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The Power of Branded Podcasts Report
As trailed last week, our friends at Sounds Profitable released their ‘The Power of Branded Podcasts’ report this week, along with a free webinar which is available to watch here. The research focuses on ‘Brand Fans’, defined as people who are very likely to consume a podcast from their favourite brand or product. They’re much younger than the general population, with a very slight male skew, and they're most likely to be listeners to comedy shows. 66% of them find new podcasts from YouTube, and they see association with a brand as a mark of quality, with 69% more likely to listen to a podcast if there’s a company involved.
OK, so brand fans are only 15% of the population, but this super-engaged group are the low-hanging fruit for branded content. They’ll lap up your work because it gives them something entertaining, informative, or useful and they’ll want to tell their friends. The concept of ‘why would anyone listen to a podcast from a brand?’ ignores the enthusiasm that people have for brands that bring them genuine value. In B2B circles, these could be young trainee accountants listening keenly to ‘By All Accounts’ from ACCA or mortgage brokers keen to improve themselves with ‘Mortgage Insider’ from Barclays. In B2C they might be interested in hearing how Kew’s scientists solve crimes in ‘Unearthed’ or want to get authoritative weight loss advice from Boots. It’s not just sports and tech brands that people will genuinely actively engage with if you give them truly engaging content.
Podcasts = Footfall
I remember a time when the idea of tracking behaviour from a podcast was as a distant dream, like Swindon Town one day returning to the Premier League and reliving the glory days of Jan Age Fjortoft. However, every week these days there are new ways of tracking and measuring advertising success for podcasts. Swindon, meanwhile, are in League Two and last week drew at Doncaster Rovers.
Ground Truth is a platform known for driving in-store visits, and they’re now using location tracking to spot when someone visits a store after hearing a podcast ad. Listened to a host read for Currys and then popped down to the retail park to bag yourself that bargain? The pixel placed on your device will spot your footfall and report it back to the client. Blooming clever, even if it’s a little bit creepy. Want proof? Well, it worked for Gary’s Quicksteaks, who saw a 50% incremental lift in sales after adding audio to their advertising mix. I can’t vouch for Gary’s steaks, but I can applaud his podcasting strategy.
Go for the untapped audiences
In a big week for reports on branded podcasts, our friends at Quill published a thought piece on the underserved markets that are waiting for a branded podcast to talk to them. The segments they believe are crying out for more audio content are blue collar workers, kids and parents, ‘global markets’, and side hustlers.
This builds on the theme of finding a super-valuable niche audience to whom the brand can fulfil a specific need through audio. ‘Blue collar workers’ are a really interesting choice, and a market that we at Fresh Air have previously developed content for. Tradespeople are often small business owners, quite isolated from many forms of advice or inspiration, and they spend hours listening to audio both on speakers and in the car. And there are flippin’ millions of them. The outstanding success of Fix Radio is testament to the power of choosing an often ignored group and giving them what they want. Yes, podcasts speak to the people other media can’t reach.
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