What’s interesting about the podcast/advertiser relation, at least in my opinion, is it’s relatively harmonious compared with other content/ad partnerships. When the possibility of skipping through commercials on TV was possible people rejoiced in the streets; People hate magazines for their ads; Billboards are constantly mocked; I upgraded my Spotify and Pandora accounts simply to avoid the annoying ads.
I think podcast listeners are a unique bunch that understands they’re able to listen to high-quality content for free and that advertisements often make this possible. Nearly every podcast streaming app has the capability to fast forward at will and I can’t remember the last time I skipped through an ad. I don’t mean to come off as pretentious and say “we’re just smarter than that” through a smug expression, and I don’t purposely listen to commercials for some altruistic purpose. That said, I love podcasts and have a relative understanding to the time, cost, and work it takes to create these. The more ad dollars entering the industry, the more legitimized the industry becomes and the more likely it is quality podcasts continue to be produced for us.
Last week, Edison Research unveiled their annual report, The Podcast Consumer (my immediate reaction post here), which benchmarks the podcast listener growth and gains data on the podcast listener demographic. Unsurprisingly, podcasts are growing. No duh. What intrigued me most about the findings were just how perfect the podcast listener demographic is for advertisers. Podcast listeners are highly engaged with the content, listen immediately and (nearly) entirely, and skew on the young, rich, and educated ends of the spectrum. What more could you want if you’re a marketer?
A version of this article originally appeared on Discover Pods
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