The insert, in full
How to play
Setup
Sort the deck into three piles by category and shuffle each one. Just two of you? Skip to PLAYING WITH TWO. Otherwise, pick a CEO to start: youngest, tallest, biggest podcast fan, it doesn't matter. Just pick somebody.
The CEO deals two PODCAST cards to everyone else and keeps none. Keep them hidden. You always hold two: play one, draw one, all game.
Playing a round
The CEO deals, judges, runs the clock, and sits out the round. Everyone else does an ad read.
The CEO flips one ADVERTISER card face up. That's the fake brand everyone pitches this round. Take it wherever you want. Your version doesn't have to agree with anyone else's, and it's often funnier when it doesn't.
Everyone doing a read draws one CLIENT NOTE, face down. Don't flip it until right before your turn.
Your turn
Play starts left of the CEO. Pick one of your PODCAST cards, flip your client note, and you're live: an ad read for the advertiser, in the style of that podcast, with the note worked in. 60 seconds is the floor, two minutes is the target.
Invent the offer, the promo code, the URL. None of these brands exist, so nobody can correct you. When everyone has read, the CEO picks a winner. Did the read pitch the advertiser well? Did it fit the show? Did it work in the client note?
Winning the round
The winner keeps the ADVERTISER card. They won the account.
Everyone who read discards their podcast card and draws a new one. Client notes go back in their pile. Reshuffle either pile when it runs out.
The CEO job moves left. The new CEO passes their two podcast cards to the outgoing CEO.
How the game ends
When everyone has been CEO once, the game is over. Most ADVERTISER cards wins. The winner should probably start a podcast.
Three or four players? Go around twice. Seven or more? See BIG GROUPS: the podcast cards go further in teams.
More ways to play
Playing with two
Flip one ADVERTISER card. Draw two PODCAST cards each, pick one, put the other back. Draw a CLIENT NOTE each, face down, before your turn. Take turns reading while the other runs the clock.
Two minutes each. Land a complete ad read with the client note in it and you take the point. Run over, or leave the note out, and you get nothing. First to five wins.
Big groups
Play in teams of two as co-hosts. Banter the read back and forth.
One team starts as CEOs: they deal, judge, and sit out the round, holding no cards. Everything else is the same. One advertiser per round, one client note per team, one ad read per team.
The CEO job moves left after each round. When every team has been CEO once, the team with the most ADVERTISER cards wins.
Tournament
Up to 16 players, single elimination, two at a time. No CEO, the room is the judge.
Each match-up: flip one ADVERTISER for both players. Each draws their own PODCAST card and CLIENT NOTE. Two reads, two minutes each.
The room scores each read out of three: one point for the pitch, one for the podcast style, one for the client note. High score advances. The room breaks ties.
Freestyle
No PODCAST cards, no character. Just you, doing your read for the ADVERTISER in your own podcast style, with your take on the CLIENT NOTE.
Make-goods
Did your read fall apart mid-sentence? Call a make-good and take it from the top. One per player per game. It's what advertisers get when a podcast ad goes wrong.
Pod anatomy
Stuck? Study this. Swap in your brand.
- The drop
- "Brought to you by MULCH."
- The segue
- "I haven't eaten a vegetable since March."
- The what
- "Greens you drink. Sorry, salad."
- The features
- "Forty superfoods. Earthy."
- The endorsement
- "Tastes healthy, so you know it's working!"
- The CTA
- "Use code PODCAST. That's PODCAST."
That's the whole game. The rest is nerve.
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