Podcasting’s resilience and the automated opportunity for brands

By Brian Danzis, Managing Director, Americas

At the start of 2020, podcasting found itself at a key commercial inflection point.

Edison Research had projected that monthly listenership had expanded to a whopping 37% of the US population, new premium content was being added to the more than one million shows already in circulation, and serious players like Spotify were spending heavily to acquire platforms and publishers — encouraging more voices to join the podcasting party.

And, despite the impact of Covid-19 on listener behaviour — and initial marketer pullbacks — it’s clear the momentum of podcasting as a cultural force hasn’t changed. As a commercial ad medium, podcasting has proven to be relevant, resilient and reliable.

Let’s look at why, and examine a key opportunity that will further accelerate its proliferation.

For many years, podcast sponsorship has been dominated by DTC brands like Mack Weldon, Purple Mattress and Madison Reed. These businesses are hyper-focused on ROI because they can track nearly all interaction with their brand — and the customer’s purchase journey — through their online presence.

If podcasting was an ineffective medium for driving business outcomes, they wouldn’t be investing in it. Now that research firms like Nielsen, Claritas and Podsights offer robust brand uplift studies to track awareness, consideration and intent, brands can feel confident that attribution measurement is coming closer to parity with other scaled digital media like display and video.

When the nail brand essie launched its new quick-dry polish expressie last holiday season, it sought to drive awareness among a gender-inclusive Gen Z audience. The campaign reached listeners through sponsorships on top podcasts — like Fat Mascara and Forever35 — and targeted audio ads across show collections such as ‘trends’ and ‘lifestyle’. The podcast campaign alone resulted in a measured increase in awareness and site traffic for expressie, as reported by Claritas.

“Podcasts allow us to meet our diverse audience where they are,” said Liz Hanigan, AVP Integrated Communications at essie. “By using podcasts to engage a Gen Z audience, we were able to drive and measure our specific KPIs for the essie brand and more specifically expressie launch.”

As we begin the second half of 2020 and look forward to a rebounding economy, podcasting can continue to be a channel for brands to connect intimately with consumers and drive purchase — breaking through the clutter of other tired mediums and driving results.

But there’s a desire to make podcasting easier to plan for and buy — and the key is automation. If we can automate and simplify the process for traders, we can speed up the industry’s inevitable growth and capitalize on its undoubted potential.

Just 1% of the $708 million US ad spend on podcasting was bought programmatically in 2019, according to the IAB. Considering the figure for mediums like display and video is around 80%, podcasting is one of the last remaining digital mediums still largely commercialized through manual I/Os.

Part of the reluctance to move further towards automation stems from many marketers holding podcasting to the high bar of these other mediums.

VAST and VPAID protocols make ad trafficking easy, but adoption isn’t yet standardized within the podcast industry. UserIDs passed at the bid request make appending first party data simpler for buyers, but no such UserIDs are available in podcasting (except for within select walled-garden platforms). Furthermore, an LTR% metric has not yet been widely available from podcast networks.

We’re leaning into programmatic in a big way, thanks to our Acast Automated solution. With more than 10,000 shows and more than 240 million monthly listens globally across our portfolio, we have the audience and infrastructure to make podcasting a scalable, automated medium.

Our DMP gives us proprietary audience insights from our own listener-facing podcast app, alongside data collated from companies like Nielsen. We’ve just enabled LTR% metric in the bid stream, and we’re exploring third-party partnerships to validate our metrics — fully embracing transparency in reporting.

And traders are paying attention. Acast is now facilitating buys through all the major AHC desks via Private Marketplace and Programmatic Guaranteed deals. However, to protect the integrity of the user experience with vetted buyers and approved ads, our inventory is not available on the open marketplace.

Podcast advertising is so well-regarded because it is high quality and prioritizes the user experience.

In Acast’s private marketplace of premium inventory and diverse voices, we provide buyers with specific access to shows across certain categories — such as those hosted by LGBTQ creators, Black podcasters, and more. And, launching this month, we’re proud to partner with Mindshare on its Black Community PMP, which will feature podcasts from our network including Naked Beauty, Toure Show, and scores of others.

“The podcasting community brings brands an important opportunity to speak to their consumers while they’re actively engaged in an audio space,” says Sherine Patrick, Manager, Digital Investment, Mindshare USA, who is leading the launch of the Black Community PMP in the U.S.

“We’re excited to have Acast’s podcast creators included in Mindshare’s Black Community PMP offering as we work with our clients to support and amplify Black journalists, content creators, and artists. Real equity and inclusion in media isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a must.”

Coupled with Acast’s new contextual targeting capabilities, buyers now have a quicker, more straightforward way to find content featuring key voices, and to target around specific topics being discussed.

Podcasting continues to be a medium full of promise for creators, brands and the platforms that connect them with listeners — and Acast will always aim to help these constituents thrive. Our automated, programmatic offering — which simplifies the planning and buying process while ensuring ad quality for our creators — is the next important step for audio ads.

Lastly, I’m thrilled to announce we’re officially hiring for a senior executive in the Americas to lead our work in automation. If that’s you, get in touch and apply here. Let’s build the future of programmatic together.