“Podcast advertising delivers results for brands,” Spotify AU/NZ podcast account director, Sam Moles, told Mediaweek.
Spotify has launched its first Global Podcast Trends Tour, diving into the way that people around the world interact with podcasts on the platform.
The yearly report works to provide key insights from around the globe on how people are listening to podcasts on Spotify, with Moles saying there is “a particular focus on cultural trends.”
“Each year has really told a story of the year in culture, through the lens of podcast content.”
One of the biggest stories told this year comes in the form of what the report calls podfluencers – 63% of people said they trust their favourite host more than their favourite social media influencer.
This goes hand in hand with a stat Moles points to: 62% of respondents took an action after hearing an ad during a podcast show – like searching for the product, purchasing the product, or simply talking about it.
“Brands should remember that listeners tune into Spotify to become informed and learn something new as it is their trusted source of discovery. Podcast hosts build trust with their audience, and they’ve become highly influential,” Moles said.
This is one of the big three takeaways that Moles said the research reveals for brands. The other two are recognising that podcasting transcends borders, and finally that there needs to be a “shift” in campaign planning.
“When considering their key audience segments, brands should note the clear trend towards consumption of international podcasts. 50% of podcast streams listened to by Gen Z were from shows originating in another country. We’ve seen this consistently across all audience segments.
“Meanwhile, we’ve seen that in both the most popular and fastest-growing content genres there’s not just one podcast title that delivers the sort of reach brands desire. This means a shift in how campaigns are planned is required to ensure they include content, context and audiences, to best take advantage of the opportunity podcasts offer as a channel,” Moles said.
Although the research is global, there are some uniquely Australian stats among them. In Australia, the most popular categories are comedy, health and fitness, society and culture, true crime, and sports.
The fastest-growing categories down under are religion and spirituality (75.2%), business and technology (70.7%), society and culture (60.5%), and science (60%). Australia is the only country among those analysed that has science in its fastest-growing categories.
“Australian listeners are looking to podcasts to be inspired, informed, educated and much more, which in turn provides a highly engaged and responsive audience for advertisers,” Moles concluded.
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