Sounds Profitable

This is The Download from Sounds Profitable, your daily source for the essential news of the business of podcasting, brought to you by Spreaker from iHeart. Here’s what you need to know for today, Tuesday August 1st. AdAge - Audio Ads Outperform Video for Attention and Brand Recall, Dentsu Study Finds. The study was conducted by Lumen and commissioned by Dentsu, with Amazon Ads, Cumulus Media, iHeartMedia, Spotify, and SXM Media participating. 41% of audio ads generated correct brand recall in follow-up surveys, a 3% increase over the norm for other forms of advertising Dentsu keeps track of. Compared to digital, social, and TV benchmarks, podcasts held listeners’ attention for more seconds per thousand impressions.Inside Audio Marketing - Podcast Listeners Spending More Time With Medium As Digital Audio Usage Rises.New eMarketer graphs show daily time spent with podcasts by adult podcast listeners has increased from 44 minutes in 2021 to 51 minutes this year. eMarketer’s forecast predicts that number will grow at slower percentage rates in coming years, but will still hit 56 minutes by 2025. The overall average daily digital audio consumption is one hour and 52 minutes. LibSyn - Podcast Advertising RatesAdvertiseCast has updated their monthly tracker of podcast CPM rates. July’s average between all three tracked audience sizes is $22.24 for a 60 second spot, a 3.6% decrease from June and continuing a downward trend since May’s price of $23.50. Still, it’s holding above the lowest point from the doldrums of Q1 when February’s average hit $21.99.Digiday - Fortune cookies, the Sphere and more: How advertisers are taking OOH beyond billboardsOut of home advertising is evolving, including digital taxi toppers, ad-supported fortune cookie messages, and the $2.3 billion Sphere in Las Vegas. Some agencies have leaned into intentionally outlandish/evocative OOH campaigns to generate online buzz and have found success. Podcasting has had some success with similar OOH campaigns, including billboards for Slow Burn’s season on an abortion rights case that specifically run in states proposing abortion rights rollbacks. eMarketer - YouTube CTV spending jumped 31% last quarter, outpacing streamersAccording to agency Tinuiti, spending on YouTube’s connected TV ads jumped 31% in Q1 while services like Max and Netflix only experienced 6% growth. Hulu charts in the lead on CTV ad revenue on eMarketer’s 2023 chart with 3.63 billion, followed by YouTube at 2.89 billion and Roku at 2.19 billion. The fastest-growing CTV presence is now also the most popular location for audiences to consume podcasts.
Be sure to check out the links to every article mentioned right in your podcast listening app, or at SoundsProfitable.com, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter version.The Download is written and produced by Bryan Barletta, Gavin Gaddis, and Tom Webster. It’s assembled in Spooler and hosted on Art19. For Sounds Profitable, I’m Tom Webster - Download us again tomorrow!

Stories covered: The Fully-Produced Podcast Ad: Are we leaving attention on the table?Spotify's Q2 Earnings CallYour favorite TV rewatch podcast is here to stay - but don’t expect any new ones.
Quick Hits:
Only Be Kind by Tom WebsterThis week, Tom writes about the legacy of Frank Cody and a life philosophy he brought to radio that podcasting would do well to implement: Only be kind.NewsGuard Launches 'Made-For-Advertising' Service In Response To ANA Study by Joe MandeseTo combat the rising issue of made-for-advertising sites siphoning programmatic ads, NewsGuard has introduced the ability to create whitelists of non-MFA sites and blacklists to exclude known MFA content.Audio Amplified: Harnessing the Power of Branded PodcastsThe new white paper from Quill focuses on the utility of branded podcasts as high-value content that resonates with audiences, establishes trust, and positions creators as industry leaders.Veritonic and Acast Partner to Highlight What Success Sounds Like Around the World for Podcast Ads Bought ProgrammaticallyNew research from the two companies compares and contrasts of audio creatives from programmatic campaigns around the world.

Tom Webster reflects on the life of someone important to both him and audio in general, as well as a valuable lesson we can learn from how he thought about life. 

Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.

Stories covered: U.S. podcasters are attracting more international listenersWhy a ‘podcast election’ is unlikelyAd overexposure on CTV hurts streamers as much as brands.
Quick Hits: Will Podcast Ad Revenues Double by 2025? Not Without These Five Things by Tom Webster.Podcasts draw devoted audiences, but ad spending lags by Catherine Wolf. The Rumors of Podcasting’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated...Redux by Eric Nuzum. Why Podcast Ad Creative is Pivotal, Now More than Ever by Paul Riismandel. Cracking the Code: Gen Z Engagement through Audio Advertising by Mariam Ahmad

Tom Webster looks at our most recent study, The Podcast Opportunity, and provides five key findings that point the way towards making podcasts a more vital part of ad spending.Credits:

Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.

Articles covered: Breakdown of FTC Endorsement GuidelinesYouTube Tests Crackdown On Ad BlockersThis LinkedIn article could have been a video podcast.
Quick Hits: Spotify hits the 100,000 mark for video podcasts MediaMath Files For Bankruptcy, Owes Hundreds Of Millions.mowPod Supercharges Self-Serve Platform with AI-Powered Ad Copy and Precision Targeting

Articles covered: The Podcast OpportunitySXM Shuts down StitcherFilm and TV have collapsed over the last decade.Quick HitsLong Read- Podcasts, a hot advertising medium by Ruby Derrick ThePodcastHost.com Publishes ‘IndiePod Manifesto’ Off the Back of Independent Podcaster Census DataAcast Unlocks Largest Self-Serve Marketplace of Podcast Influencers For Media Buyers

With the upcoming release of Sounds Profitable’s study The Podcast Opportunity, Tom reflects on the idea of podcasting being considered ‘neither fish nor fowl’ in the advertising world. Credits:

Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.

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Registration is open for next week’s Sounds Profitable webinar for the upcoming study The Podcast Opportunity: Buyer Perceptions of Podcast Advertising. The presentation is on June 28th at 3p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The new study uncovers the latest thinking from buyers on the current state of podcasts advertising, and the strengths and weaknesses of buying the medium. 

In a bonus video from this week’s Product Deepdive, Podscibe’s Amelia Coomber demonstrates a new tool in the platform that uses ChatGPT, trained with the GARM framework, to generate a risk assessment for the podcast. The content rating system generates a visualization that shows what content is flagged, an automatic summary of what was said, and timestamps to check out the offending content directly. 

Streaming Audio and YouTube Measurement now offered in Magellan AI. As of last week, Magellan AI supports the measurement of streaming audio campaigns, as well as podcasts. Advertisers can now confirm impression delivery by channel and measure ad performance through custom KPIs. Magellan also launched the ability to measure YouTube impact. 

Acast launches new tech integrating publishers’ paywalls with podcast platforms. The tech, dubbed Acast+ Access, will enable paywalled news outlets to produce podcasts that are siloed and only accessible to those who pay for the site’s premium subscription.

Ausha Launches Ausha PRO, a new sub-brand dedicated for Branded Podcasts. Ausha PRO includes the features of Ausha with the added benefits of enhanced support, advanced customization of promotional materials, multi-user access for collaborative management, and platform configuration performed in-house by Ausha staff. 

This week, Tom looks at some recent data on popular podcast genres from Pew in light of Spotify parting ways with Meghan and Harry and their podcast Archetypes. What can we learn from the past about the future of celebrity podcasting? Credits:

Sounds Profitable: Narrated Articles is a production of Sounds Profitable. For more information, visit soundsprofitable.com.