Tom Webster (Partner at Sounds Profitable)
While traditional media like radio and television have long been staples of food and beverage advertising strategies, a medium that offers unique advantages is rapidly growing: podcasting.
Podcasts provide an intimate, immersive environment where listeners can form a strong connection with the host and the content. By seamlessly incorporating your brand messaging into podcast episodes, you can create an authentic endorsement that resonates with your audience. Research shows that podcast advertising outperforms radio and TV in key metrics like brand favorability and consumer willingness to take action.
our 2023 Survey Compared to traditional broadcast media like TV and radio, podcast advertising has been proven to significantly outperform in down-funnel metrics like favorability, consideration, and driving purchase behavior. On average, podcasting drove a 16% positive difference in driving action, compared to just 1% for TV and 6% for radio.
The reason is simple. Some might point to the host-audience relationship or the “theater of the mind” aspect of podcasts, but there’s a more concrete reason: podcast audiences are listening to less advertising. They are more than a generation younger than the average age of radio or TV, they are less likely to listen to ad-supported broadcast media, and they are the most likely group of American media consumers to subscribe to one or more ad-free premium content services (and typically two or more).
This makes regular podcast listeners — roughly one-third of Americans — harder to reach through traditional means. The good news is that they’re not bombarded with messages every day, which means the ads they do hear are more meaningful. Latest Research, 28% of podcast listeners say they “watch every ad” they encounter in a podcast, compared to 10% of YouTube viewers and 18% of CTV viewers who said the same for their respective mediums. We know that advertising works, but only if people pay attention to it. Podcasts get attention.
While podcasts may have smaller individual audiences than broadcast media, the relative cost of advertising is also lower, making it economical to achieve high frequency and share of voice. Imagine dominating advertising with the top podcasts for your target audience. Simply put, you can build unmatched mindshare. For top podcast advertisers, podcasting is not only an engagement medium, but also an introduction to an entire segment of America that resonates with their message and can afford to spend money.
Some food and beverage brands are already using branded podcasts and unique integrations to differentiate themselves from the crowd, but podcasting continues to grow rapidly and there’s still a huge opportunity ahead of you in this space – don’t miss out on this chance to get ahead of the competition.
It’s time for food industry marketers to harness the power of podcasting. With an engaged audience, authentic host recommendations, and efficient targeting, podcast advertising can be the secret ingredient to taking your brand to the next level. The golden age of podcasting has just begun. Make sure your brand has a place at the table.
Tom Webster: Profits are likely to increaseis a leading voice in the digital audio industry and is committed to growing the podcast sector through audio insights, education and connections. As a 25-year audio research veteran, he is a trusted advisor to some of the biggest names in audio and has dedicated his career to advancing podcasting for both networks and individuals.