Mangrate’s Podcast Ad Journey

In my podcast advertising book, I discuss the first podcast sponsorship I ever heard, which was the ManGrate ads on the Adam Carolla Show in 2010. In this episode, we're going to get the story behind that ad campaign.

I recently had the chance to chat with Evan McConnell, inventor of the ManGrate grill enhancement system. Our discussion was really interesting, and a fantastic opportunity to get the perspective of a veteran podcast advertiser.

In this interview, we discuss how the ManGrate started to advertise on podcasts, the results they achieved, and the challenges of running year's worth of marketing campaigns across multiple podcasts...

Have questions or ideas for future episodes? I give out my podcast advertising agency email address within the episode, and I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks for listening!

Glenn Rubenstein
ADOPTER Media

MY PODCAST ADVERTISING INTERVIEW WITH EVAN MCCONNELL
00:03 GLENN RUBENSTEIN

My name is Glenn Rubenstein. This is Podcast Advertising. Welcome to the first episode.

00:11 GLENN

I think it's fitting to start where it all began, for me at least, and that's what the ManGrate grill enhancement system. Now if you've read my book, you know that this was the first podcast ad I ever heard on the Adam Carolla Show back in 2010. In this episode, we're going to get the story behind those ads. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Evan MacConnell, the inventor of the ManGrate. Our discussion was really interesting, and it was a rare opportunity to get the perspective of an experienced podcast sponsor. In this interview, we discuss the story behind the ManGrate and how those podcast ads came to be. We also talk about the results they achieved and the challenges of running years worth of campaigns. So without further ado, here's the interview.

00:56 GLENN

Evan, thanks so much for joining me. So, let me see if I remember the story. You were tearing down or renovating a steakhouse- you discovered these cast iron grill grates. And after some research figured out that that was the key to unlocking the steakhouse flavor. Did I remember that story correctly?

01:14 EVAN MCCONNELL

Yeah. Many many years before, I had to open a restaurant-nightclub that used to be a steakhouse and removed one of the state grills and it had a large commercial cast iron grates on it, that I just took home and threw on top of my backyard barbecue. They weren't really well designed for that application because they were actually very hard to clean, so they weren't as effective as I'd like. My son just bought a house and was getting a grill and he just wanted to see where he could get something like that. You know, he saw what a difference it made. So, he suggested we ought to design something that was specifically designed for backyard barbecues that would be easier to clean and be a size that would sit on most barbecues and that's that was the sort of the idea.

02:09 GLENN

So back in 2010, podcasting was still relatively young and very few companies had even discovered podcast advertising. How did you have the idea to advertise on Adam Carolla's podcast?

02:23 EVAN

A friend of mine worked at a radio station but hadn't had a radio show, and he was exploring the whole podcast universe as it was just starting to emerge. I hired him to be a marketing director for ManGrates. He suggested that you know Adam Carolla and others might be the good outlets for us to start promoting ManGrates, and he got me in touch, I got in touch with Adam. In fact, I got him on the phone while I was driving down the road and I think Adam's driving the road, we both pulled up off the side of the road and talked for a while as I explained what we were doing. And Adam loved the concept and I love the idea of really getting an endorsement because this is the type of product that isn't commonly available. So, I thought it really needed some explanation.