Compiled by Trent Thomas and James Manning
Sarah Wilson wraps first season of Wild for LiSTNR
Sarah Wilson released the seventh and final episode of the first season of her LiSTNR podcast Wild last week and welcomed guest Tim Brown who is Wilson’s meditation teacher and has joined her on her spiritual journey for more than 10 years.
Speaking to Mediaweek‘s James Manning for Podcast Week at the start of the season she described the show as “It continues my 10-year journey where I have conversations around what makes us connect better and more vibrantly to life.”
“The people I am talking to range from academics to poets to sports stars – people who have something to teach me. With them, I take a deep dive into a single idea. I choose a Wild idea that has influenced me, hunt down that person and have a deep chat.”
Writer and broadcaster Wilson is releasing seven episodes each series, across three series, and the episodes will be dropped one week at a time.
Wilson’s connection with LiSTNR was head of entertainment and news content Sam Cavanagh. “He reached out to me and asked if I had thought about a podcast. I said I’d do it if I could work with him and he’s worked on the episodes from beginning to end. I like working in the media with the good people, ones that are thorough who care about the right things. It has been a most lovely collaboration.”
Nova’s fast financial tips with Small Change pod
Nova has launched a podcast that looks at the small things that people can do to help their finances.
Small Change is a twice-weekly show, with easy-to-action tips that relate to the everyday grind on a Monday, and tips to keep people in check for the weekend on Friday.
The show is hosted by Rachel Corbett, Nova Entertainment’s head of podcasts and digital content and will feature a rotating panel of finance experts.
Mediaweek‘s Trent Thomas spoke with Corbett about Nova’s latest podcast for Podcast Week.
Corbett said that Nova wanted to create a short actionable finance show that was female-focused.
“There is quite a lot of podcasts that are longer conversations about finance and not a great deal that was really simple and actionable, and that give people something to do at the end of the podcast so that they can take action.”
According to Corbett it took a while during the development stage to make sure that they had the right tips for the show.
“I asked my producers to reach out to a bunch of finance experts and then we gave them a brief around giving us quick and actionable. The first round we got back was quite general so it was a process of working back so that we made sure everything actually met the brief, and were small actionable tips.”
The financial experts featured in this series of the podcast include:
• Molly Benjamin – owner of Ladies Finance Club
• Renae Vercoe – owner of Money Mode
• Natasha Janssens – Founder of Women with Cents
• Rachel Smith – author of Underspent
• Betsy Westcott – Financial Wellness Coach
When selecting the financial experts on the show Corbett said that her and the producers did a lot of research, and wanted a female focus for the show’s gurus.
“We looked at a range of experts and reached out to a bunch of people. Then there was a process of going through and testing talent and getting down to our shortlist.”
The show will release two episodes a week which Corbett thinks is the right amount for now.
“We kind of had the sense that it could go daily but we don’t want to overwhelm people. Even though the tips are quick and the episodes are short we wanted to do more than one but less than five.”
Corbett said that the thing that separates the podcast from others in the financial space is that it is designed to be put into action straight after people listen.
“A lot of finance podcasts are focusing on longer conversations around finance and some of our episodes are done in two minutes.”
IAB: Streaming audio and podcast ads continue to rise
Streaming digital audio and podcast advertising has continued to rise, with 69% of media agencies now reporting streaming digital audio advertising is a significant or regular part of their activity and 36% report that podcast advertising is a significant or regular part of their activity.
IAB’s Advertising Audio State of the Nation Report Wave 5 released at IAB’s Audio Summit this week, also found the streaming audio sector has benefited from increasingly making its inventory available through programmatic channels, with agencies embracing programmatic during 2020 to secure greater control over their investments.
Greater diversification across environments and genres, as well as better use of creative assets, were also found to be supported by the rise of streaming audio and podcast advertising. However, the Report noted that campaign integration may be hampered by audio advertising continuing to be planned and bought in siloed teams, with only 56% of agencies planning and buying digital audio collaboratively with digital display activity; and 53% planning and buying in combination with digital video activity.
For the first time, the Wave 5 Report also revealed the top seven genres identified by agencies for podcast investment. News was #1 followed closely by society & culture and then business.
Building brand awareness continues to be the predominant objective for media agencies using streaming digital audio and podcast advertising (82% and 73% respectively). However, the report identified a disconnect between campaign objectives and the metrics used to evaluate it, with just 34% of media agencies using brand metrics to assess the performance of brand awareness streaming digital audio and podcast advertising.
The Report found one third of media agencies are still not tailoring creative to suit different audio environments when running campaigns across different broadcast and digital audio advertising options. Encouragingly, agencies reported fewer barriers to creating fresh creative assets including digital voice to allow brand messages to shine through, expressing a belief that while 2020 was not a year for experimentation, there are signs of a shift in interest towards these assets for 2021.
Download Audio Advertising State Of The Nation Research 2021 here.
ACRAs again includes Podcast awards
Awards for podcasts were first introduced during the Commercial Radio Awards in 2018. With no awards held last year it’s taken a while for the next awards to be handed out. The announcement from Commercial Radio Australia about the return of the ACRAs in October this year is good news for podcasters wishing to start (or fill) a trophy cabinet.
There are three Podcast categories this year:
- Best Original Podcast – Branded
- Best Original Podcast – Unbranded
- Best Podcast by a Radio Show
Podcasts from an extended period of 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2021 will be eligible for judging this year and entries must be received by May 14, 2021.
Further details here.
2018 ACRA Podcast winners
BEST ORIGINAL PODCAST – UNBRANDED
Mum Says My Memoir Is A Lie; Rosie Waterland, PodcastOne, Southern Cross Austereo
BEST ORIGINAL PODCAST – BRANDED
Modern Babies; Genea & the Nova Entertainment Podcast Team, Nova Entertainment
BEST RADIO SHOW PODCAST
Chrissie, Sam & Browny; Chrissie Swan, Sam Pang & Jonathan Brown, Nova Entertainment
2019 ACRA Podcast winners
BEST RADIO SHOW PODCAST
The Jimmy & Nath Podcast; Jimmy Smith & Nath Roye, Hit100.9, Hobart TAS, Southern Cross Austereo
Ricky Gervais One-On-One with Christian O’Connell; The Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show, Gold 104.3, Melbourne VIC, Australian Radio Network
BEST ORIGINAL PODCAST – BRANDED
Focus On Ability; Nova Employment & the Nova Entertainment Podcast Team, Nova Entertainment
BEST ORIGINAL PODCAST – UNBRANDED
Hamish & Andy; Hamish Blake & Andy Lee, PodcastOne Australia
The Infinite Dial releases latest US research
It’s been a big week for podcast research. IAB Australia released its latest Audio Advertising State of the Nation research – Wave 5 (see above). Then a few days prior Edison Research and Triton Digital released their much-anticipated 2021 US edition of The Infinite Dial. (Read about the Australian version of The Infinite Dial 2021 soon in Podcast Week.)
Some of the highlights from the latest US research:
• Approximately 80 million Americans – 28% of the U.S. 12+ population – are now weekly podcast listeners, a 17% increase over 2020.
• Sixty-two percent of the U.S. 12+ population, around 176 million people, are now weekly online audio listeners, an all-time high for this category.
• One-third (33%) of Americans 12+, approximately 94 million people, now own a smart speaker, an increase of 22% from last year and nearly five times what it was in 2017 (7%). Of those who own a smart speaker, 34% have three or more of the devices in their household.
• TikTok usage surged, particularly among 12-34 year-olds. Forty-four percent of 12-34 year-olds are using the service, up from 25% last year – an increase of 76%.
• For the first time in the history of the study, Facebook is no longer the social media brand used most often by a majority of social media users, as 47% say it is the platform they use most (down from 54% the year before and 62% in 2016.
Download the 2021 US edition of The Infinite Dial here.
Read more editions of Mediaweek’s Podcast Week.
