The pros, cons and best practices in podcast marketing

A ballerina dances to music while wearing headphones. A couple makes out inside a listening booth. A teenage male shoplifter tries to get away with CDs of rap, metal — and Whitney Houston.

Those scenes take place in a music store in Empire Records, the cult 1990s coming-of-age film that was celebrated last week in the annual tradition of Rex Manning Day. While the movie exaggerates the power of audio for comedic effect, it still demonstrates the effectiveness of the format. We remember things we heard years ago that left strong mental impressions.

Today, while podcasts are small in number and low in overall revenue generation compared to other media, they are still quickly growing in popularity. For this column, I interviewed podcasters, analysts and audio programming experts to learn the best marcom practices for marketers who want to use them.

Podcasting keeps making the headlines

Spotify recently acquired crime, mystery and sci-fi podcast company Parcast after earlier buying podcast networks Anchor and Gimlet Media.

“This opportunity starts with the next phase of growth in audio — podcasting. There are endless ways to tell stories that serve to entertain, to educate, to challenge, to inspire or to bring us together and break down cultural barriers,” Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek wrote in a company blog post announcing the news.

“The format is really evolving and while podcasting is still a relatively small business today, I see incredible growth potential for the space and for Spotify in particular.”

In addition, Vox Media is partnering with podcast company Stitcher to produce a new technology news podcast from Recode. San Francisco-based podcasting distribution startup Himalaya Media has raised$100m. The recent Winter Podcast Upfront in Beverly Hills featured presentations from ESPN, iHeart, NPR, WNYC Studios and Wondery.

Podcasting’s growing popularity

The growth in new business deals reflects an increasing consumer interest in the media format.

According to Edison Research and Triton Digital’s latest Infinite Dial report, the percentage of Americans who are monthly podcast listeners grew from 26% last year to 32% this year. 22% are weekly listeners, and those heavy users listen to an average of one episode per day.

“Big things are happening in the podcast space,” Bruce Supovitz, senior vice president of national audio services at Nielsen Audio, said. “Revenues in the US are expected to hit over half a billion this year. That’s a drop in the bucket when you compare it against the $16bn that AM/FM radio generates, but it’s a strong start for a medium that’s only a decade or so old. With over $500m on the line today, big companies are taking note.”

Podcast analytics company Podtrac found that business programs are the category with the greatest annual percentage growth — and currently fourth overall.

Chartable, another podcast analytics company, recently commissioned a survey and used the growth in new programs to declare that the media world is entering a ‘golden age of podcasts’.

“Just as Netflix is an on-demand platform, podcasting fits consumer desire to consume content as they see fit,” Suzanne Grimes, executive vice president of marketing for Cumulus Media and president of Westwood One in the US, said. “Six out of 10 monthly podcast listeners feel ‘you can choose what you listen to when you want to listen’. It’s also an intimate listening experience with very few ad interruptions relative to other media, and it’s free.”

“Podcasts have become more accessible than ever before,” Oliver Walters, head of UK sales at podcast platform audioBoom, said. “Investment from Spotify, Amazon, Pandora, Google, BBC and Apple have all been responsible for the growth of podcast listening. People can listen to podcasts where they want to and when they want to at the touch of a button.”

Read the rest in The Drum.

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