While podcasts have been about for over 15 years, we are now seeing numerous sources reporting strong boosts in consumption in Australia amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Several sources report that podcast downloads have increased as Australians self-isolate in their homes and turn to different forms of media. For example, data published in Mumbrella from the Australian Podcast Ranker (which tracks content from some of the major local podcast publishers) shows that downloads increased 15% overall in mid-March, and are likely to continue growing. Consumption of news podcasts was up around 30%, compared to the same week in February.
Other research published by ARN (Australian Radio Network) and podcast hosting service Megaphone provides further insight around this behaviour. This research discovered :
a three-fold growth in listeners accessing coronavirus related content;
a decline in true crime content, while consumption of emotionally lighter podcasts has increased; and
a shift in the time of day Australians are listening to podcasts, with consumption constant throughout the day, and a sharp increase between 11am and 1pm, instead of typical peaks in morning / evening consumption in line with travel to and from work.
Increased audiences in podcasts will be relevant to some marketers and advertisers. For example, data produced by the Marketing Scientist Group highlights that podcast audiences over-index in key product categories. Their data from the March 2020 found that those people who listened to a podcast in the past week were more likely to:
change their main bank/financial institution in next 12 months (+110%);
buy a gaming console in the next month (+110%);
have ordered groceries online in the past week (+116%);
have had food delivered to their home in the past week (+73%).
However, since rich podcast audience data and the brand/advertising impact measurement is severely limited, many advertisers are turning to new solutions to understand the brand impact of podcast campaigns. This has lead the group to adapt their branded content measure tool, ContentFX, to work with podcasts content.
More information on ContentFX and how it work to measure branded podcasts is available at https://www.contentfx.net.
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This was originally posted on totalvideo.co