The Rise of Podcasts and its Implication on Marketing
By: Shivani Salhotra
Tags: Marketing, Marketing Strategies, Podcast, Branding, Podcasting

In a world with an influx of new content every moment, podcast listeners are loyal and rapidly growing. This fact has intrigued many marketers and people, in general.

To be honest, I am not a dedicated podcast listener nor do I have any ‘must listen’ list yet. But because of the buzz surrounding it, I thought of listening to podcasts. I listened to a fiction and a non-fiction podcast and I can conclude that I somewhat understand what the uproar is all about. In this article, I try to answer the questions I had when I first got introduced to podcasts — Why are podcasts so popular in a world where visual content had been dominant for years? Is this trend here to stay? What does this mean for marketers?

Coming back to the point, podcast is a series of audio files broken down in episodes for easy listening. These can be either listened to live or downloaded for later consumption. Podcasts have become a new source of entertainment and knowledge. This year has witnessed an impressive jump in the number of podcast listeners in many countries like the US and India. Surprisingly, most podcasts are listened to for at least 90% of their duration while video contents are watched for 50–60% of their duration.

This rising demand for podcasts is credited to the following reasons:

1. Convenience to listen and multitask- The unique format of podcast allows for passive listening while allowing listeners to carry out routine chores like cooking, driving, cleaning or exercising.

2. A podcast on every topic- Think of a topic and you will find a podcast dedicated to it. Fun fact, music is the most subscribed genre followed by news.

3. Creates a sense of community- It helps find like-minded individuals and create a feedback loop where listeners help generate content for the podcast producers.

4. Good source of information- With bit-size chunks that are less than an hour per day, podcasts offer good knowledge on any subject and help gain expertise.

Most media professionals believe that podcasts are here to stay. The increased technological advancement such as voice recognition devices like Google Home, Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod is likely to make podcasts more accessible. Also, the lower cost of producing podcasts makes it a good source of passive income.

What’s in for marketers?

As traditional advertising mediums are increasingly becoming less effective, brands are now moving towards podcast advertising and are even willing to shell out more money for it. Data shows that podcasting stands heads and shoulders above traditional display advertising.

The popularity of podcasts makes them a useful communication tool for brands. For instance, news publications are using their podcasts to drive their online subscriptions and reach new audiences. Podcasting can be used to increase brand awareness, build brand image, and connect with the target audience.

Podcasts are also a great place for sponsorships. A 2019 Nielsen report stated that podcast ads perform better than video pre-rolls when it comes to KPIs. Additionally, the host read ads are more effective as they capitalize on podcast listeners’ relationship with their favourite host.

Podcasts are ideal to reach — Millennials and Gen Z. As studies have shown that majority of listeners were aged 18–49.

The above reasons combined with relatively low competition make podcasts ideal for advertisement. However, with increasing awareness and consumption of podcasts, it is only a matter of time wherein they will garner a large interest from the marketing community.