The word podcast was added to the Oxford English Dictionary back in 2005, but the term had yet to gain much traction in the media industry—as well as with the average consumer. Fast forward 16 years, and podcasting has blossomed into a burgeoning industry that provides brands with an opportunity to engage with a growing base of consumers that are very receptive to the engagement.
The transformation certainly didn’t happen overnight, but the rise in popularity of podcasts over the past six-plus years has effectively changed the landscape of the entire market. In addition to attracting rampant celebrity involvement and fueling original TV content, podcasts are attracting big ad dollars, with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) predicting that ad revenue will hit $2 billion by 2023, well above the $842 million generated last year.
O aumento do valor dos anúncios também se refere ao público notavelmente amplo que agora ouve podcasts. Essa é uma mudança importante, principalmente quando os anunciantes buscam novas oportunidades no podcasting. Atualmente, quase metade (49%) dos ouvintes de podcasts nos EUA são usuários leves que, presumivelmente, são novos no meio: pessoas que ouvem de uma a três vezes por mês. Esse é um contraste notável em relação ao ouvinte típico de podcast de cinco ou dez anos atrás, quando a maior parte dos ouvintes era formada por pessoas que tinham maior probabilidade de ouvir todos os episódios de seus títulos favoritos - episódios que, muitas vezes, são lançados uma vez por semana.
A evolução da participação em podcasts nos últimos anos destaca duas histórias importantes:
- O interesse do consumidor por conteúdo novo e envolvente em todo o cenário da mídia continua a crescer, e o conteúdo de podcast provou ser uma opção atraente entre as dietas de mídia de milhões de americanos, especialmente durante a pandemia global de COVID-19.
- The pandemic paused the growth of heavy podcast listeners. With revised lifestyles and schedules over the past year, this isn’t surprising. Yet while the percentage of heavy listeners declined slightly last year, we’re now seeing it increase, rising from 25% earlier this year to just under 30% as of May. So we know there is a segment of the population that was very engaged with podcast content before the pandemic arrived, and we expect that audience to increase its engagement when the conditions (or content) are right.
Importantly, the pandemic has not had a negative impact on overall podcast engagement. While listener growth flattened somewhat during the second half of last year, it has ramped up notably in 2021, largely due to an increase in at-home listening, which is attributable to light listeners checking out the medium. The rise in at-home listening is also somewhat counter to historical podcast engagement, and again, speaks to the transformation of industry to a broader audience. According to Nielsen Poder de compra do podcast data, the percent of the adult U.S. population listening to podcasts has grown more than 40% in the past three years.
The increasing appeal of podcasts to general audiences is exactly why brands and agencies need to be tracking engagement with them and leveraging the opportunities in their marketing strategies and campaigns. And given the wealth of data about podcast listeners, brands have the ability to engage with listeners who are the most receptive to learning about their products and services.
For additional insights, download our latest Podcasting Today report.
