“True potential” in Sirius XM podcast biz by Brad Hill
Sirius XM’s quarterly earnings call displayed confidence in their current podcast offerings, as well as potential future growth. Both podcasting and streaming music are considered ‘off platform’ content in SXM’s reporting structure, with off-platform reaching 13% year-over-year revenue growth in Q2. Pandora’s Q2 profit was $152 million, a quarter-over-quarter increase of 29%. President and Chief Content Officer Scott Greeenstein told shareholders podcasting at SXM is holding stable and the company is in a financial position to potentially make new acquisitions.
Why concerns of influencer marketing oversaturation are overblown by Kristina Monllos
Despite Josh Ostrovsky’s CNN appearance warning the world of a coming oversaturation tipping point for influencers, agency execs and influencer marketers tell Digiday they don’t see a tipping point coming anytime soon. As the influencer population grows, so does the amount of ad dollars invested in marketing with them. Meanwhile in podcasting, where the majority of marketing is done by influencers, advertising continues to grow steadily.
When Podcast Apps Miss The Mark by Steve Goldstein
Podcast-listening apps have a tough time gaining traction, with a graveyard of forgotten apps lining the history of podcasting. Most attempts suffer from lack of brand recognition and reach, struggling to differentiate themselves from incumbent offerings. And now a new incumbent, YouTube, has gained significant momentum in a short amount of time with its massive user base.
How soft is the ad market, really? By Ryan Barwick
Tech giants like Google and Meta are reporting healthier-than-expected Q2 revenues. Large ad companies are increasing ad spend, with Kraft Heinz increasing 23% year-over-year in Q2 and Nestle saying they plan to ramp up marketing investments in the back half of 2023. Holding companies cover the spread, with Publicis reporting 7.1% increase in organic revenue while IPG dropped 2%. Madison and Wall consultant Brian Wieser highlights Q1’s advertising dip was partially due to unsustainable advertisers like crypto companies and instant-delivery startups reeling in ad spend. Despite all the scary headlines earlier this year, advertising’s doing fine.
…as for the rest of the news: Eric Nuzum reflects on what makes a good podcast host, Sean Howard explains yield optimization and what it means for podcasting in Flightpath, and Forbes covered a new QCODE audio drama starring Chris Pine and Troian Bellisario.
Data Snapshot
Source: Lumen: Audio Ads Outperform Video For Attention And Brand Recall, Dentsu Study Reveals
What it says: Audio is the most cost efficient ad medium
What it means: According to a Dentsu/Lumen study, when you factor attention in to CPMs, podcasting gets you more bang for the buck than video, display, or social
Why it’s cool: Pierre Bouvard from Cumulus spells out the implications for audio here – it’s a novel way to compare podcasts to video
