After the podcast goldrush? Read this.
By: Mark Wainwright
Tags: Advertising, Public Relations, Podcasting, Marketing, Podcast

TL;DR version — don’t start your own podcast unless you’re prepared to dedicate time to it in the long run. If you’re looking for shorter term success with podcasts, sponsorship and advertising are the way to go.

Everyone’s talking about podcasts, but podcasts are not a new format. I’ve been listening to podcasts since 2006, when The Guardian and The Times were at the forefront of making audio content specifically designed for digital listeners. I recently learned that The Guardian coined the phrase itself. Back then Ricky Gervais made the most popular programme to listen to, and listening to your favourite show on the move involved manually downloading the episode to your iPod from your computer.

These days, everything about podcasts is easier.

They’re easier to listen to — iPhones come pre-loaded with the Podcasts app, Google has an app for Android, and many other DSP*s are available. (*Digital service providers)

They’re easier to make — recording equipment is cheaper and more readily available, and free software such as Audacity means editing is also accessible for all.

They’re easier to discover — not a week goes by (in our office at least) where someone doesn’t say “Oh, you should check out this podcast” or “I was listening to this great podcast the other day”.

It’s perhaps because they tend to be quite a solitary listening experience — 44% of people listen while commuting — and lack an instant share functionality; as a result, we tend to want to recommend them to people. Not dissimilar to your latest favourite boxset. But it’s this reason that podcasts are such an interesting for people in comms. We give them our time. We focus on them. In a world where attention is an increasingly finite resource, podcasts get our full attention.

But podcasts aren’t a universal panacea to the marketer’s problems. It’s a very specific type of person that regularly listens to podcasts. Your pen portrait is likely male (63% of podcast listeners in the UK), 25–34 (21%) and prefers to listen to them at home (39%). You’re looking at roughly 14% of the population. Not niche, but certainly not mass media. To put this in context, 28% of people listen to some kind of streaming service every week.

So it may feel like everyone is talking about podcasts, but not everyone is listening to them. Will that change? Spotify and Google certainly think so, both making big business moves to encourage more adoption.

My view? I can’t see podcasts going super mainstream, and challenging, say, digital radio. But doubling in participation and matching music streaming? Definitely, maybe.

SFW section: what should I be doing with podcasts if I work in comms?

Probably not starting your own podcast — unless you’ve got a killer idea, that is super-original and isn’t just “a bunch of guys having a chat”, the answer is no. Also, unless you’ve got the appetite to record and promote for a long time with no guarantee of a mass audience, the answer is no. Believe me, I know from firsthand experience Looking for podcasts to pitch to — at Teneo, we’ve successfully placed clients on the likes of Marketing Week meets and the BBC’s Wake up to money, to name a few. Speak to producers of relevant podcasts and gauge appetite. It works pretty well, but measurement is limited, so be warned (see next point) Identifying podcasts and potential podcasts to sponsor — definitely the easiest way to get into the podcast game. Find a show that resonates with your target audience and look at cutting a deal — ideally one that will natively advertise your company. Again, you can trust me cos I know — we helped DFS organise a sponsorship of The Great Indoors, the first ever interiors-focused podcast. As mentioned, measurement isn’t easy. We saw some seriously impressive stats around consumption of the podcast, but linking through to action or conversion is more difficult. A16Z are excellent on this topic, give them a read. Or give us a shout, of course.

Source 1: BPI, Pod Only Knows — what’s next for music and podcasts (June 2019)

Source 2: RAJAR — https://podnews.net/update/midas-q418