How to make your brand voice heard in the vast ocean of information? Podcast marketing is such a key. It uses sound as a brush to paint a story that connects the brand to its audience.
Imagine when you're driving, exercising, or at leisure and a voice full of emotions and stories whispers in your ear, that's your brand, it's your story. Podcast marketing is like a magic wand that gives life to a brand and allows it to take root in the hearts of listeners.
It's more intimate than video and warmer than text. Podcast marketing is not only a marketing method, but also a kind of emotional transmission and an attitude to life.
As an advertiser, why should you miss out on such an opportunity to have a deep conversation with your target audience? Podcast marketing is a creative and valuable marketing strategy that helps advertisers connect with their target audience on a deeper level.
The three-year-long pandemic has brought constant surprises to the development of podcasts. Especially during the lockdown period, people craved emotional communication and emotional outlets, and sound became a flexible connection channel, so the audience of podcasts has been able to grow. But many advertisers are still not fully realizing the full potential of branding and communicating through podcasts.
So, what is the biggest value point of podcast marketing? Gen Z and millennials with the most spending power, what kind of podcast content can best reach and quickly trigger consumption? TOP 10 advertising placement, which areas are the most worth targeting, and which categories need to be placed the most?
GWI's global survey of podcast listeners shows that the global pandemic has greatly boosted the growth of podcasts, with about 25% of users saying that they have spent much longer listening to podcasts due to the pandemic.
Among podcast listeners, 13% say they discover new brands through podcast channels. Walmart sponsored a podcast from fashion company Who What Wear to promote its new brand, Free Assembly.
1. Vigorous development under the epidemic
Runways that are undervalued by brands
Podcast audiences are growing, and there is evidence that listeners are more receptive to the message conveyed through podcasts. But many advertisers still haven't fully realized the full potential of branding.
Easy to consume, bold, and experimental, podcasts are one of the most promising brand-building channels available today. While podcasts aren't currently as popular as music streaming, over the past few years, the podcast audience has grown steadily among all internet users, especially among millennials.
The global spread of COVID-19 has reduced the need to commute or travel, but it has not slowed down the industry's progress – quite the opposite, in fact.
At the height of the coronavirus, about 25% of podcast listeners in 18 countries around the world spent significantly more time consuming, while about 7% of non-podcast users joined the podcast user group before the pandemic.
At the same time, podcasting technology is also advancing with the continuous development of hosting platforms, audio streaming services, and social media.
However, these early opportunities are always underestimated by brands, and many don't even get involved in podcasting at all. Brand owners need to first recognize the huge potential of podcasts, understand their huge impact on the audience, and then deploy them, which is obviously better than following the trend.
2. Brand discovery + deep reach
Emotional value creates marketing opportunities
People love to listen to stories about them, especially during social distancing, when people are desperately hungry for entertainment, escape, or other distractions.
Just like live culture, podcasts tend to be community-oriented, listened to or watched by a group of people who share a common interest. Podcast listeners are 39% more likely than the average internet user to purchase a product or service to access the respective community.
This connection between the broadcaster and the listener ultimately means that the listener is more engaged and interacts more frequently when recognized, which sets the stage for a higher ROI.
This conclusion is supported by GWI brand discovery figures, with about 13% of podcast listeners discovering new brands through the channel, a figure much higher than public transport ads, messaging apps or radio ads. Therefore, podcasts are also a very effective channel for brands that want to continuously reach their audiences and strengthen their interactions.
Today's podcast audience is generally consumers and has a strong focus on corporate social responsibility. They want brands to take the initiative to rebuild society. Podcasts convey empathy and understanding, and brands need to demonstrate their ability and willingness to do both.
3. Three categories
Capturing millennials through sound
Podcasts date back to the '80s (formerly known as "audioblogs"), and now they are the most popular among tech enthusiasts or early adopters — people who love digital products so much that they buy them when they go on the market.
The average millennial spends 1 hour and 22 minutes per day on podcasts. Despite the shrinking listening time relative to the lockdown, millennials' user stickiness has not changed substantially, and podcasts have become a part of their busy daily lives.
Behind Gao Qi's user data, this generation is most likely to discover brands through ads or sponsored content on podcasts, so the company needs to go beyond basic user personas to accurately understand the brand's target user group, which will ultimately benefit the brand.
We believe that millennials are career-centric, tend to choose to buy high-end products, and want brands to enhance their online reputation or status.
As a result, product categories like tech or fitness products, as well as services designed for self-improvement, are great for podcasts. Skillshare, an online learning community, sponsors a number of podcasts that it hopes will appeal to people who have a clear purpose in life.
Fourth, the advertising ranking
How buyers and sellers are perfectly matched
Categories aside, the question now is: which podcasts should brands choose to advertise on. When we think about millennials, business-related topics are always welcome. Perhaps the entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial podcast categories would be a better fit for them, but it's the comedy category that is way ahead of them at the top of the list.
Professional podcasts do have their value, but brand owners need to know that ads need to solve specific problems or target specific audiences, specifically what can become future customers.
People who are exposed to business and entrepreneurial genres are more likely to use online trading platforms than other podcasts, which provides an opportunity for fintech companies to attract the attention of today's emerging group of young investors.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the financial sector is the second-largest investor in podcast advertising, after direct-to-consumer retail.
Another type of podcast that is growing in popularity is the Advice & Self-Help category. In September 2020, about one in five millennials in seven countries listened to podcasts as a primary way to support mental health.
Given that the global pandemic will last the longest on young consumers, there will be plenty of opportunities for health brands to participate in discussions and construction about the future of the planet and humanity in the future.
The Adam & Dr. Drew Show (comedy podcast) shows how commercials flow naturally through sound, and when explaining the effects of sleep on overall health, the presenter naturally turns to smart mattress brand EightSleep without the listener being obtrusive.
Brands don't need to be obsessed with finding the perfect match, either. In broader categories such as comedy and sports, mainstream audiences often overlap and clash with each other. Data shows that sports and gaming audiences often overlap, which means gamepad ads are a good fit for fantasy football podcasts, but is that really the case?
Each audience needs a different way of advertising. When investing in advertising, brands should avoid assumptions and take into account the insights and insights of their audiences.
5. Break the fixed impression of the audience
Millennials are just throwing bricks and bricks?
Brands targeting millennials will certainly benefit from experimenting with podcasts, but that shouldn't come at the expense of other age groups. Our world needs wider representation and greater inclusiveness – stereotypes are no longer the only option.
Since 2018, the percentage of internet users listening to podcasts on their phones each month has risen by 34%.
Baby boomers are more interested in news events, which is also the main podcast genre for this generation's listeners. Brands that want to reach this group can run ads on podcasts like Boomerangst, which explore cultural and political issues from the perspective of non-traditional baby boomers.
Many brands have taken the form of sponsorships to seek a fixed ad position in the aforementioned podcast content. For example, Walmart sponsored the fashion company Who What Wear podcast as a way to promote its new brand, Free Assembly.
In addition, the analysis tools are constantly improving. To ensure brands can take full advantage of the latest ad services, such as in-stream ad insertion, Spotify has introduced an audience-based buying model that directs brands to podcasts that target buyers listen to frequently.
As the streaming audience continues to expand and diversify, the need for smart ad services will become more urgent.
The lockdowns have had a lasting impact on digital activities such as Gen X, Baby Boomers, streaming TV, and more. In the podcasting world, the bridge between new and old listeners may follow the same pattern. About 36% of those aged 38-64 listen to podcasts monthly, and many are happy and ready for a new golden age of audio.
Takeaways
• People love to listen to stories about them, especially during social distancing periods, when people are desperately hungry for entertainment, escape, or other distractions.
• Podcasts are popular with younger audiences. According to GWI, the average millennial spends 1 hour and 22 minutes a day on podcasts.
• Self-help podcasts are all the rage, with one in five millennials listening to podcasts as a way to heal. And health brands have easy access to development opportunities in the future development of the planet and human well-being.
As the oldest communication medium, sound still occupies an important place in today's media development, because sound is not only a carrier of information, but also a bridge of emotions. The logic behind the epidemic becoming the biggest driver of podcast development is that people crave warm communication, eager for emotional outlets, and eager to escape from the real world in front of them.
What the audience desires is exactly what the brand should give and present, to convey warmth, beauty, and most importantly, hope through sound. When the message conveyed by the brand is enough and sincere enough, the two-way interaction and empowerment between the brand and the user will occur naturally and continue.
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