INNOVATION Nome do artigo IN MEDIA WORLD REPORT 74 2020-21 PODCASTSTHE ( AND PERHAPS LATEST GREATEST ) NEW REV ENUE AND SUBSCR IPTIONS TOOL INNOVATION IN MEDIA Nome do artigo WORLD REPORT 2020-21 75 PO D CASTS THE LATEST NEW REV ENUE AND SUBSCR IPTIONS YOU DON’T HAVE A STABLE OF PODCASTS? YOU’RE LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE TOOL AND FORFEITING SUBSCRIPTION REVENUE INNOVATION Podcasts: The Latest New IN MEDIA WORLD REPORT 76 Revenue & Subscriptions Tool 2020-21 y now, your head 91 million people listen at least once a week. must still be spinning Globally, podcasts are also rapidly gaining after a decade of traction, in some cases more dramatically endless sure-fire than in the US. In the first quarter of 2019, revenue solutions the percent of respondents to a Reuters you’ve been told you Digital News Report study who had listened absolutely must have to a podcast in the past month showed four right away: countries surpassing the US podcast audience at the time, and seven other countries with l A website rates over 20%: l An app l A tablet edition l 58% - South Korea l A respo- l 40% - Spain sive mobile site l 37% - Ireland l A bazzilion l 35% - Sweden page views l 35% - United States l A pivot to video l 30% - Italy l An ad studio l 29% - Canada l A pop-up shop l 27% - Australia l A native ad team l 25% - France l An in-house events team l 23% - Japan l A hard paywall (or flexible wall or l 21% - Germany B registration wall) l 21% - United Kingdom Aside from the proven value of responsive In March 2019, of the five fastest growing mobile sites and paywalls (see the chapter on countries in terms of podcast use, four were revenue models), all of the above have, well, un- Spanish speaking. Chile leads the group with a derwhelmed. Even websites nearly bankrupted growth rate of 83.95%, followed by Argentina us as we used them to commit the original sin (55.28%), Peru (49.1%), Mexico (47.84%) and of media: We gave our content away for free! lastly China (43.62%), according to audio tech So, while we hate to add yet another sure-fire company VoxNest. silver bullet, this one might actually be the real Not only are vast numbers of podcast fans lis- thing. tening, but they are also listening A LOT, consum- Podcasts. ing multiple episodes in one sitting and listening Podcasts are not the be-all and end-all solu- for previously unheard of lengths of time! tion, but they could be a very important arrow The Edison Share of the Ear report found in your quiver of revenue models. that the average listener consumes seven pod- If you go by statistics alone, the arguments cast episodes a week, which is also increasing for podcasts as a fast-growing, relatively inex- over time. pensive, extremely effective, lucrative revenue Beyond their voracious appetite, listeners are source and subscription-driver are hard to also committed. We’ve all heard the witticism dispute. that the human attention span has shrunk to “Podcasting shows explosive year-over-year less than that of a goldfish (reputed to be growth,” stated the authors of the 2019 Edison eight seconds). Research study. In the US alone, the number of Not the podcast listener. individuals (over the age of 12) who have ever According to the 2018 Infinite Dial Report, listened to a podcast crossed 50% for the first the average podcast listener finishes 80% of time. The study found that 32% listen monthly, a podcast episode (which average nearly compared to 26% last year. 39 minutes, according to podcast.co). Contrast That increase is the largest since the data has that with a “good” YouTube finishing rate of been tracked. 50% and viewing time of one to eight minutes, Another study by podcast measurement com- according to Chartable. The average Facebook pany Chartable found 23-25% of US adults listen Watching time is just 23 seconds, according to a to podcasts daily or a few times a week. Using study by digital agency Uhuru. the latest US Census data, Chartable concluded So, we’ve established the size and dedication that translates into roughly 60 million people of the podcast audience. How about the market listening a few times a week or more, and opportunity? INNOVATION IN MEDIA WORLD REPORT 2020-21 77 WHAT TYPES OF ADVERTISING WORK WITH PODCASTS The sudden explosion of podcast popularity has response metric of cost per action, which has caught advertisers by surprise. very quickly fallen out of favour. “Marketers are starting to realise there are a lot of “Podcasting had been so significantly used by people listening to podcasts, and thinking, ‘Let’s direct response advertisers in the past,” Silver- figure out how to best advertise in them,’” PwC man said. “But being associated with a particular Partner David Silverman told AdExchanger. podcast or host is good branding, so it offers a So, what’s working? lot of good attributes for companies promoting a Branding is getting to be a bigger player on pod- product.” casts. Brand awareness The report also found that ads made up 38% of all pre-produced, dynamically podcast campaigns last BEING ASSOCIATED WITH inserted ads gained share. year, up from 29% in 2017, Almost half of all podcast according to the Interac- A PARTICULAR PODCAST OR ads (49%) were dynami- tive Advertising Bureau cally inserted in 2018, and PwC’s Podcast Ad HOST IS GOOD BRANDING, up from 42% in 2017. Revenue Study released Still, more than half of all in June 2019. Branded SO IT OFFERS A LOT OF GOOD podcast ads (51%) remain podcasts accounted for ATTRIBUTES FOR COMPANIES static and baked-in, down 10% of all campaigns in from 58% in 2017. 2018, compared to 6.5% PROMOTING A PRODUCT. The host-read ad is the the year before. Holy Grail because it The default approach to allows the advertiser advertising on podcasts — direct response cam- to take advantage of the host’s trusted status paigns — are falling from favour, accounting for and relationship with their audience. That said, 51% of podcast ads in 2018, down from 64% in while host-read ads made up 63% of podcast 2017 and 73% in 2016, according to the report. ads delivered in 2018, that number is down from With the increasing focus on brand advertising, 67% in 2017 while cheaper and more scaleable the primary pricing method is becoming CPM, pre-produced ads grew from 33% to 35% of all with 86% of buyers using it versus the direct- podcast ads last year. INNOVATION Podcasts: The Latest New IN MEDIA WORLD REPORT 78 Revenue & Subscriptions Tool 2020-21 Some observers believe that as a result of while they commute. In fact, Edison’s report podcasting’s explosive growth, we’ve already hit said that 58% of podcast users claim that they Podcast Saturation or are close to it. have listened to a podcast in the car. Yes, the existence of hundreds of thousands The market outlook gets better: The average of podcasts would seem to be overwhelming age of the podcast listener is 39 years old and, and a daunting environment for newcomers perhaps more importantly for advertisers, the looking to be discovered. average salary of the average podcast listener But consider the fact that there are more than is $87,000, according to a new study from 35 million YouTube channels. In that context, we Nielsen. Apple remains the dominant podcast are a long way from Podcast Saturation. listening app. Here are the top five: Given this appealing opportunity to gain reve- nue and listeners, media companies and individu- l Apple Podcasts (and iTunes): 57.9% als are launching new podcasts at a torrid pace. l Spotify: 13.1% In 2018, an average of 575 podcasts were started l Overcast: 2.8 every day — that’s about one new podcast every l Castbox: 2.7% three minutes, according to the Edison report. l Stitcher: 2.3% In June 2019, there were 750,000 podcasts l Google Podcast: 1.8% in the Apple Podcasts directory alone, up from Aside from rapidly improving technology, what’s driving the attraction to podcasts? For the listener, podcasts are entertaining, pro- “THERE HAS BEEN vocative, educational, and fill previously uninspir- ing times of the day (the twice-daily commutes, daily chores, long walks, grocery shopping, etc). SO MUCH DEMAND Podcasts also become an almost personal rela- tionship. “There’s something very intimate about FOR SPONSORSHIP podcasts — you’re literally letting an individual into your personal space for 30 minutes,” Grazia magazine Editor Hattie Brett told us. THAT IT MORE “As such, you develop a relationship with the person who is hosting the podcast and, over THAN PAYS FOR time, really come to trust them,” Brett said. “So for media brands, that have been built on de- ITSELF” veloping trust with their readers, it’s a natural extension; a way to show a more intimate side Tom Standage The Economist Head of your team to your audience.” of Digital Strategy For the media company, it’s a relatively cheaply produced revenue-producer and sub- scriber attraction asset that cannot be poached. 550,000 in June 2018, according to Podcast “Podcasts are not like a text story, where a Insights. Of those 750,000, almost one-third free title [or site] can come along and basically or more than 210,000 of them published their republish it, diluting the value of your paid of- first episode in 2018.