can be a boon to your recruitment efforts–after all, if someone is listening to your organization’s podcast, they probably have a good idea of your company’s culture and are interested in what you’re doing. Adding the section dynamically means you can replace it when the position is filled or if you have new openings.

Pledge drive and fundraising seasons

If you’re a non-profit with a podcast, or a podcast network that’s audience-supported, chances are you have a pretty intense fundraising season. MAE allows you to leverage your podcast for fundraising efforts that are timely and fresh–you can easily change the pre-roll of your whole archive to be a fundraising CTA, or stack it against different priority campaigns. As you get closer to your fundraising goals, you can update your messaging to tell your audience about your progress.

Running for office

Ready to run for office? Your podcast is a powerful channel to both appeal to your biggest fans, and to give new audiences a crash-course in who you are and what you stand for. Updating your messaging as your campaign progresses is easy with MAE. Or maybe you’re running for re-election–if you mention specific issues on different episodes, you can update your pre-roll and post-roll with how you stand on those issues, and what legislation you’d like to put forward around them. Even if you’re not running, if you have an issue-focused or very locally-minded show, you have an opportunity to help people get out and vote.

Getting better deals

When you’re pitching advertisers for your upcoming episodes, you can also bundle together your back catalogue for a certain amount of time or impressions, and use those extra episodes to leverage better rates!

Shining a light on current events and relief efforts

In the wake of the Nashville tornadoes, one of my favorite podcasts based out of Nashville suspended their ad campaigns and chose instead to highlight some mutual aid groups that were working in Nashville. Some shows might, as Pacific Content points out, not know whether or not to talk about COVID-1–in either of those situations, adding some dynamic audio can be super helpful.. It’s worth noting that dynamic audio doesn’t have to just benefit you–it can benefit your audience and your community!