Once again, podcasting showed up to SXSW and made waves. The little industry that could continues to grow into something not so little. It’s also a week of new research and insights into audiences that’ll help the industry grow even more. Let’s get into it.
What Brand Fans Love About Podcasts (and How They Listen)
This Wednesday from Tom Webster at Sounds Profitable: The Power of Branded Podcasts, a report from JAR Audio and Sounds Profitable, looks at a section of respondents to the 2024 survey of 5,071 Americans aged 18+. Of respondents asked their likelihood to consume a podcast about a favorite brand or product, Brand Fans make up the 15% who said Very Likely.
Brand Fans trend younger than the average U.S. population, and are a diverse crowd. They only skew about 3% more male than the US population, and Hispanic/Latino consumers index very highly as Brand Fans in comparison to the demographic’s portion of the population. 29% of Brand Fans have been listening to podcasts 1-2 years, while 21% have been listening 3 to 5 years.
They often use YouTube for podcast consumption/discovery, and are evangelists of podcasting with 76% of Brand Fans recommending shows to their social circle. Meaning, like News consumers, Brand Fans are not just a demographic that eagerly consumes podcasts, they’re a conduit for promoting the medium itself to their social circles. They’re one of the sources generating the fabled word-of-mouth podcasting has relied on since its inception.
The report is currently live for free download, as well as an hour-long webinar featuring Tom Webster, JAR Audio director of audience growth Liz Hames, and Andrea Marquez, Senior Producer and Host, Podcast Programming at Amazon.
Making Podcasting Stickier
This Thursday from Tom Webster at Sounds Profitable: Sounds Profitable’s next big report, data from which is set to be revealed in Chicago next month (see Quick Hits below) includes a thorough benchmark of podcasting’s awareness, to trial, to regular usage statistics in comparison to other media channels. A quote from Webster:
“Part of this may be down to cadence, of course: unless you are a habitual consumer of daily news or sports podcasts, most podcasts deliver at a weekly cadence, which inadvertently may have conditioned people to a weekly consumption cadence. If the thing you are looking for is not there every day, you don’t look for it every day.
However, I think some of this also has to be laid directly at the feet of the various dedicated apps we have for podcast consumption. I have been talking in this space for over a year (since we released Sound You Can See at the end of 2023) about how a big part of the rise of YouTube in podcasting is not endemic to video, necessarily, but to the quality of the app itself. It does a lot of things, and really well, that dedicated podcast apps simply aren’t providing.”
In preparation for that, Webster highlights the Podcast Landscape 2024 information on that relationship, which found the conversion rate for someone trying out podcasting to becoming a weekly consumer is just 50%. He then breaks down three aspects of other “daily driver” forms of media that podcasting could adopt to increase the success rate in converting a trial user into a weekly consumer. Chief among them being the lack of a simple button to push to get something individual listeners want. Radios have five buttons. Facebook gives you everything you go to Facebook for by simply clicking the app to open it. Library-based systems, from podcast apps to Netflix, struggle to give you immediate access to something you want without requiring an ever-growing series of buttons to pick from.
The Creator Economy at SXSW
A lot happened at SXSW concerning podcasters and content creators in general, so we’re collecting it all into one spot. Before diving into articles proper, we do wanna highlight this YouTube playlist containing all the panel presentations from the official Podcast Stage, recorded and edited by Nomono, marketed by OpusClip, and hosted on the Sounds Profitable YouTube account.
On Tuesday Digiday’s Kristina Monllos covered why marketers should take note of the increased presence of content creators at the conference, as advertising and entertainment at large start to catch up to the culture’s embrace of individual creators. A quote from Monllos:
“At SXSW, with the conference’s embrace and marketers’ interest, it’s clear that there is a focus on adapting to the reality of today’s marketing landscape and the cultural relevance of the creator economy. What that adaptation looks like — adopting creator ethos in communicating with audiences, influence on creative, working with creators, changing media buying and planning — will depend on the brand.”
Over on Variety, Clayton Davis covered the live taping of the Awards Circuit podcast, featuring Hot Ones host Sean Evans, Mythical Entertainment’s Rhett & Link, and Waveform Podcast host Marques Brownlee. A panel that touched on the recent canonization of their content in awards consideration, with Hot Ones in consideration for talk series in the 2024 Emmys. Rhett McLaughlin highlights a spending discrepancy that podcasters will be all too familiar with. A quote from McLaughlin in the article:
“If you look at where brands are putting their money and the way that they value a set of eyeballs watching ‘The Tonight Show’ versus watching ‘Good Mythical Morning,’ it still doesn’t make any sense. One of the reasons for that is brands and culture look to the Academy to know what they think is cool.”
And over on The Information, Kaya Yurieff covered video podcasting’s presence at the conference, as well as the front-runners for who might buy TikTok if a sale is pressured by the administration later this year.
Rise of the Silver Influencer
Last Friday from Kimeko McCoy at Digiday: While Gen Z and Gen Alpha take the headlines for influencer marketing, brands like Progresso Soup and Harmless Harvest are eyeing Gen X and Baby boomers. Alaskan Airlines and Mountain Dew have also hopped on the ‘silver influencer’ trend in recent years. A quote from the article:
“As these brands look to expand their footprint with shoppers from older generations, they’re partnering with influencers and content creators from those same generations. Notably, these generations are shifting their consumption habits, spending time watching their favorite influencers on TikTok and Instagram. At the same time, the so-called grandfluencers’ reach isn’t limited to their age demos, seemingly pulling in fans from across generations.”
While statistically older viewers are still tuned in to traditional media, the 55+ demographic is also active on social media. The simple fact is people like seeing themselves represented in advertisements, and the 55+ demo is slowly getting more of that outside of products specifically targeting age. And as reports like The Podcast Landscape 2024 show, podcasting has an opportunity to grow and properly recognize the 55+ side of the industry.
Quick Hits
Finally, it’s time for our Quick Hits. These are articles that didn’t quite make the cut for today’s episode, but are still worth including in your weekend reading. This week:
- Evolutions by Podcast Movement has announced Sounds Profitable partner Tom Webster will be hosting a keynote talk called The Advertising Landscape: Podcasting’s Place in the Ad-Supported Media Universe, in which he will share early data from the largest study of podcast advertising effectiveness in America.
- Coming Tuesday, March 18th, a free webinar hosted by Quill CEO and cofounder Fatima Zaidi and The Creativity Business’ Steve Pratt. From You, Not About B will feature 25 minutes of discussion on steps to elevate branded podcasts from promotion into “a gift for your audience,” how brands measure success beyond downloads, and building long-term trust.
- How Wondery Is Evolving Its Video Podcast Strategy FAST by Saleah Blancaflor With the growing popularity of video podcast viewership on connected TVs via platforms like YouTube, Wondery is leaning into the FAST world (free ad-supported TV) with Amazon Prime Video Live TV (formerly Freevee).
- JAR Audio has announced their third annual Emerging Women in Podcasting Pilot Competition, in which a winning pitch for a podcast pilot episode will be produced by JAR Audio (with full IP ownership remaining with the creator).
- Veritonic Unveils Pioneering Audience Insights Solution to Deliver Accurate, Scalable Podcast Demographic Data The company has debuted a combination of device graph tech and self-reported listener data called Audience Insights, which aims to deliver accurate, scalable, and cost-effective – forgive the wordplay – audience insights.
- Measure podcast ad impact against custom audience data A new update from Magellan AI showcasing how the platform can ingest first party and third party audience data to measure how campaigns reach user’s target listeners.
