Quick reminder that on Thursday, June 26th at 2:00 p.m. EST Sounds Profitable and SiriusXM Media / SiriusXM Podcast Network are hosting Unlock the Power of Purpose-Driven Podcasting. The webinar will focus on two of podcasting’s fastest-growing audiences: Health & Fitness, and Self-Improvement consumers. Based on new data from The Podcast Landscape, the presentation will explore what motivates these audiences, how they discover and engage with new shows, and what makes them uniquely receptive to branded content and advertising. Registration is open, grab your virtual seat now.
MediaLeader covers the recent report from Audion and digital audio attention company xpln.ai, focusing on the performance of a new listening model. The report finds brand recall increases up to 76% when digital audio and in-video audio (video content consumed without actively viewing) are combined together. A three percent increase from just digital audio’s 73%. Combining digital audio and in-video audio yielded 80% accuracy for ad message recall in respondents, showing the potential for brands to boost their performance cross-funnel by branching out audio considerations.
Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford have published their 2025 edition of the Digital News Report, a comprehensive study of news consumption worldwide. Overall the report finds engagement with traditional media sources are declining as social media, video platforms, and online aggregators gain traction. Influencers, at least in some countries, are playing a significant role in shaping news and public debate, such as 1/5th of their U.S. sample getting news or commentary from Joe Rogan in the week following Trump’s inauguration, while young French journalist Hugo Travers reaches 22% of the under-35 demographic surveyed in France. News podcasts are noted as a key way to reach younger and higher-educated audiences.
Marketing mix modeling is coming up more in marketing conversations, but is tricky to directly marry MMM data across media channels. SirusXM Media SVP of ad innovation and B2B marketing Lizzie Collins points to the lack of actionable data for MMMs as a reason why brand investment in digital audio doesn’t align with streaming music and podcasting’s sheer amount of listen-time. To combat that, SiriusXM has a new integration with ad tech platform and server provider Innovid to allow advertisers to get similar impression-level data on audio that they’re used to getting in other digital channels.
CNN Plans a Podcast Expansion Push (Exclusive) by Alex Weprin
The Hollywood Reporter covers the news company’s rebranding of CNN Audio to formally be CNN Podcasts. Head of CNN Podcasts Steve Lickteig says the move is to bring the brand more in line with what it does: make podcasts that audiences consume like podcasts. In addition to the new name, CNN is upping the output of shows. Both with intent to continue flagship shows hosted by big-name CNN TV stars, and tapping into the pool of CNN journalists who don’t have their own shows but can lead audio-first journalism projects. Lickteig notes when he got into podcasting in a previous position at Slate, there was a trend of podcast producers finding the term kitschy and embarrassing. Part of the CNN Audio rebrand is motivated in part by podcasts becoming so prevalent that audiences were erroneously calling CNN Audio “CNN Podcasts” anyway. While a one-word change, such a rebrand openly acknowledges the power podcasting has with audiences.
WhatsApp Introduces Ads in Its App by Eli Tan and Mike Issac
This Monday at Cannes Lions, the massively popular chat program WhatsApp announced it would start showing ads in-app for the first time. The ads will be located in the Updates section, and the company has been adamant they have no plans to place ads in chats or personal messages. WhatsApp VP of product management Nikila Srinivasan stressed the app’s focus on privacy that’s made it so popular on a global scale remains intact, with personal messages, calls, and statuses remaining end-to-end encrypted. As everything becomes advertising to some extent, it’s worth keeping the perspective of podcasting: ads have been present since the beginning, audiences are acclimated to them, and respond more positively to the brands involved than other formats.
As for the rest of the news…
- The Audio Production Awards, presented by AudioUK and Audible, are back for their fifteenth year of celebrating excellence in the UK’s podcasting scene. Early bird entries are open now through August 31st, with a final deadline of Wednesday September 17th.
- SoundStack has announced they are collaborating with the Associated Press to be their audio streaming partner.
- AudioStack is continuing their global expansion with their newly-minted membership in IAB Australia, joining their existing IAB UK and IAB MENA status.
- Katz Digital and NumberEight are teaming up to provide AI-powered ID-less audience targeting using NumberEight’s Podcast Lookalikes tech.
- OpusClip celebrates their second anniversary with a look back at their roots and how the clipping tool has evolved.
- Audio generative AI startup Narrativ has announced at Cannes Lions they have signed a multi-year deal with SiriusXM Media to provide their voice cloning tech for use in audio ads.
- Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights has published the Spring edition of their Podcast Download report, which includes the finding of audio remaining the primary mode of how audiences consume podcasts (58%).
