Finding Untapped Advertising Potential

Nielsen’s Podcast Insights report for the first quarter of 2018, referenced in the previous entry for its facts bolstering the premise that Apple’s domination of podcast distribution is not necessary unbreakable, contains another nugget with just as much relevance to podcasting’s place in the media landscape.

Those who are not yet familiar with podcasting are prone to stereotype their listeners and creators as either tech-obsessed nerds and or overly concerned with esoteric subject matter. However, Nielsen’s figures of what podcast listeners buy contradicts that impression, or at least supports the idea that podcast audiences have value and buying power. 

Looking at just one slice of consumer behavior (or should I say bowl?), breakfast cereal, Nielsen states that the podcasting audience influences $4.5 billion (that’s no typo – billions with a ‘b,’ not millions) in cereal sales annually. Those categorized as avid podcast fans (25% of all podcast listeners) spend about $9 more per year on breakfast cereal, which adds up. Notably, 94.4 percent of all listeners of podcasts about kids and family issues buy breakfast cereal, and 57.2 million households who are fans of music podcasts are also cereal buyers.

Overall, in a host of industries and fields, Nielsen points to “lift” statistics showing that podcast advertising increases listeners’ intent to buy from those advertisers, based on a survey of 7,000 listeners ages 18 to 49. Among those listeners, society and culture shows produced a 9.2% lift, news and politics shows created a 12.8% lift, comedy shows made a 7.3% lift, sports shows had a 9.3% lift and business shows had a 14% lift. Also, among all of the listeners surveyed, 69% said podcast ads made them aware of new products or services.

So, putting all of this together with the consideration of podcasting’s potential if distribution platforms become more diverse and competitive, the industry is still sitting on a lot of untapped value that could be unlocked. One wonders why CEOs of companies with skin in this game, like Gimlet, Panoply and Midroll, aren’t pushing Google to get cracking on that podcasting native app. It’s in their own interests.

Podcast of the moment:

Slow Burn, Season 1, Dec. 5, 2017 – Jan. 30, 2018: Slate’s eight-part series about Watergate manages to find and explore unfamiliar ground about the scandal that led to President Nixon’s resignation in 1974. There are great moments, such as the account of special prosecutor Leon Jaworski’s investigators finally getting some of Nixon’s tapes from the White House, and having to ask for a box to put them all in, then carting them out through the gates, past crowds of protestors, to their offices to sit down and listen to them. It’s unbelievable that such a momentous development was so unceremonious. 

There’s also perspective provided by Jane D’Arista, a staffer of Congressman Wright Patman, a Democrat in his late 70s at the time, who tried to investigate the break-in before the rest of Congress eventually got on board, and also an interview with former securities industry association executive Marc Lackritz, whose first job after law school was as a staffer for the Senate Watergate Committee. By listening to “Slow Burn” one gets a better sense of the humanity of the figures involved in Watergate, at both the highest and lowest levels.