Why Brands Should Lend An Ear To Podcasting
And the startup partners that can help your brand get into the fast-growing space.
“Apple is taking podcasting mainstream by building it right into iTunes,” announced Steve Jobs back in 2005 when podcast was first integrated into iTunes. “Podcasting is the next generation of radio, and users can now subscribe to over 3,000 free podcasts and have each new episode automatically delivered over the Internet to their computer and iPod.”
Flash forward to 2017, podcasting has grown from a fringe byproduct of online radio into a fast-growing mainstream audio media in the media landscape, thanks in no small part to the breakout hit Serial that catapulted podcasting into the mainstream spotlight in 2014.
Today, 24% of all Americans listen to podcasts regularly, doubling its audience base in the past four years. A recent IAB research conducted by PwC forecasts that podcast advertising revenues will top $220 million in 2017, an 85% leap from $119 million in 2016. So, given its growing importance, it’s time for brands to take a closer look at podcasting and the brand opportunities they present.
Landscape Overview
A podcast is an audio show, comprised of different episodes that users download or stream on their mobile device or desktop. Podcast topics are as diverse as any other type of media, and on average most listeners typically listen to six podcasts per week according to Edison Research.
There are a few different platforms for listening to Podcasts. The Apple podcasts application seems to the favorite among listeners with majority 55% share of the market. Other popular podcast catcher applications included Stitcher, Overcast and rising platform Acast, which hails from Spotify’s homeland, Sweden, and just recently raised $19.5 million in funding.
Mobile is the preferred device for consuming podcast, with 85% of all podcasting listening happening on mobile devices according to Podcast Analytics. This makes sense as most listening happens at home, in vehicle, or at work.
Audience Profile
Podcasts have attracted a unique audience that is highly valuable to brands. Take a look at the below stats:
- Gender: Male 56%, Female 44% (Source: The Podcast Consumer 2017, Edison Research and Triton Digital)
- Age: 44% of listeners are between 18–34, making it a millennial hot bed. (Same as above)
- Affluent and Highly Educated: 57% of listeners have a four year college degree and 31% have an average household income of $100K+. (Same as above)
- Engaged: Brand recall was high among two-thirds of listeners and about the same amount of listener stated that podcast ads influenced a purchase. (Source: Business Wire)
- Diverse: The audience continues to become more diverse with a 36% increase of the ethnic audience in 2016. (See chart below)
Brand Opportunities & Partners
So, podcasts provide great opportunities for brands looking to reach a diverse, young, affluent and highly engaged audience. There are a few ways for brands to get involved depending on their comfort level with the medium and level of customization required.
Companies like ART19 and Acast offer a unique solution that allows brands to dynamically insert ads into podcasts hosted their platforms. Brands are able to pick and place pre-roll, mid-roll, or even post-roll units and run them across a network of podcasts using contextual targeting.
It is worth noting that dynamic ad insertion is still rather new to the podcasting space, and the more prevalent way for brands to integrate into podcasts is through live reads by the hosts. Brands provide hosts of a podcast a script to read live during their show. The benefits here are that brands are organically integrated into the flow of the show and each host is able to put their own unique spin on the read, which creates a seamless listening experience that is enjoyable and non-disruptive. Panoply, Midroll and even Acast are a few startups brands can engage with if they are looking to develop host-read ads for podcasts.
If your brand has an audience with specific interests that you want to target with strong content marketing, then you might consider giving branded podcasts a try by working with a production partner. Companies like Blue Apron, Microsoft, and Gatorade all worked respectively with Gimlet Media, a podcast creation studio, to produce custom podcasts. The one produced by Blue Apron is titled “Why We Eat What We Eat,” which explores modern food trends and the food industry behind them to engage with its target customer — people who are interested in the food culture and cooking.
Measurement Challenges
At the moment, most podcast creators use downloads to measure their success. Robust analytics aren’t available today, unless you listen within a third party app such as Acast. Even then, there are limits as they can only provide stats on individuals that use their app and with 55% of user listening to podcasts through Apple Podcast clients it is difficult to get solid analytics/metrics.
But fret not! Apple announced this summer that they plan to introduce a new set of analytics for the podcast app in iOS that will provide content creators more detailed audience measurements, such as whether users finish an episode, or at which point they stop listening. Although Apple has yet to set a release date for this set of tools, it is expected to launch before the end of 2017. Once available, this new set of tools should energize the space and incentivize more brand advertisers to get on board.
All in all, podcasting is an emerging media territory that warrants brand attention for the fast-growing, young, and affluent audience it captivates on a weekly basis. Additionally, increasing ad avoidance among the young millennials poses a major challenge for brands relying on traditional ad channels, and podcasts provide a lean-in experience for brands to capture this audience. Podcasts are ripe with brand opportunities, brands and marketers just need to plug in and listen.
