While not surging as hard as it once was, the podcast space has continued an upward trend, carving out its niche of audience and revenue in audio. As research firms and agencies make their forecasts for 2024, a new study shows a forthcoming significant global increase in podcast advertising investment.
Conducted by podcast agency Acast, the study was taken between September and October 2023 with marketers from the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, and Singapore.
Notably, 62% of global marketers who have previously invested in podcast advertising are confident in its continued growth. US, Australian, and Canadian marketers all plan to increase their podcast ad spend. In Singapore, where podcasting is still emerging, 37% anticipate a significant rise in ad spending.
In the study, podcasts outperformed both radio and streaming music in terms of accurate targeting, unduplicated reach, and connection with mentally engaged and affluent audiences. However, marketers ranked podcasts second in brand safety to AM/FM. The research also identified podcasts as having untapped advertising potential, with only 16% of marketers concerned about ad oversaturation, compared to higher concerns in social media and TV advertising.
Some worry about how podcasting will chip away at radio revenue. Edison Research’s Q2 2023 Share of Ear data revealed that on-demand audio time spent listening has overtaken linear audio consumption for the first time. As of the second quarter of 2023, 50.3% of daily audio consumption among those aged 13 and older is through on-demand platforms, while 49.7% is via linear platforms such as traditional over-the-air radio, satellite radio, and streaming radio services.
This change represents a dramatic shift from just seven and a half years ago, when linear listening led on-demand by 38 percentage points. Edison does acknowledge that linear listening will never disappear entirely, but the trend towards on-demand audio is likely to persist. In its Q3 2023 earnings call, iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman referred to podcasts as the company’s “growth engine.”
Acast Director of Research and Insights Tommy Walters said, “This research demonstrates the incredible opportunity that podcasting creates for advertisers to connect with highly engaged and high earning consumers.”
It seems that new forms of entertainment have taken from legacy forms since TV started affecting movies and network radio. When people have new distractions, shares will be diluted. That goes without saying. The big question is whether liner radio will serve the listener better than the thousands of podcasts, or coexist together. At this stage broadcast radio can still win-if it wants to. Many of are not sure that it wants to. The large companies are trying to do much more with less-and it’s having a questionable effect on both efforts. I, for one, don’t need to be told to “turn off the radio and turn on the rapid recipe podcast”. Please, let me turn on the tuner to hear what I want. FOMO is very big in -at least-my life.