Nielsen: Podcasts Are the Darling for Advertisers

RADIO ONLINE | Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Nielsen's has released its podcasting report "Nielsen Podcasting Insights: A Marketer's Guide to Podcasting." The medium saw a significant growth in engagement from 2016 to 2017. As a result, podcasts are becoming a darling of advertisers, as well as a trusted source for brands looking to reach consumers. To determine if podcasts are driving results, the report looks at three new product categories from Nielsen's Fanlinks Survey: Juice, Milk, and Cereal, mainstream products that nearly all U.S. consumers buy on a frequent basis.

The report also looks at the increasing role of smartphones in podcast usage along with a summary of Nielsen's brand lift studies conducted specifically for podcast networks. Nielsen's Media lab also looked at podcast increase in purchase intent for a variety of advertisers, including personal care, financial services and recruitment sectors.

The category of cereal, in particular, is a good example of how influential avid podcast listeners can be. Ninety-three percent of all households in Nielsen's Homescan Panel have purchased breakfast cereal in 2017-that's nearly 115 million homes in the U.S. When it comes to podcasting, more than half of all cereal-buying households (62 million homes) indicated that someone in the home is a fan of podcasts.

The average podcast household spends $72.51 per year on cereal while avid podcast fans spend $77.93 per year on cereal (13.4% more than the average household). In total, $4.5 billion dollars were spent in 2017 on cereal among podcast households in the U.S.

Mainstream podcasts in the comedy genre delivered +7.3% brand lift on average while more niche-oriented podcasts in the business category scored a +14% brand lift for a variety of advertisers.

For more information visit www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights.html.