Today in the Business of Podcasting
Amazon is quietly building a publisher-focused ad product team to grow its $37 billion ad business by Lauren Johnson
Recent job postings describe a new team called “PubTech,” who will be part of Amazon Ads. Their stated focus is to build a new supply-side platform. There is also a job listing to oversee deals for PubTech to create marketplace deals between advertisers and publishers. It’s worth noting there are currently only two enterprise-level podcast hosting platforms who don’t have an in-house SSP: Spotify’s Megaphone, and Amazon’s Art19. PubTech could change that.
Shifting Share of Ear: A nine-year comparison of radio and podcasts by Brad Hill
With the newest Q2 release from Edison Research, the Share of Ear study turns nine years old. Brad Hill compares the newest graph breaking down American’s share of time spent listening to audio sources to the very first iteration of the graph from 2014. Owned music has shrunk from 20.3% share to just 7%. Podcasts, which had just 1.7% share in 2014, are now at 10% share of ear.
Mattress Firm’s Branded Podcast Drives In-Store Sales with iHeartMedia by Catherine Perloff
Mattress Firm worked with measurement firm Affinity Solutions to link listenership of their branded podcast Chasing Sleep to mattress purchases. According to their findings, the campaign drove four times return on ad spend and caused a 45% lift in incremental sales. While specific revenue numbers weren’t shared, Affinity says the typical incremental sales lift they see for a given campaign in their Consumer Purchase Lift tool is five to ten percent.
And for the rest of the news… Audacy debuts new study The Rise of the Cross-Platform Listener. Digiday breaks down key differences between Gen Z and Gen Alpha for brands, and American Public Media and Audacy have terminated their partnership a year early.
